I went to the bathroom, showered, brushed my teeth, and shaved. I slapped on some aftershave, deodorant, and cologne. Then I got dressed and headed downstairs.
I said good morning to Asher, who was curled up under a blanket on the sofa, watching cartoons with a glass of water. I found my father in the kitchen cooking up a storm.
It smelled like eggs and cheese and bacon.
I breathed in deeply. “Smells good, Dad. What are you making?” I walked around him to peer over his shoulder at a massive pan on the stove.
“A skillet,” he said. “Eggs, hash browns, veggies, bacon, the works.”
“What’s this for?”
“It’s the first day of the new year. I thought I’d come over and prepare a good meal for the three of us to start it off right. Sue me.”
I laughed. “I wasn’t saying it was a bad thing. It smells awesome.” I rubbed my growling stomach. “Really awesome.”
“Coffee is in the pot.”
“Hell yeah,” I said, helping myself to a cup and sitting down at the kitchen table as my father stirred everything in the pan.
My father was serving his concoction within five minutes. He brought out a plate to Asher, who dug into it fiercely, and then he and I sat at the kitchen table, not supremely interested in watching cartoon reruns for the thousandth time.
As we ate, we chatted.
“You slept in a lot later than usual this morning,” he said. “Were you up late?”
“Yes, actually. Lina stopped by.”
My father arched an eyebrow. “Oh?”
“Yeah, it surprised me too. She showed up about twenty minutes after you left. She wanted to know the truth of who we were when we were kids and what happened between us. So I told her everything. Literally everything. About Harvard and about why I lied to her all this time.”
He nodded. “I’m proud of you, son. That couldn’t have been an easy thing to do.”
“It wasn’t, but I don’t think she’s mad at me. Not anymore. I think she’s just happy to have some real, concrete answers. You know?”
“I can’t blame her.”
“Me neither.”
“How did you leave things off between the two of you?” he asked.
I sighed and thought of Lina before she left last night. I didn’t like that she was leaving and going all the way back to New York. It guaranteed that I wouldn’t run into her in a grocery store or cafe. “After she told me she cared about me, she said she had to go back to New York. She has a meeting with her agent today to see if they can keep her working. And he might be able to help her refresh her memory when it comes to work stuff.”
“Makes sense,” my father said. There was something mischievous in the glint of his eye as he looked down.
“What?”
He looked up at me. “Hmm?”
“That look you’re trying to hide. What are you thinking?”
He smiled. “Nothing. I just have a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that she told you she was leaving. Maybe she wants you to go after her.”
“No, Dad, I don’t think—”
“She could have just said she was heading back to New York soon. She could have left it and not said anything at all. But she let you know exactly where she would be and when. I think you have to go get her, son.”
“Dad, come on. That’s crazy!”
He shrugged. “Maybe. But the two of you have always been a little off. It’s part of your charm.”
I laughed. “I think it’s time I finally let her go.”
“The fact that you’re saying that means it’s time you go get her and fight for her.”
“Dad—”
“Go, Cal.”
“But Asher—”
He cut me off with a shake of his head. “No excuses. I’m here. I’ve got Asher. Get your ass to the airport, and stop the girl you love from getting on that airplane. If you were ever going to take a leap of faith, son, now is the time. Trust me. You’ve done right by her. You came clean. There are no more secrets between you. If she chooses you, you can trust her decision. She knows what you want. And so do you. Now move your ass.”
My cheeks stretched in a grin. “Thanks.”
I ran out of the kitchen. I didn’t even bother with a jacket when I got to the front door. I stepped into my boots, scooped my keys out of the bowl on the table by the door, and raced to my car.
I didn’t wait for the frost to leave the windshield before reversing out of the driveway. I sped off down the street, thankful it hadn’t snowed, and set a course for the airport.
Hopefully, I hadn’t missed her. Hopefully, she hadn’t gotten on the plane yet. Hopefully, I could get to her in time and tell her I wanted to fight for her. Show her that I was willing to put it all on the line to make this work.
I ran through everything I wanted to say in my head.
“Lina, I’m sorry, but I couldn’t let you leave without telling you how I feel first. I know I’m being selfish again, but when it comes to you, I can’t stop myself. I’ve never been as relentless in a pursuit of something as I have been with you. You are the missing piece in my life. You fill the dark spot in me that just feels like it’s been growing and growing for fucking years. I have Asher and my father, and I’m a lucky son of a bitch to have them. But you? You’re mine. You’ve always been mine. And I’ve always been yours. I love you.”
I slammed my hand on the steering wheel. I shouldn’t swear so much. That wasn’t very romantic. I had to be more delicate. More intentional with the words I chose.
I ran through my mini speech several more times until I had tweaked it just the way I wanted. By the time every word served its purpose, I was at the airport. I parked the car and booked it inside, where I ran up to the check-in counter. I didn’t know what airline she was on, but I took a wild guess and cut through the line.
People were not pleased with me. They yelled at me to get back in line.
I held my hands up apologetically. “I’m so sorry. I’m not getting on a plane. I’m trying to catch a girl.”
The women swooned. The men rolled their eyes and shook their fists at me. I didn’t give a damn. Nothing was going to stop me from getting to Lina. This moment was what it had all led up to. I was supposed to track her down like this. I was supposed to make a grand gesture that showed her just how much I loved her.
I wasn’t supposed to let her go like I did fifteen years ago.
I got to the ticket counter, completely out of breath. “I’m trying to catch Lina Nelson before she gets on a plane. Please, can you help me?”
“What is your relation to her?” the man behind the counter asked.
“I’m in love with her,” I said. “And she has memory loss, and I’m trying to help her remember that we’re supposed to be together.” I knew that last bit might be a bit extra, but I needed the short-haired, pimply faced young man on the other side of the counter to help me. I would pull out all the stops if I had to.
“Memory loss?” he asked, his eyebrows creeping up toward his hairline.
I nodded, still a bit out of breath. “You heard me. It’s been a wild December for us. Please help me.”
Someone in the crowd behind me piped up. “Help the guy out. It’s the New Year. Give them a break!”
The kid in front of me frowned. “I’m not supposed to give out passenger information like that, sir.”
“Please.”
“Come on, just tell him!” someone cried. “Then the rest of us can check in! I don’t want to miss my flight!”
I looked imploringly at him. “Please? Just tell me if she’s left yet or not. I have to find her.”
He sighed and turned his gaze to his computer. He asked me for Lina’s name, and I gave it to him. Then he asked me to spell it. I spelled it, and he typed every letter with agonizing slowness.
I leaned over the counter and watched as he hit Enter.
Time slowed down. I held my breath. His eyes scanned the computer screen, and then he looked up at m
e. “I’m sorry, sir, but her flight took off an hour and a half ago. I’m afraid you’ve just missed her.”
I hung my head. Groans came from the crowd behind me. Some people tried to say some encouraging things, but I didn’t listen. I sighed and stepped away from the counter. “Thanks for your help.” I faced the crowd. “Sorry for holding you folks up. Have a good flight.”
“Good luck,” a young woman called to me. A few others chimed in as I slid my hands in my pockets and sulked off.
I’d rehearsed my whole speech for no reason.
The car ride home was long and quiet. My thoughts were dark and terribly lonely, and I didn’t turn on the music to distract myself. I wallowed in my self-pity and thought of Lina up in the sky right now, heading back to her old life.
The life that had no room for me.
I pulled into the driveway a good hour and a half after leaving the house. My father’s car was gone. He and Asher must have gone out to kill some time. I was glad that I wasn’t going to have to tell my father that I’d been too late. I could take some time to recover from the disappointment.
I walked up to the door, completely immune to the cold that bit at my bare arms, and let myself in.
And found Lina standing in my entranceway.
“Hi, Cal,” she said with a smile that erased all the disappointment and bitterness that had settled inside me.
“Hey,” I said, standing there like an idiot with my mouth open.
38
Lina
“I didn’t get on the plane,” I said.
“I can see that.” Cal was standing with his arms hanging slack at his sides. He was wearing a long-sleeved Henley, but the sleeves were rolled up to his elbows, revealing thick forearms decorated in veins.
I swallowed and clasped my hands in front of myself. “Sorry, I just couldn’t leave. I was about to get on the plane when I felt this sickening tug in my gut. And I had to come back.”
“Why?”
I shrugged. “I needed to see you again.”
Cal rubbed the back of his neck. “I had a speech rehearsed, and now I can’t remember a damn word of it.”
I smiled and stopped myself from laughing at him. “A speech?”
He nodded. “Yeah.”
“What was the gist of this speech?”
He grimaced. “There was a lot I wanted to say to you and a lot I wanted you to know. I can’t even remember where to start.”
“Cal,” I said softly. “It doesn’t matter.”
He frowned, and his eyebrows drew together. Then he looked me in the eye and stepped toward me. “It does matter, but you only need to know one thing.”
“And what’s that?” I whispered. My breathing quickened. The air between us seemed to crackle with electricity.
Cal smiled and shrugged one shoulder. “I’m in love with you, Lina.”
I bit my bottom lip. “You are?”
He nodded and closed the space between us with one final step. “Yes, and I have been for a long, long time.”
I lifted my chin. “What are you going to do about it?”
He reached out and cupped my neck, pressing his thumb to the side of my jaw to force me to look up even more. “I’m going to make love to you. I’m going to take you so high you never want to come down. I’m going to taste that sweet pussy of yours and—”
I shut him up with a kiss. My tongue slipped between his teeth, and I explored his mouth ravenously. His hand remained on my neck but crept around to the back so he could sink his fingers into my hair. He tightened his grip, straining my head back, and I reached up to press my hands against his chest.
I moaned into the kiss, and we started walking back toward the stairs.
We only broke apart when I pulled his shirt off over his head. It passed between our faces, and then we were back to kissing and breathing each other in.
Cal wrapped his arms around me and caught me when I stumbled at the bottom of the stairs. The heel of my boot struck the carpet, and I nearly fell right on my ass. But he held me up like I weighed nothing and then pulled my jacket off.
He tossed it aside. I undid my jeans. My hands worked quickly. My fingers were still cold—hell, I was still cold—but it didn’t matter. I needed him.
I wiggled my hips to pull my jeans down.
“Whoa,” Cal said, a smile playing on his perfect lips. “We should get up to my room. My father and Asher could come home any second.”
I shook my head. “No, I might have called your father on my way here. He said he’d stay far, far away all afternoon.”
“You sneaky girl,” Cal said, clicking his tongue.
I kicked off my boots and stepped out of my jeans. “You have no idea.”
Cal reached out and pulled my shirt off. He tossed it over his shoulder as I went to my knees in front of him and undid his pants. I pulled them down. And then his boxers.
I wasted no time. I needed him now. I took him in my mouth. He was already rock hard and ready. I drew him in to the back of my throat and moaned around his thickness.
Cal braced himself on the stair banister. “Fuck,” he grated through clenched teeth.
I held his cock in my mouth and looked up at him. I met his gaze, opened up wide, and pushed myself down farther until my nose touched his stomach.
“Fuck,” he growled again, this time more forcefully.
Then he started fucking my mouth. I stared into his eyes the whole time and held my tongue to the base of his shaft. I pulled my lips over my teeth as he quickened his pace, fucking my throat hard and fast.
He pulled out suddenly.
I reached for him, but he stepped away. “Come back,” I said playfully, licking my lips.
“No, woman. You’ll have me blowing my load too soon.”
“I want to taste you.”
“No,” he said. His tone was commanding. And really, really sexy.
I bit my bottom lip. “What do you want me to do?”
“Take your panties off,” he said.
I hooked my thumbs in the waistband of my black thong and slowly pulled it down. As I worked it down my thighs, I put my back to him so that when I bent over, he got a nice good look at my pussy. I stayed bent over, rolled my hips for him, and straightened slowly, drawing my hair over my shoulder and running my fingers through it as I licked my lips. “Is this what you wanted?” I cooed.
Apparently, Cal was not a man who could stand to be teased all that much. He grabbed my hips and turned me around so that I was facing him again. Then he picked me up, carried me up a few stairs, and set me down on my ass.
“What are you doing?” I asked, a giggle leaving me.
He put his hands on my knees and pulled them apart. “What I’ve been thinking about doing for a long fucking time. Lay back.”
I laid all the way back until my shoulder blades hit the stairs. I rolled them to get comfy and watched as Cal settled between my legs. He looked up at me as I peered down at him. A smile curled the one corner of his mouth, and there was that one dimple of his.
My pussy ached as he inched closer and closer. Then his tongue flicked out, and he ran it over my clit.
The pleasure was almost unbearable.
I was so sensitive, I couldn’t even believe it. Little shocks rushed through my body every time he rolled his tongue over my clit. Then, right when I thought it was all too much, he would move to the side and work his way down, around, and back up again.
I was breathless in seconds.
When he slid a finger inside me, I moaned uncontrollably. There was no holding back this time. He slid another finger inside as his tongue licked and rolled. I gripped the edge of the stair I sat upon and squeezed my eyes closed as the wave of my orgasm approached.
I was so close.
“Oh God,” I breathed. “Yes.”
“Don’t come yet,” he mumbled between my legs.
“I can’t hold it,” I whimpered.
“Yes, you can.”
He thrust his f
ingers upward. My whole body strained against the release as I fought to keep it at bay. I was fighting a losing battle. “Cal!”
My scream did him in, too. He sucked my clit hard, and I came wildly. I bucked beneath him, and my toes curled. Cal smiled into my pussy and kept on sucking and working his fingers in and out of me.
When I was done and somewhat recovered, he kissed the inside of my thighs before straightening up. “You’re so fucking sexy,” he growled.
I arched my back as he slid his hand under me and held me up to kiss me. His cock rested right on top of my pussy. I rolled my hips until his tip settled in my wetness.
He bit my bottom lip. “No.”
“Please, fuck me.”
His tongue slid into my mouth and whirled around. I moaned.
“No,” he breathed. Then he lifted me up.
I hooked my legs around his waist, and he walked up the stairs with me wrapped around him. We went straight to his bedroom, where he threw me down on my back on the bed.
He marched straight to the nightstand, pulled open the drawer, and found a condom. He tore it open with his teeth as he walked back to me. “Stay where you are.”
I was lying on my back with my legs apart. “I wouldn’t dream of moving.”
He stood between my legs and rolled the condom on. Then he pushed my legs back, stepped in close, and eased his length inside me.
I was so wet he slid right in. I gasped. He groaned.
I felt my own juices trickling down my thighs.
“Yes,” I breathed as my eyes fell closed. “Deeper.”
Cal started off nice and slow, working me carefully closer to my second orgasm of the day. He knew what he was doing between my legs. He slid in and pushed up, grinding himself against me to hit all the right places. Then, when I wasn’t expecting it, he pressed his thumb to my clit and began rubbing it in slow circles.
I came in seconds.
Cal stood above me smiling as I writhed beneath him. He applied more pressure, and I clutched at the sheets beneath me as I lost control of my body. My back arched, and my toes curled, and everything blurred away except for him looming above me, his powerful muscles rippling, his jaw clenched, and his eyes burning with desire.
My Holiday Reunion Page 22