The Lucky Ones

by Cross, Cassie

  “How does it feel?” I ask, voice rough.

  “Perfect,” he says, kissing the inside of my thigh. “Made for me.”

  I feel like I was made for him, made for him to kiss me and touch me this way. He touches the inside of my knee and my legs fall open for him. He slides me over to the edge of the bed, taking his time, touching, teasing. He looks up at me from between my thighs, this beautiful man, and this wave of tenderness rushes over me. It pushes me forward, to brushing a piece of his hair off his forehead.

  That’s when he moves in, putting his mouth right where I want it, and that tenderness is gone. It’s replaced by sheer need as my head falls back and I let him work his magic. And it is magic, the way his tongue and fingers work in tandem to drive me higher and higher until I fall straight off the cliff he’s been taking me right along the edge of, fingers scrunched in his hair to keep him right where I want him, pleasure coursing through me. He rubs the outside of my thighs as I come down from it, breathing heavy.

  Jordan kisses his way up my body, then climbs up the bed, toward the pillows. He pulls me along and I follow willingly, my body almost like jelly.

  I crawl on top of him, wanting to get my fill. I kiss his mouth, his chest. I playfully pull one of his nipples through my teeth, making him hiss and buck his hips against me. The muscles in his abs jump with every kiss. His body is so hard, his skin so warm.

  His fingers tangle in my hair as he looks down at me with half-lidded eyes. I run my hand along the length of him, wanting to make him feel as good as he just made me feel. His eyes flutter shut at my first pass, and when I take him in my mouth he pulls me up into a heated kiss.

  “I want to be inside of you,” he says. “Now.”

  He opens a condom that I hadn’t noticed before, taking it between his teeth to rip it open. His eagerness makes me laugh, and I take it from him and slide it on slow, just to ramp up the anticipation. When he looks like he’s about to snap, I straddle his hips. He surges up to meet me, taking my face in his hands tenderly and giving me a passionate kiss. He holds me there, foreheads touching and lips so close as I sink down onto him.

  We breathe together, hearts pounding as everything changes in an instant.

  He pulls back to look in my eyes, and I see nothing but certainty and love shining back at me. He presses a sweet kiss to the tip of my nose, then focuses all his attention back on my lips.

  His knuckles gently skim across my cheekbone and he whispers, “I love you, Ken. I’m gonna love you for the rest of my life.”

  I’m a little overcome by the intensity of his words, unable to do more than kiss him back and tell him that I love him, too.

  Then the moment passes, giving way to need, and he guides my hips in a gentle rocking motion that hits me just right. We rock together, holding and touching each other as we learn each other’s bodies.

  When I rotate my hips to change things up, his breath stutters.

  His rough stubble brushes the shell of my ear as he says, “You feel so good. You’re perfect.”

  I’m just about at my breaking point, so I nudge his shoulders, pushing him down. He watches me intently as I ride him, his face tense with mounting pleasure. He lets me go at my own pace while I ride him, just touching every place he pleases and driving me crazy. When things reach a fever pitch, I collapse down onto him, my sensitive nipples rubbing against his chest hair, making my whole body feel like an exposed nerve waiting to combust.

  Jordan slows things down just to torture me, but it’s the sweetest torture I’ve ever known. My hair falls in a curtain around his face, and he takes one of my curls and holds it between his fingers, before wrapping me up in his arms and holding me close. He thrusts up relentlessly, building up the intensity until I bury my face in his neck, worried that I’m going to scream the whole building awake. Electric pulses shoot out into my toes and fingertips with every snap of his hips, and I’m so lost in him that I don’t know where I end and he begins.

  I want it to be like this forever.

  I come with a shout that I bury against his skin, and he follows soon after, hips unsteady as we both hold onto each other to stay anchored to the earth. His hands glide unsteadily up and down my spine and I close my eyes and settle in, focusing on the way our hearts are pounding in sync.

  After, he curls up and spoons behind me, arms holding me tight. I want to set up residence here, set up mail forwarding so I never have to leave this moment. Jordan brushes my hair away from my neck and presses sweet kisses there.

  It’s quickly becoming my favorite spot.

  I let out a long, sated sigh, close my eyes, and dream.

  Chapter Nine

  Waking up this morning is a much better experience than it was yesterday morning. Jordan is cradling my body tightly against his. His shoulder is serving as a comfy pillow for me, my right arm is flung across his body, and my right leg is flung across his thighs. It’s almost like sleeping me was worried that he’d try to get away, so I held on as tight as possible.

  I don’t think I needed to worry about him wanting to get away. He seems to want to keep me as close as possible.

  I know he’s awake because his fingertips are trailing feather-light patterns up and down my arm. This is the best way to wake up. It’s how I want to wake up every day for the rest of my life. For someone whose mind is jumbled and who second-guesses almost every decision, feeling so sure about being in the right place with the right person is a blessing in itself.

  “Good morning,” he says, all sleep rumbled and rough. I think that might be one of my favorite sounds. “Did you sleep well?”

  “When I was able to sleep,” I reply, pressing a kiss to his chest. “Someone woke me up a few times in the middle of the night.”

  He lets out a rough laugh and gathers me tight. “I don’t recall you complaining.”

  “Oh no, no complaints here. High marks for you across the board. I wouldn’t mind replaying this morning on repeat, well…forever. Except for in my bed. Or yours. Or one that we buy together…just not this Vegas mattress is what I mean.”

  He presses a kiss to the side of my head. “I know what you mean.”

  “And no pressure with the forever thing,” I say, just making sure he knows I’m not asking for a ring this very moment, or even in the near future. “I was being hyperbolic.”

  He reaches down and takes my hand. “I’m the one who actually wanted us to be married yesterday, so I don’t think it’s possible for you to pressure me.”

  I prop my head up on my elbow so I can get a good look at him. “Do we need to talk about that?”

  He raises a brow. “About getting married?”

  This is the first good look I’m getting at his messy sleep hair and the sheet marks against his skin. I reach out and cup his cheek; it’s too cute not to.

  “Not about getting married right now, but it’s the first time the possibility has ever been out in the open before I started dating someone. Is that weird? Do we need to, like, address it?”

  “No. But I’d like to know it’s a possibility.”

  His eyes are so honest and hopeful, I can’t help but let out a soft laugh. “God, and here I thought you were someone who didn’t want to commit. If I’d known, I could’ve saved us both a lot of time.”

  “We’re here now, that’s what matters.”

  “Yeah. So…how does this work? We already know we want to get married someday, do we move in together when we get back home?”

  “We don’t have to do anything right now. We can just go home and enjoy each other, and see what happens next.”

  Yes, that sounds logical. I plan on enjoying him a lot.

  “Okay,” I say, leaning in for a peck. I’d like more, but it’s nice and warm here with him and I don’t want to get up to brush. “How do we feel about morning breath? I want to kiss you, but I’m not sure what my situation is.”

  He kisses me again, licking the seam of my lips until we deepen it. When we part he says, “Your situ
ation is pretty good.” He leans in for another, for good measure.

  I settle back into his arms, and draw patterns on his skin with my fingertip.

  “Wanna tell me what’s going on in that beautiful brain of yours?”

  Not particularly, but I think I probably should. “There’s something that scared me about wanting to be with you, something that held me back.”

  I chance a glance up into his eyes.

  “What is it?”

  “Not that I want to start a relationship by talking about the way it possibly ends, but…”

  “You’re worried about what would happen to our business if we broke up.”

  I shrug, feeling kind of silly about getting so deep when we’re just waking up after our first night of really being together. But it’s a worry and it’s something that’s been nagging at me, so I figure it’s better to face it head-on if this thing between us is going to work.

  “Yeah. What happens if things go wrong? We can’t just share custody like we would with a kid.”

  The mention of a kid lights up his eyes in a way that I’m not quite ready to think about yet but would be incredibly open to someday.

  “Well, in our partnership agreement, there’s a section about what would happen if we were to want to leave the business. I mean, we negotiated that assuming we’d be splitting as business partners, but I’d assume it’d be the same. We either sell and split the profits or one of us buys the other out for fair market value.”

  I had completely forgotten about that. I was so excited to sign that I did it the second my lawyer told me it was okay. I don’t think I retained much of the information he passed on before I did.

  “So we’d both lose two things we love at once,” I say, feeling the sadness of a loss that hasn’t even happened yet creeping in.

  “Hey,” he says, tilting my head up so he can kiss me again. “I don’t think we’ll ever have to worry about that.”

  “I don’t think so either.”

  We stare at each other for a long time; it’s so easy to get lost in him like this.

  “Since we’re talking about our worries, there’s one for me, too.”

  “I’m pretty sure I know what it is.” We’ve fought about this long before we were a couple.

  He grins and pushes a strand of hair out of my face. “You think?”

  I narrow my eyes. “Probably has something to do with my inability to relax and tear myself away from my work.”

  “I know who you are and I love your work ethic. I love the way you mutter to yourself when you’re editing, and I have stared a lot at the back of your neck while you were doing it…thinking about all the different places I’d like to kiss and touch.”

  I huff out a laugh. “I wondered why you were so fixated on that particular area last night.”

  “Obviously I’ve had some time to think about this. I don’t want to change who you are. I love who you are, but I meant what I said about worrying about you burning out.”

  I look down at our hands, still wrapped together. “I know. Even though I won’t need to use work as an excuse for a distraction anymore, I am still committed to it. Probably more than is healthy. I’m just…passionate about what we do.”

  He kisses the tip of my nose. “I know you are. How about we commit to one night together, just the two of us, no work. I mean, hopefully more, I want to spend every night with you, but let’s make that commitment.”

  “I want to spend every night with you, too.”

  He grins. “Let’s also commit to more normal working hours, unless there’s an impending deadline or some kind of crisis that we have to deal with. Does that sound like something you might be willing to stick to?”

  I nod. “Yes, absolutely. But you know how I get when I’m working. I might need a reminder sometimes.”

  He kisses me softly. “I will happily remind you.”

  “Will you remind me like that?”

  He laughs and kisses me again. “Definitely.”

  The alarm goes off on his phone, and he rolls over and picks it up. “The car is coming to get us in an hour and a half.”

  Reluctantly I roll out of bed, and smile at the disgruntled protest noise Jordan makes. All that’s forgotten when he catches sight of my body. He watches me with naked lust as I walk toward the bathroom. “Feel like taking a shower? We could get a little dirty before we get clean.”

  He doesn’t have to be asked twice.

  * * *

  After most of our stuff is packed and we’re waiting on the car, Jordan is lounging on the couch looking at something sports-related on my phone. I pull my laptop out of my bag and walk over, then settle in next to him.

  I can feel him tense up when he sees I have my dreaded laptop with me.

  “I wanted to show you something yesterday,” I tell him, hoping to head him off at the pass before he gets prematurely snarky. “I was excited for you to see it, but you got kinda pissed. I mean, I understand why, but I’d like to show you now.”

  He gives me a short, sweet kiss. “I’m sorry I was an asshole. I’d love to see what you want to show me.”

  I kiss him back. “Apology accepted.”

  I open up my laptop and pull up the footage. “While you were out running yesterday, I downloaded the night shots you took from your camera. I edited them a bit, then put that guitar track Paul sent over on top of it. I thought you might like to see how that turned out.”

  His eyes widen, completely surprised. A smile creeps up on his gorgeous face, and I run my fingers along his scruff and kiss him before I press play because I can do that all I want now.

  He presses play, and I watch him take in the most finished product of his work that I could manage right now.

  When it’s over, he hits play again. He watches it three times before he manages, “You made it into something beautiful.”

  I love any compliment he gives to me, but this is something special. “Yeah, well I had some pretty great stuff to work with.”

  He glances back at the computer. “I really hope I can make something out of this movie.”

  “I have faith in you. You can make magic with that camera.”

  “And you make all my dreams come true.”

  He kisses me again, closing the laptop and putting it on the coffee table. I climb into his lap and kiss him senseless, losing track of time so badly that the car service has to call us to come downstairs. We scramble up, and I’m so dazed from all the kissing that I completely forget my laptop and Jordan has to grab it, something I’m sure he’ll tease me relentlessly about later.

  I put it carefully into my bag and hand it over to Jordan, who carries it along with his own bag. I grab the dress and take one last look at this room that changed everything.

  We share a quick coffee at the airport, and when we board, just to show him that I’m a changed woman, I let him put my duffle in the overhead compartment without trying to remove my computer first.

  We settle in and hold hands on the armrest.

  “Do you think I could borrow your headphones again?”

  “Sure,” he says, reaching down into his bag to get them. “Why?”

  “I want to listen to our mixtape again. I figure I need to make time for working fun and relaxation into my new lifestyle.”

  “I plan on making sure of that,” he says, punctuating the sentiment with a quick kiss.

  He gives me this dopey smile as he puts the headphones over my ears, just like he did on Friday.

  When the plane takes off, I watch the city beneath us. After this weekend, it’s always gonna hold a special place in my heart. I close my eyes and listen to the music, excited to get home to something new.

  Chapter Ten

  “Babe, do you know where my cufflinks are?”

  Jordan is running around like a chicken with his head cut off. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him this nervous before.

  “They’re on the top of the dresser,” I tell him.

  We have an hour un
til the car’s coming to pick us up for the premiere of his movie at the LA Film Festival, but he wants to be done early so he can have a good half hour to freak out.

  I’m wearing the dress, at Jordan’s request. He has on the same suit and tie he wore that night, too. It’s what we had on the night that started this all, so it’s only fitting that we’re wearing the same thing when we’re standing on the edge of another big, life-changing thing.

  Hopefully, the film will pick up a distributor tonight. The only thing that holds back Jordan’s immense creativity is money and time. If tonight goes well, we’ll be able to at least stop worrying about the money part. I have no doubt that plenty of people will be more than willing to invest in him.

  He rushes into the bedroom in search of the cufflinks. We moved into a new place six months after we left Las Vegas. It’s a bungalow with plenty of room to grow into it, and two extra bedrooms in need of a purpose. We’ve talked about a baby, one day, when our schedules are less full. If fate doesn’t step in first.

  He catches sight of me in the full-length mirror as he walks by. Like any good husband, he wraps his arm around my waist and presses a kiss to the side of my neck, the perfect place for affection that’s guaranteed not to mess up my hair or makeup.

  “You’re beautiful,” he says. Not that I need him to tell me; he always makes me feel it.

  We got married this past spring in a small ceremony in the backyard with friends and family. Skye was my maid of honor, and she made a toast that included a cute story about the first time we exchanged rings. It’s a story that’s fun to tell now that we’ve actually done it for real this time.

  Today we wear the same rings we bought that night in Vegas. We made a trip back there on the first long weekend we could get away. We went back to that little wedding chapel on the Strip, and Skye made good on her promise to that nice woman who kept us from making a big mistake that night. Her name is Louise and she’s a very sweet person when you’re sober.