He nods. “Go ahead. Call her now. I’ll know you followed through,” he replies.
“Fuck you, dude! I’m not calling her now in this loud ass restaurant and especially not in front of you,” I say. “I’ll call her when we get home.”
Maverick shakes his head furiously. “Now. Or I make a scene.”
“You make a scene wherever you go whether you want to or not,” I deadpan. I humor him, assuming she won’t pick up anyways. I have a new phone with a new phone number. It will pop up on her screen as ‘unknown’. She’ll wrinkle her fucking cute nose and then hit decline. I know it.
I dial the number I know by heart, hit send, and stare Maverick straight in the goddamned eyes. She answers on the first ring, “Hello.” Her voice. That voice. It sends chills down my spine and my cock comes out of hibernation. Shit. I wasn’t prepared for her to answer and I choke on my own breath. Maverick chuckles under his breath.
“Hey, it’s me. I, uh, wanted to talk to you about…decorating,” I say, my words spilling out awkwardly. Lainey will see right through me.
“Cody, is that you?” she asks. I must really sound like a real asshole if she can’t recognize my voice.
“Yeah, hey, Fast Lane, what are you up to?” I try a new approach. A didn’t work, let’s go with B.
I hear noise in the background and horns blaring. “I’m actually in the city this weekend for a décor show. It’s been a while, Cody,” she says.
I swallow down the heaps of emotion I feel because of what I hear in her voice. “It has. That’s why I’m calling,” I say, looking at Maverick and shaking my head. Here goes nothing. “Want to get together while you’re in town? I understand if you don’t. I figured you’re probably still doing your own thing, living life, decorating lives, but I miss you and wanted you to know that.”
She’s breathing deeply on her end of the phone. “That’s nice,” she says.
I raise my brows. What the fuck is this? “It is nice, isn’t it?”
The café door chimes, signaling someone has entered. “Yeah, it’s nice that you miss me, yet you can’t keep promises about keeping away from my fucking lettuce,” she says. I turn around in my chair and lo and behold, the most beautiful sight in the entire universe.
I say her name out loud even though she’s too far to hear me and it’s only really for my benefit. She’s smiling widely, and her bright white blonde hair is chopped in a blunt cut that barely touches her shoulders. Her eyes, that gaze, is all fucking mine. Tossing her phone in her purse, she puts her hands on her small hips. Like a moth drawn to flame, I rise from my seat and cover the distance between us in seconds.
“Maverick is playing matchmaker again,” she says, explaining her presence. Lainey doesn’t have to explain anything. I’m satisfied gazing upon her until my eyes fall out. I’ve missed her so much that everything about her looks brand new. How can I possibly be mad at Maverick for bringing me this?
“How are you? I mean, you look like this, so I’m guessing you’re better than ever, but I have to ask,” I say, tripping over my fucking words. She laughs, and the lines around her eyes crease, making her look even more stunning.
Her face softens as her blue laser gaze meets mine. “I’m good. Much better now,” she says. “It’s been hard to stay away, you know? It’s better, though. I’m better now.” Can it be true? Has my patience paid off? Will I finally be rewarded with life’s greatest gift? “Don’t think I didn’t want to contact you. I think I composed one hundred emails and then sent them to trash instead of sending them. It was therapeutic for me. I guess they never really helped you any, though. Enough about me. How are you?” she asks, her eyes sparkling. She crosses one foot over the other and tucks her arm around her bag.
“Want to get out of here? Go talk? Catch up?” And have sex until we’re sore for days. That’s my dick talking. Right now I’ll settle for merely talking to her, being in her proximity again. She looks hesitant, her gaze flicking behind her to the door.
“Just talk,” I repeat.
“Oh, it’s not that. I need to be somewhere, but I can cancel, I guess. There really was a décor show here. Maverick lured me here and promised me food,” Lainey replies, smiling over my shoulder at Maverick.
I hold up one finger and rush back to the table. Grabbing my sandwich, I bring it back to her. “It’s not lettuce, but I think you’ll like it.” I extend the plate to her.
She looks at it and then back up at me. “Get it to go and you have a deal.” Maverick hoovered his lunch and is finished. Sneaking up behind me, he slips the jewelry box in my pocket and leans over to whisper, “It was never Windsor’s,” and then he greets Lainey briefly and leaves out of the door. It chimes as he exits. What the fuck does that mean? I didn’t see what he bought in the jewelry store. I was eyeing a new TAG Heuer watch while he made his selection. It weighs a ton in my pocket and there’s no way I can open it and find out what the hell is in here now. We get my sandwich to go and head out into the street.
“I’m staying at the Ritz tonight,” she says. “We could go talk there if you wanted? They do a killer dinner.” Somehow dinner is the last thing on my mind.
I motion down at my sweaty gym clothes as we walk. “How about we head to my place first? I’ll shower, you can eat lunch, and then we can go anywhere you want,” I offer. “I’m sure the eau of man is appetizing with all the pheromones I’m giving off, but the Ritz won’t let me in their dining hall like this.” I catch her smile out of the corner of my eye.
“Okay,” she says, looking up at me without turning her head. “You wouldn’t be trying to take advantage of me, now, would you?”
I chuckle. “Me? No way. I want to talk to you.”
“But you also want to fuck me,” Lainey says. A mother walking with her child leans over and covers her kid’s ears and scowls at us. I laugh. Lainey looks behind us, trying to pass the blame onto the people trailing us on the busy street.
“I see your language is still as colorful as ever. What changed? It’s been six long months.”
She narrows her eyes at me. “You’re not answering my question.”
We get to my apartment building and enter the elevator. It’s not empty. “Yes. To answer your question. Of course,” I say, mumbling quietly but loud enough that she can understand. She leans against the back of the elevator car, smiling like the cat that got the mouse. There’s a few people between us, but I can see her over their heads. Her new haircut accentuates the angles of her face. Her long hair was a huge turn on, and right now I’m second-guessing myself because she looks smoking hot. We exit on my floor and I let her lead the way to my place. Leaning over her, I unlock the door, push it open, and give her the ‘after you’ wave.
She glances around, checking everything out like any woman or interior decorator would do. “Is Maverick coming back for his things?” she asks. Sometimes I forget about her past, how she’s just as observant, if not more so than I am. I notice a leather duffel in the corner and a shirt lying on top.
“He must be, yeah. Unless he’s leaving it here until next time.”
I hike my thumb down the hall to my bathroom. “I’m going to shower. You can help yourself to anything in the kitchen. Sparkling water is in the fridge and plates are in the cabinet next to the sink if you don’t want to eat out of foam.”
She reminds me that she’s been here and knows exactly where everything is and I retreat to the shower. I’m antsy, wound up, too excited to think straight. This is the moment I’ve waited for and I don’t have a game plan. First, I start the shower to heat up the water and then I slip the box out of my pocket and crack the lid. It’s not a bauble of the highest caliber, it’s a wedding band. Lainey’s wedding band that I had made especially for her. How did he do this? It has diamonds wrapping the entire band and an inscription that reads. We’re better together. How fucking intuitive was I, back then? What does Maverick think I’m going to do with this now? I take a deep breath because it’s been almost a minute and
I haven’t breathed. This takes me back. What if we’ll never be there again? Who knows what she’s thinking? I’m a part of a past she wants to forget. I’m holding the ring, wide-eyed, shirtless, when Lainey knocks on the door.
“Can I come in? I’ll sit on the toilet and talk while you shower. I know how lonely you get when you have to wash yourself.”
I slip the ring into a drawer, throw off my shorts, and jump into the shower. “Come in,” I yell. The steam has clouded the glass shower, so she can’t see me. I’m sweating bullets and contemplating huge decisions. My face is probably contorted beyond recognition.
I hear the door click open and nothing else. She must be barefoot. “Thanks for the sandwich. It was so good I ate it quicker than it takes you to jack off. That’s what you’re doing in there, right?”
I see her outlined in the bathroom. She’s standing, not sitting like she said she would. “No, I’m actually planning my attack,” I say, shampooing my hair and then washing my face with the run off. “Tell me about the new you. Then maybe I’ll be able to come up with something.”
“I’m not something you should attack, Cody,” she replies, laughing. “I’m the same person, just new and improved. You know those women who go from relationship to relationship in short time frames? Like a serial dater except it’s more than dating. Well, I feel like those women never truly find themselves. They only know who they are with another person. Sure, I bet they change a little with each new man, that’s necessary, but who are they really? Do they like watching Discovery TV on Friday nights or is it just because their significant other does? I bet they’d rather be playing strip poker instead. What I’m trying and failing at saying is that I found more of myself when I was alone. I wasn’t lying to Dax about my past or trying to fix some horrendous mistakes with you. I just was.” I’m intrigued. It makes sense, but it also is worrisome.
I clear my throat. Soap got in my nose. “Are you happier single? Without me? Without anyone else? Is that what you want now?”
“No! God, no. I like dick too much. You know that. It’s been torture not having someone to hold me and love me and well, you know. I learned a lot, though. I can cook for one person. I can successfully babysit multiple kids for entire weekends, I like the farmers’ market, and most importantly, I love you.”
My heart skips a beat. And then another. I see her approach the glass. She puts both of her hands up. I put one of my hands up to meet hers. “So the question isn’t am I happy single. It’s are you happy single? And do you want to try this the old-fashioned way? From the beginning?”
I sigh. I’m clean, so I push open the door. Smiling, I say, “It’s not really old-fashioned for you to see me naked, Fast Lane. No, I’m not happy without you. I’m okay without you, because you forced me to be, but I’m not happy. The second Vadim died the only thing I’ve wanted is you. You’re the last piece to the puzzle, the last thing he stole from me that was obtainable. I lost those years and so much more. But you’re here and perfect and by some act of God, willing to give me a chance. I thought I fucked it up,” I say, keeping my gaze locked on hers even though her gaze is slipping down, around and all over my body. “I missed you, Lainey. I love you, always,” I say. I’ve proclaimed my love for her standing stark naked and wet. That counts for something. It has to. The time apart has changed me, like every experience in my life or in anyone’s life, really. You are everything that has happened to you. The good and the bad. The experiences sink into your soul and stain you. No one knows, of course. They can’t hear the screams or see the smiles, but they belong to you forever. Take them, before they take you. As for the opportunity standing in front of me, I’m taking it and running.
She smiles as a tear runs down her face. “I know we’re taking it from the beginning, but you’re the only one naked, and I really want to kiss you right now,” Lainey says, tilting her head to the side with that look in her eyes that drives me wild.
“Kiss me then,” I say, raising my chin. Softly she takes a large step toward me and falls into my arms, mouth first. I catch her with my lips pressed against hers, the scent of her perfume filling my senses.
I inhale deeply. “New perfume?” I ask without taking my mouth off of hers.
She smiles against my mouth. “You like it?” she asks, replacing her words in my mouth with her tongue. I’m not giving up her tongue, so I merely nod, pull her clothed body closer, and relish this moment.
Lainey moans and my cock strains against her and every hair on my body stands on end. How easy it would be to tear off her fucking clothes and sink inside of her. I’d bang her against the glass wall so hard I’d worry about shattering it. The hard way is what needs to happen.
I pull away, panting. “If we’re taking it slow, then I need to turn the water on cold and truly jack off this time. Just quickly.”
“Tell you what. You jack off and I’ll masturbate at the same time. That’s totally old-fashioned, right?” Lainey asks, a glint of mischief in her eye. If she gets naked, I’m liable to slip and fall inside her. She knows it. This might as well be my invitation. Have we made any headway about our future? About our past? Does it matter right now?
“To be honest, when I told you I needed to come home and shower I really did intend to shower by myself and then do whatever you wanted. I didn’t expect—”
She cuts me off by holding up one finger and then removing her skirt and blouse.
She tosses them on the floor by my running shorts. “Sometimes what you expect and what you get are different. Other times what you want and what you get are the same,” she says, voice breathy. Sliding off her black string panties, she’s bare to me. “You also didn’t expect me to be so fucking horny I could cut glass with my nipples and water a third world country with my pussy. I need to get off. Do you want to watch me get off?”
There’s my girl. My crude, wildly beautiful, uninhibited woman. I nod to the other side of the shower, where there is a stone seat. She sidles past me, brushing her pink nipples on my stomach as she passes. I close the door of the shower, turn on the hot water to steam it back up a bit, and grab my dick. Lainey sits on the seat, tucks her heels beside her, and lets her knees fall open. She is deliciously wet and pink. I haven’t seen pussy, her pussy, in way too long. I want to kiss it, lick it, slide my thick dick inside it. I start stroking my cock, long deep thrusts as I think about fucking her. Leaning her head back against the glass, she pinches her nipples and then slides her hand down her flat stomach to her small clit and starts rubbing it. I wish my dick was rubbing it. I groan. “You like when I rub it like this?” she asks.
“I want to be the one rubbing it,” I growl. “You’re so fucking beautiful, Lainey. So beautiful. Finger yourself. I want to watch,” I say.
She does. She dips her middle finger into herself and lets it sink in slowly. Watching her finger disappear into her hot tightness, I let myself imagine my dick in its place. “I’m so tight, Cody,” she whispers. It’s steamy now and wisps of it wave in between us, causing condensation on the four walls of glass.
My dick is throbbing, and pre-cum is seeping onto my fist as I beat it. “How tight?” I ask, squinting through the steam to see her pussy eating her finger. She’s working her clit with her other hand, using small quick strokes. It’s just how she likes it. She’ll come fast and fucking hard if she keeps it up.
Her blue-eyed gaze meets mine. “Want to find out just how tight?” Yes. Yes. I’d give my life savings.
“Yes,” I say. “Please.” Manners go a long way, especially when a nice woman is about to let you feel how tight she is.
“Fingers first,” she orders. First? That means I get a second, too. And I almost come realizing it. I stop stroking my shaft immediately at the turn of events. I’m on my knees in front of her with my finger replacing hers quicker than you can say ‘home run’. She is so fucking tight.
“Your pussy is tight around my finger, Lainey. Can I try two?”
She nods, bites her lip, and spreads
her legs farther. I flip my hand over and slide my pointer and middle finger in. It’s difficult. “You haven’t been properly fucked for a while,” I say.
“Not since you,” she replies, her eyes closed in pure bliss. I lean down because there’s no way I can avoid it and lick her clit. She cries out and holds my face to her pussy while I finger her and eat her out. She comes the second I begin applying pressure with my tongue. I feel her muscles tightening around my fingers as I stroke her G-spot.
“Fuck, that feels so good. I missed you,” she says, raising her hips up in an attempt to keep my fingers inside her. I kiss up her stomach, lick each nipple, and then tongue her neck up to her mouth. She kisses me greedily, sucking her wetness from my lips and tongue. Slowly I remove my fingers from her pussy. “You sit,” she says, pointing to her seat. She trades me places, looks me in the eyes, and straddles my lap, placing the head of my cock at the entrance of her sopping wet pussy.
Lainey bites her lip, tells me she loves me, and sits down on my dick.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Lainey
He’s so big and it’s been so long since I’ve had something this massive inside me. The paltry dildo I play with at home has nothing on Cody Ridge. It’s basically an orgasm meat stick. Lowering myself down onto him isn’t easy. I have to pause, wait for it to stretch out a little, and then drop down a little lower. Cody’s eyes are rolled back and his hands are planted firmly on my hips. He wants to pull me down, but he won’t—he’ll let me take my time.
“Your dick feels so good inside me,” I say, licking his neck and edging my way lower. I’m filled completely and he’s not all the way inside. I just sit down and relish the feeling of being consumed by him. By Cody Ridge. The first and only man I’ll ever love the way I’m supposed to. He leans over and places a tender kiss on my shoulder, just letting me be connected to him without moving. His dick throbs inside me, telling me what he truly wants.
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