by N J Adel
He folded his arms around me. “Always.”
Scene 94
Mike
Mike tore his eyes from the sight of them dancing, his teeth buried in his lip. The air felt heavy and humid, and it clung to his tongue as he swallowed. He crossed to a line of large tables dressed in white and dripping in crystal. Reaching for another drink, he heard a gown swoosh on the floor behind him. Probably another woman he’d have to turn down. Don’t they know I’m not interested anymore? He blinked over to see Maggie standing there.
At this moment, he hated how his heart thumped every time he laid eyes on her. He glanced across the dance floor, wondering where Cassidy went.
“He left for the Vanity Fair,” she said.
His brows furrowed. “Alone? Why?”
“I don’t feel like going anywhere,” she said. “I just wanna go home.”
He took a deep breath, scratching his jaw. “Do you need a ride?”
“Yes.” She stepped closer. “Do you mind lending me your phone? Mine is dead…as always.”
His eyes dropped to the floor as her fragrance played with his heart. “Just take my limo. I’ll arrange for another ride.”
“How about we share it?”
“You sure you can endure me that long? It’s a whole thirty minutes to your house.”
“I’ll manage.”
He glanced up, and he saw radiance in her eyes and a curve to her mouth. “When would you like to go?”
Her hand went through his arm. “Now.”
Scene 95
Mike
Mike kept looking through the dark window of the limo, listening to the sound of Maggie’s breaths. He stole a glance or two or ten at the bare skin of her thigh, imagining the feel of it under his touch before looking back through the darkness.
“Do you mind if I stop by your house for a minute?” She finally spoke.
Her question startled him. He looked at her with amazement in his eyes.
“I left something there. Something important, but I never had the guts to return and take it back,” she added.
He nodded, hesitant. The idea of her in his house, the house that witnessed their love from the declaration to the ending, was too much to bear. Yet he couldn’t say no to her. “I haven’t been living there since.” He didn’t know why he had the urge to say that, and she didn’t comment.
They arrived at the house, and Mike turned on all the lights. He stood in the living room, stiff, his eyes focused on nothing.
She wandered around. “Too many memories here.”
“Yes,” he whispered, volunteering no more.
“There’s something about tonight that reminds me of our first night together.”
“Only you didn’t break up with your boyfriend and run to me.”
Her body quivered with laughter.
Although she was mocking him, the sound of her laughter was nice to hear. “I’ll wait here while you look for that thing.”
The swoosh of her dress and the sound of her heels approached him. “I think it’s upstairs.”
He motioned at the stairs and dragged his feet away from her. Standing too close when they were alone was dangerous. Painful.
Sinking in the couch, he peered at the back of her gown as it trailed behind her. Then his eyes reveled in the sight of her beautiful figure. All those feelings he’d been stuffing down the past year and struggling with all evening rose to the surface, impossible to press back down. When she vanished upstairs, he held his head in his hands, freeing a few tears.
Then he undid his bowtie, took off his jacket and waited for what seemed like an eternity for her to come down, thinking about going up to…help her find what she was looking for. After long deliberations with himself, he was convinced it was the right thing to do.
He took the elevator because the stairs would take too long. The door was open, yet he knocked.
“It’s your room. You don’t need permission to come in,” she said.
He faltered at the door, summoning all his strength not to think about the fact that they were together alone in their old bedroom. The place where he first made love to her.
He cleared his throat as he took more steps inside. She was sitting on the bed, her heels off. “Have you found it yet?”
“Not yet. But I won’t give up.”
“Maybe you can tell me what it is so I can help you look.”
She just sat there for a while, and he couldn’t help watching her chest rise with every breath and picturing images of her body on him. He wanted to touch her, make love to her, and have her love again. Tell her about the unbearable days and nights he’d spent without her. The tears he’d shed. The hole she punched in his chest. Yet he knew he couldn’t.
“Are we gonna look for that thing or what?” he asked, lowering his head, filling the silence.
She finally rose. Then she took his hand in hers, surprising him. “Why can’t you look at me?” Her voice was barely a whisper.
Why do you think? He grimaced, jamming his free hand in his pocket. “I haven’t seen you in a year. I can’t trust myself when you’re standing this close to me, looking like this… especially here.”
“You’re a fucking idiot.”
His lips pursed as he shrugged. “Always been.”
She dragged him with her as she went to stand in front of the mirror. “Look at me. Tell me what you see.”
He sighed, closing his eyes at the memory. “Maggie…”
“Please.”
He bowed his head, taking long breaths and exhaling them, squeezing her hand.
“Just look at me and tell me if I’ve changed.”
His head lifted, and he stared, reliving moments, remembering it all. “Yes. You have changed.”
She smiled. “How?”
“Your posture. Your stance. Relaxed. Confident. You look like someone who has found peace and accepted herself as a whole, not just the good parts.”
She gazed at their reflection for a while before she twirled. “Now look at me and tell me if you still think I’m your soul mate.”
His throat tightened as he realized once again how much he loved her. “I can’t take this. Can you just please…” He let go of her hand. “Why are you doing this to me?”
“Don’t you understand yet?”
He looked at her and stopped breathing for a second.
She sighed in frustration. “Do I have to make the first move every fucking time?”
His pulse spiked as if he’d run a mile. He didn’t trust himself to speak.
“I feel exactly the same way you’ve just described me. I finally believe that I’m worthy of success. Worthy of love.” Her palms hugged his face, and he shuddered. “I have found peace, Mike. I’ve accepted what happened to me, and what happened to you.” A gorgeous smile lit her face even more. “I’ve also accepted the fact that you are the only man I can be happy with.”
“Maggie…” He choked on his tears.
“Would you please stop crying?”
His breaths came out loud. “Leaving you that day was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. I have never gotten over you. Never can. That kind of heartache… I can’t deal with that kind of heartache again. You can’t just say these things unless you’re absolutely sure you can do it. You can’t just try or take it slow or any of this shit.”
“I’ve already made up my mind. You’ve always been the only thing I was absolutely sure about.” Her tongue brushed across her lips. “I just need to know if I can…you know…before we can resume where we left off.”
His body trembled with the same anticipation he’d felt the first time they were together. She looked at him, her eyes hazy, and a jolt of desire sparked in his groin. He leaned in slowly. His lips touched hers. And she kissed him back.
She kissed me back.
With eyes fluttering closed, he moaned. “God, I missed you, Carolina. God, I missed you!”
They tasted each other’s tears as their separation dissolved into passion. His finge
rs stroked her neck, then her shoulders, while he paused between touches to measure her reaction.
She touched him through the cotton of his shirt. Then she started to undo the buttons. He watched her and listened to her little whimpers as she uncovered his skin. Her hands slid on him, exploring his body once again. “How did you get even hotter?”
He shook his head. “How did you?”
She smiled. “It’s the dress.”
“I’d like to prove you wrong.” His fingers lingered on her back, waiting for permission to get her out of her clothes. When she nodded, he breathed out and slowly unzipped the gown.
Glancing up at him, she yanked at the top, got her arms out of the sleeves and then dropped it to her waist. He swallowed at the sight of her breasts in the strapless, black bra. Then the whole gown pooled around her feet on the floor, letting him know she was completely naked down there the whole night.
His breaths snagged as he marveled at her beauty. “I wanna touch you.” He finally lifted his gaze to her face, putting all his longing and desire in his look.
She stepped out of the gown and into his arms. His hands caressed her back, her arms, her shoulders as he felt their heated skins press together. He unclasped her bra and the feel of her breasts on his chest made him lose his fucking mind.
She pulled back, her breath short. “I need to do something.”
“Whatever you need.”
She took a deep breath and lifted her mouth to his neck. Her tongue licked him. He flinched in response, hissing a breath. Then he winced as he understood why she had to do that.
“It has nothing to do with her. I’ve always been sensitive there,” he said before she’d jump to conclusions.
“I know. This is for me. I need to know if I can do it without…”
“Puking,” he finished the sentence for her, his heart in shreds.
A sigh stroked his throat. “Without thinking of that night,” she corrected.
“Can you?”
“Yes.” She kissed his neck and then down his throat. Many times. Her hands twisted into his hair. “Yes.”
He felt a stream of pre-cum leaking out. “Cazzo.” He took her lips between his, his fingers deep in her hair. Then he carried her in his arms. She gasped, and he enjoyed it as he laid her on the bed. Taking off the rest of his clothes, he cast a thorough look on her naked body in their bed, knowing she belonged there.
He went on all fours on top of her, his cock ready to tell her what he couldn’t put into words. To show her how much he wanted her. How much he loved her. How much he missed her.
“You need to stop me right away if I do anything…you know,” he said.
“Just don’t smell it. And don’t call it cunt. I don’t think I’m ready for those…yet.”
His stomach turned. The words were a painful distraction from the ache in his dick.
“Mike, don’t think. Just touch me.” She guided his fingers into her opening. “See how you make me feel?”
A shiver ran through him as he felt the wetness, and he nodded.
“Then touch me. I wanna feel you on me.”
The need in her voice pushed away the dark thoughts. His tongue ran along her neck while his palms moved over the hot skin of her breasts, her nipples, down her belly, and up again. He felt her hands on his ass, gripping. She pulled him closer, but he resisted. Instead, he rubbed his chest against her, and then he grazed his teeth across her nipple, sucking, blowing across the hardened peak.
He lifted himself and let his erection glide across her body. “I missed every inch of you.” He squeezed her breasts around his arousal.
She whimpered a moan as she pressed her palm around his shaft. “I want you inside me.”
When he pushed inside her, both of them shook with the memory of what they had once shared. She cried aloud and pressed her fingers hard into his back while he moved above her. He listened to her sweet moans as he went deeper. Watched her lips part. The world seemed dreamlike as she buried her face in his neck and screamed she loved him.
The way she clenched around him made him lightheaded, euphoric, and he exploded inside her.
They spent the night determined to make up for the time lost. When they got tired, they rested in each other’s arms, watching each other, sometimes in tears, sometimes with smiles. By the time they fell asleep, the sun was rising.
She woke up in the late afternoon with a smile that lit his heart.
“You never wake up smiling.” He grinned.
“I used to hate waking up. It meant I was still alive and had to face another day. In case you haven’t noticed, I had a death wish,” she said.
He lowered his head. “And now?”
“You tell me.”
“I believe you have something to live for now.”
“Some things. You are one of them.”
He kissed her. “You’ve grown so much in the past year.”
“It was one hell of a ride, but it was worth it.”
“I love you, Maggie, more than you can ever imagine. Never stopped. Never will.”
“You’re giving me that look again.”
He nodded. “I am.”
Her fingers played with his curls. “I love you, too.”
His heart fluttered, and he kissed her hand. “I want you to break up with Cassidy today.”
She giggled.
“This is no joke. I want the whole world to know right away, and I want a big wedding, and…”
She put her fingers to his lips to keep him from speaking. “I was never with Jim, Mike. I couldn’t,” she said softly. “You really thought I’d sleep with you if I was with another man?”
Stunned, he stared at her. Then he rolled his eyes to the ceiling. “Fuck. I’m so fucking stupid.”
She giggled again. “Yup. The second decent man I ditch to be with an asshole like you.” She smacked his stomach hard enough to make him wince. “What can I say? I have a thing for bad boys with foul mouths.”
He pulled her against him. “I so fucking love you.”
They made love again, a confirmation he needed of what they had last night. Her touch seemed to have taken away his past and his sins. Suddenly, their time apart didn’t matter anymore. He groaned in ecstasy as she arched her back, crying out how much she loved and wanted him in the final shudders of her orgasm.
Home. She’d come back home. She’d come home to him.
The End
Thanks for Reading!
I’ve lived an emotional rollercoaster with Mike and Maggie and all the love and angst they’ve experienced. Creating this book took a lot of blood, sweat and tears. It’s opened a lot of past wounds. My heart bled while writing these characters and their emotional story, and I pray it has reached your hearts as much as I intended.
For my readers who have taken that leap with me, reading this book even though it’s a different genre from what I write, thank you so much. You are loved.
As this beautiful story comes to an end, I hope you enjoyed this journey with me as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Please tell everyone you know about this book and leave a review. Since this is a debut, reviews and exposure are necessities so I can survive and write more stories :)
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Soundtrack
All These Years by Camila Cabello
Can I Be Him by James Arthur
Next to You by Of Rust and Bone
Let It Go by James Bay
Scared to Be Lonely by Dua Lipa
They Don’t Know About Us by One Direction
Say You Won’t Let Go by James Arthur
Hear Your Heart by James Bay
You Said You’d Grow Old with Me by Michael Schulte
Made to Love You by Dan Owen
Please Don’t Go by Stephanie Rainey
Little Do You Know by Alex and Sierra
Dancing on My Own by Calum Scott
Happier by Ed Sheeran
Heal by Tom Odell
Listen on Spotify
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Author Bio
N. J. Adel, the author of All the Teacher’s Pets, Her Royal Harem, Seratis and I Hate You then I Love You series, is a cross genre author. From chocolate to books and book boyfriends, she likes it DARK and SPICY.
Bikers, rock stars, dirty Hollywood heartthrobs, smexy guards and men who serve. She loves it all.
She is a loather of cats and thinks they are Satan’s pets. She used to teach English by day and write fun smut by night with her German Shepherd, Leo. Now, she only writes the fun smut.
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