by Wendy Silk
Chapter 28: Reunion
With the address in hand, Amanda rose quickly and all but ran from her apartment and out into lobby. As she waited for her doorman to hail a cab, she realized she hadn’t collected a coat, but she did not turn back for it. Her pink knit dress clung to her as she folded herself into the cab and directed the driver to the downtown address. She felt like her skin was on fire with her desire for Billy, as well as with her nervousness that he would not want her.
Stepping from the cab in SoHo, she flexed her graceful fingers against the chill in the air and shivered. She looked up at Billy’s building, admiring the historic, cast iron facade. She was seeing a new side of Billy. The parts that she had thought she knew about him hadn’t been wrong, she mused. They were just fragments of what he was. Now she would need to integrate all those pieces into her knowledge of a real man.
She reached the vestibule door and paused to gather her courage. As she lifted her hand to the heavy door, she stepped back to allow another person through. Looking up, she saw that it was Billy himself.
He looked older than he had back in Texas. No longer was he wearing work boots and jeans and a sheen of sweat from laboring outside. Now he was clean cut, with an urbane style. His dark slacks and sports coat were crisp and clean. The shine on his shoes was impeccable. As he stopped in front of her, her hand began to lift slightly, wanting of its own accord to reach up and brush away the familiar lock of hair that had fallen over his eyes.
As Amanda looked up at him, she knew that she should listen to her heart and do what came naturally to her with him. She raised her hand to move his hair. The caress sent an electric shiver down her spine.
“Billy,” she began in a soft voice. “I have so much to say, I don’t even know where to begin. I’ve been talking to Jess. I know you aren’t what you pretended to be when we met.”
Billy was looking down at her, unsmiling. “I didn’t pretend to be anything,” he said neutrally. “You saw what you wanted to see, that’s all.” His eyes burned into her with an intensity that made her take a step back. Did he hate her?
“Amanda, I got your letter today,” Billy continued. “I was actually coming to see you right this minute. I don’t know what to say...”
She interrupted him. “Billy, I know what you did to turn in Michael to the authorities. My mom and I figured it out.” She watched him to see if he would deny it, but he didn’t bother. “You protected me,” she continued. “Even though you didn’t think we’d get back together.”
“No, that’s not it,” Billy answered.
Again, she broke it, her words tumbling out before she could stop them. “I have to say this. I know you thought I was a fool. I was always focused on all the wrong things. And I know I was too forward when we first met. It was crazy. I let our physical connection take over.” She lowered her voice, willing to beg him for a second chance. “Billy, let’s try again. Let’s just date. I won’t move so fast this time.”
Billy looked away for a moment, and she thought he must be working up the right words to let her down easily. Of course he wouldn’t want to date her; it had been silly to think that she would matter to him. Amanda saw his shoulders shaking slightly, and she wondered if the cold was getting to him as well. It was so different from their shared experience of the Texas heat.
After a moment, she saw that he was shaking from laughter, his shoulders twitching as he suppressed his mirth. Powerless to stop herself, she smiled with him, relieved.
“Amanda, you are one of a kind,” Billy snorted. “You always have been. You’re worried that I think you move too fast?” He stopped chuckling and looked into her eyes with a warm smile. “You are just right. Your speed is exactly right for you, and that means it is right for me. We couldn’t have held ourselves back from each other any more than a wave can stop itself from reaching the shore.”
Billy placed his hands on Amanda’s hips and pulled her close to him. “Amanda, we were made for each other. I’ve wanted you my whole life, long before we met. I didn’t know it, and I didn’t know you. But I can see now that I always wanted you.”
Amanda leaned into him. She rested her head on his broad chest, nuzzling up to his neck and smelling his clean scent. As she felt the familiar fire burning within her, she could think of nothing but the ecstasy that awaited them. She needed to undress him now, this very moment.
“Billy,” she breathed. “I want you. We’re here on your doorstep in the freezing cold and I want to tear your clothes off you and fuck you. Can we go inside?”
Billy grinned. “You know what I have upstairs? You’re going to love it. It’s a bed.”
Amanda laughed out loud, her heart lighter than it had been in a year. “A bed!” she almost shouted with happiness. “Billy, we’ve never been together in a bed before. I think this is going to be something we’ll remember.”
Billy turned back into the doorway, pulling firmly on her hand. “Come up to my room, Amanda.” And she did.
Chapter 29: Certainty
The next morning, Amanda woke to the bright winter sun filtering into the windows of Billy’s apartment. She stretched luxuriously, feeling both lighter and more grounded than she ever had in her life. What a difference six months made, she thought. There would be no more dreading the future or wondering what horrible moment of public shame was just around the corner. She knew it had been her own fault. Nobody had made her accept Michael as her fate. She just hadn’t known how to stand up for herself.
Billy moved his legs against hers beneath the blue and white pin-striped sheets. The warm pressure of his skin reminded her of the night they had just spent together. They had slept very little. Instead, they had used the hours of darkness to revel in each other’s bodies until they were exhausted and tangled together in Billy’s bed.
“Good morning,” she whispered to him. Billy opened his eyes, twinkling them at her. She leaned forward and settled a kiss on his lips. “Are you ready for more?” she teased him.
He did not answer, but his right hand traveled across her belly to her hip, moving with a light but insistent pressure. He rolled her onto her back so that he was above her, pressing his morning erection against her. With no clothes at all to bar the way, he entered her easily. She opened her legs to receive him, welcoming him into her.
Amanda gasped aloud at the sense she had of being filled. His cock was so deep inside her that she knew she was surrendering totally to their joining. She moaned and arched backwards into her pillow. As Billy moved inside her with slow, strong strokes, he kissed her throat. Her graceful fingers held his ass tightly against her as he pumped his cock into her. His lips moved down to her nipples. As he took one in his mouth, she felt her orgasm beginning slowly, then crashing over her. Billy matched her, coming deep inside her, filling her with his hot, sticky juices. They were spent for now, but Amanda suspected they would not leave the apartment that day.
The sensual start to her morning almost made Amanda forget her worries about the past. As Billy raised himself onto one elbow to look down into her face, Amanda knew she needed to ask him something.
“Billy, I have to know. Were you coming to see me yesterday because you got my letter? Would you have come even if I hadn’t written?”
He smiled at the fuss she was making over details. “Amanda, it’s true that I was coming to you because I read your letter. When I knew you loved me, I had to be with you. But I’ve always loved you. Maybe it took being apart to show me how important you were to me. When I knew, I came back here to sort things out for you. Even if you never knew it was my work, I needed to try to help you find a better life. “
Amanda felt tentative, even shy. “Billy, there’s something I’ve realized about the way we met, the way we rushed into things. Even when I knew I was making mistakes with you, those mistakes were never the parts about us being together. It was only when I was such a fool and drove us apart that it felt wrong. You believed in me, and that taught me that I could do what I wanted, that
I could make things happen. I don’t think I knew that before.”
Billy answered her by covering her lips with his. What they both wanted, and would always want, was the entirety of each other.
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xoxo,
Wendy