by Diana Nixon
He ran one hand through his messy hair, nodding approvingly to his new tiger and started humming with the song:
Your every word’s getting straight to my heart,
Your every thought is mine, though now we are apart.
I repeat every breath you take,
I follow every move you make.
I catch your every teardrop,
If anything hurts, I swear, I’ll make it stop.
I will embrace you with the summer breeze,
I’ll never let you sink down to your knees.
I will always be there for you,
No matter where you go, or what you do.
I will be by your side…
Feel my touch on your skin,
It was sent to you with the wind.
Feel my palm in your palms,
Lie down and sleep in my arms.
Close your eyes and smile at me,
Wherever you are, there I will be.
I will embrace you with the summer breeze,
I’ll never let you sink down to your knees.
I will always be there for you,
No matter where you go, or what you do.
I will be by your side…
Even when it’s hard to breathe,
Even when the roses are about to freeze;
Even when the world is about to stop spinning,
We will make it work,
And start it all from the very beginning.
And when the icebergs are crashed and melted,
I will sing in a whisper:
“I will embrace you with the summer breeze,
I’ll never let you sink down to your knees.
I will always be there for you,
No matter where you go, or what you do.
I will be by your side,
Always by your side…”
The silence brought me back to reality. I looked up and saw Daniel staring back at me.
“How long have you been watching me?” he asked, his hands on his hips.
“A few minutes,” I replied, coming closer.
The pull was so intense, I couldn’t help myself. I stopped a few steps away from him, amazed by how beautiful he was.
“Like what you see?” he asked quietly.
“A lot,” I mouthed, crossing the distance between us.
Wordlessly, he put one palm at the back of my neck and crushed his lips to mine. Anger, love, lust… Everything mixed in that one kiss.
His lips were begging and demanding, giving and taking, soft and rough. Just like everything else about our relationship, the kiss was a roller coaster. We never knew what patience or resistance meant. If we wanted anything, including each other, we simply got it.
Our love was unconditional; we never cared about what others might think of us as a couple. Even Adrian always said that we were a beyond-understanding combination of everything that can’t go well together, to which Daniel always replied, “Opposites attract.”
Even now, standing in the middle of his workshop and kissing like crazy, we didn’t stop challenging each other. And, like always, each of us was more than willing to meet a new challenge.
I pulled Daniel’s shirt roughly apart, making the remaining buttons scatter all over the floor. He smirked, looking down at my hands, sliding up his torso, “Bad girl.”
“Just don’t tell me you don’t like it.”
“Oh, no, Baby, I like it. A lot,” he said, taking the jacket off my shoulders and tossing it aside. “Show me what else you are capable of.”
“You sure you can handle it?” I asked, trailing my fingers across the waistband of his jeans.
“Try me.”
Chapter 28
Daniel
The game was on, and I wasn’t going to give up easily. I noticed Kassie watching me the moment she entered the workshop, but I pretended to be busy with a new bike and let her take the first step. She always liked watching me work. I don’t know why, but I liked feeling her presence, as if she were my inspiration making me create more and more perfect things.
I knew she would find me tonight. I was so pissed, seeing Matthew’s flowers, I couldn’t stay anywhere near them, any longer. I ran out of her apartment, got into my car and headed straight here, knowing that it was a day off and I would be able to work in silence.
A few hours later, I heard the sound of the car engine that I knew so well. Kassie was here. I wondered if she still remembered that I always left the back door open, and when I heard it opening and closing, I knew I would see her soon.
The moment our eyes met, I knew she wasn’t here to fight with me again. There was something in her gaze that I couldn’t understand. Slowly, her eyes travelled down my shirt and then moved to the shiny black bike on my left.
“Like what you see?” I asked, trying to understand if our thoughts were the same.
“A lot,” she replied in a barely audible voice. I would rather read her lips than hear the words. Then, she came closer and I felt the need forming inside of me. I needed her, needed to kiss her, needed to feel her kissing me back and making me forget about everything but her.
I tangled my fingers into her hair and deepened the kiss that I had been dying to get since the very moment I left her apartment. I was a selfish pig, and I never denied it. She was mine, and nothing and no one could take her away from me. And right now, I was going to do my best to make myself clear.
My palms slipped under her sweater and I pulled it up, mesmerized by the view of her perfectly-shaped breasts covered with bright red pieces of lacy silk.
“A prize for me?” I smiled, playing with the fastening on the back.
“My choices lie between black and white, but then I thought you would be surprised to see this.”
“Love it,” I said, drinking in every part of her beauty. Her head tilted to the side, I bent to her shoulder and inhaled deeply. The mixture of milk and strawberries made the fantasies in my head go wild. “I wanna taste every inch of you,” I whispered against her shoulder.
A soft moan escaped her lips, and I felt her hands sliding down my chest and right into my jeans, making me harden in response.
“You know what? I already like everything your naughty hands want to do with me.” It wasn’t the first time that I thought Kassie knew exactly what and how I liked things to be done. Unlike anything else, making love had never been a subject of quarrels. The moment our lips and bodies locked, there was no room for second thoughts. Being together had always felt so good and right.
I knew what she wanted me to do, I knew where she needed me most, I knew how to kiss and please her. Not that other women ever complained, but Kassie was the only one I wanted and needed so much.
She was like a hurricane that I never knew what to expect from. But right now, I didn’t mind being washed down. I wrapped my arms around her waist and lifted her up a little, saying, “I remember you once wanted to take a real ride,” I said, sitting her down on the bike.
“I didn’t say that,” she said, looking cautiously around.
“No, but I can read between the lines.” I leaned in to give her another kiss, hoping it would be enough to erase the rest of her arguments from her head.
“What if someone comes in?” she asked breathless.
“The doors locked automatically after you closed them.”
“What? Wait, you knew I would come here, didn’t you?”
I didn’t reply. Instead, I clasped my hands and the lights went off, except for the only lamp right over the bike she was sitting on.
For a second I froze, mesmerized by the beauty of her skin glistening softly in the rays of light. She was the only woman able to drive me insane with the mere view of her body exposed. Slowly, I unzipped her jeans and pulled them down, enjoying her reaction to my palms sliding down her hips and legs. I tried not to stare at the bright red thong barely covering anything. God, it looked so fucking sexy, contrasting with the slick black surface of the bike. A picture to die for.
&
nbsp; I looked up into Kassie’s eyes that watched me intently, and started placing small kisses up her long legs and all the way to her thighs where I badly wanted to bury myself forever.
Leaning over her, I didn’t rush to make the next move. It was her turn to show me what she wanted to do.
Slowly, Kassie wrapped her arms around my neck and pulled my lips to hers, brushing them with her breath. Then, she ran her tongue across my lower lip and I growled at how seductively sweet it felt. Continuing to tease me, she slid her hands down to my zipper and pushed my jeans and boxers down. I stepped out of the clothes that I no longer needed and squeezed her hips lightly, pushing myself harder against them. My eyes never left hers, as we both reveled in the electricity passing between us and burning down everything on the way to the only thing that we badly wanted to get now: each other.
Her eyes slipped to where our bodies touched and she giggled under her breath, tightening her grasp on my shoulders.
“If I knew you would look so beautiful standing naked near one of your bikes, I would have come for ‘a real’ ride a long time go.”
“Hmm… Does it mean now you will visit me here more often?”
She smiled in response and kissed me roughly, putting all the need that we both felt into that kiss. I moaned into her lips and brought her hips more fully against me, making her breath catch.
“Please,” she whispered against my lips. That word said it all, but I still refused to rush things.
“Please, what?” I whispered back, cupping one of her breasts with my palm.
“I need to feel you inside me,” she said, leaning back against the leather seat to give me a better access to what I tried so hard to ignore.
I shut my eye for a second, unable to resist the calling of warmth and softness that I knew were already waiting for me to dive into. When I opened my eyes again I couldn’t help but smile at the mind-blowing picture of Kassie lying on my bike with her hair spread across her shoulders and hanging down the sides of the bike.
She put one leg on the handlebar, with a mischievous smile playing on her lips, “Want to call off the ride?”
“No way.”
I sat on the bike, placing myself in between her thighs and looked down at her, saying quietly, “It will be the best ride of your life.”
She wrapped my chain around her palm and pulled me down. “We will see.”
My mouth moved down her neck and I loved the way her back arched when my tongue started drawing circles on her breast. My palm slid down her belly and stopped at the only piece of fabric separating us.
“I want to leave it,” I said, moving the thong aside, just enough to do what I was going to do next.
“As you wish,” she replied with a sly wink.
“Will you always be so obliging with my wishes?”
“It depends on how good you will be at complying with mine.”
“Oh, really? Then I will make all of your wishes come true.” I said, caressing her cheek with the back of my palm. And, I didn’t mean only those wishes she had about making love with me; I was talking about everything that she might wish for.
“I swear,” I said before I wrapped one hand around her waist, pulling her closer and guiding myself into the sweetest of heavens, the only place able to shatter me and relieve the need burning under my skin.
Pulling in and out, I enjoyed every second of being with Kassie. I drank in her every smile and moan that sent my self-control straight to hell, leaving me weak and unprotected from the power she held over me.
Every time our eyes locked, I felt a new wave of need overwhelm me, as if she were igniting fuel boiling in my veins and making it absolutely impossible to stop the rush of pleasure splashing all over my body.
The air around us was slightly cool, but the heat coming from our skin warmed us pleasantly; I even felt a few drops of sweat rolling down my forehead. Gosh, I didn’t want it to end so soon. I pulled out for a moment, seeing a silent question frozen in Kassie’s eyes.
“Do you even know how fast you can bring me to the edge?” I asked, taking a deep breath.
“Don’t stop,” she replied, wrapping one leg around my waist. How the hell was I supposed to resist that?
I bent down and kissed her softly, feeling her body trembling under mine. With my hand on her chin, I looked into her eyes, almost gasping at the power of everything I felt for her.
“Love you madly,” I breathed into her parted lips and lower myself inside her again. “Not only for who you are, but for who I am when I’m with you.”
Her eyes closed briefly, as she moved her hips to meet my movement. “Love you too,” she mouthed, trailing her fingers up and down my back.
With our eyes and bodies locked, we kept moving in tune with our heartbeats, singing to each other. The feeling of long-expected pleasure enveloping us was incredible. It filled every inch of our bodies and minds and there was nothing but pure love shining in our gazes. For the first time ever I was ready to admit that I was entirely and permanently lost; in love, in bliss, in the feeling of life running through my veins. For the first time ever, I was finally complete…
“Don’t sell this bike,” Kassie said after we got dressed and sat on a small couch, near one of the walls, watching The Tiger standing under the only lamp illuminating it. “I kind of liked riding it.”
“Kind of?” I laughed, brushing her cheek with my nose. “I thought you loved it a lot.”
“Well, okay, I did.” She rolled her eyes, making a helpless gesture.
“I told you it would be fun.”
“Have you ever-”
“Done it before? No.”
She raised her eyebrows in surprise.
“What? I never thought about making love on a bike. Besides, I never made love with anyone but you.”
She sighed, watching me closely. “I don’t think I want to know about the rest of your rides.”
“There haven’t been many, if that is what you are talking about. But, you are the only woman I ever loved. Nothing else matters.”
“Good, because I kind of love the way you say it.”
“Kind of, again? I should seriously think of how to make you forget about this diffidence.”
“It’s in your hands.” She smiled before her lips touched mine. I almost laughed at how fast she could make a new need grow in my chest.
“You are my tease, my love and my blessing, and I will do whatever it takes to turn this around and make you fall even more in love with me.”
“I don’t mind teasing and loving you for the rest of my life,” she said, running one hand though my hair. “Is that what you wanted to hear in response?”
“No, it’s even better.”
“Better than what?”
“Than the wildest of my dreams.”
We smiled at each other, and I pulled Kassie into my tight embrace, silently praying for this time to work.
Epilogue
“Adrian, sonny, try to be a good boy today. Otherwise your mom will whip the hide off me,” I said, fastening the buttons on my son’s jacket. Sometimes he was so much like me; even in his three, he already knew how to drive his parents up the wall.
I looked at him from head to toe and nodded approvingly.
“Now, we are ready to meet Mommy, right?”
Two weeks ago, Kassie and Emily finally managed to find some time to go on vacations, since after our reunion I was simply unable to let Kas out of my sight.
We got married in April, and guess what my future wife arrived to the church on? Yep, the very bike she loved so much. It became her favorite means of transport by the way, and not only to ride with me.
We sold Kassie’s apartment and my country house and moved into Adrian’s. We redecorated it a little and built a huge garage in the backyard to keep my collection of bikes there.
Kassie still owned The Sweets, even though our favorite place to spend time at was Adrian’s bar, of course. It became very popular and never lacked visitors.
As for my sister, she fell in love again, and even though I was happy to see her smiling so much, I still didn’t want her to rush into marriage.
“Don’t be a selfish asshole, Daniel,” she once said, getting ready for another date with Nick. “You have a wife, a son and the life you’ve always wanted. Now, it’s my turn to get what I want.”
“But-”
“Don’t,” Kassie stopped me. “She’s right. Everyone deserves happiness.”
“And, a gorgeous man bringing you coffee in bed in the mornings,” my sister added, enjoying my irritated expression.
“Can’t agree with you more,” Kassie said, wrapping one arm around my chest.
“Fine,” I said, giving up. “Do whatever you want, just please make sure I don’t know what you and your boyfriend do in my apartment.”
“It’s mine now, remember?” Emily said, smiling. “So get used to the idea of another guy sleeping in your, I mean, my bed.”
Kassie’s embrace tightened and she smiled at me warmly.
“Be a good boy.”
Today, I said the same thing to our son, already knowing that the warning would fly out the window as soon as his aunt Emily arrived. She was the only person who never forbid him anything. Traitor.
“Where’s my sweet boy?” she exclaimed excitedly, entering the house.
“I’m here too,” I said, offended.
“You are too old to be my sweet boy,” she said, kissing every inch of Adrian’s face.
“But not too old to be mine,” Kassie said, standing at the threshold.