Page 90 of Licks

My orgasm threatened to rip down my spine, building, building.

Her knees dug into my sides. “I’m so…”

“Me, too.”

“You feel…”

“So fucking good.”

Her first contraction squeezed me so hard, I spasmed. She cried out—the sexiest song I’d ever heard. My grunts followed, her name mixing with the sounds as I pumped harder and spilled into her, blinding bursts that never seemed to end. We both shuddered.

“We’re on the floor again,” she said into my neck and held me closer.

“A very wet floor.” Which meant we couldn’t linger. “Cuddling will have to wait.” I kissed her deeply, then lifted up.

She touched where we were joined as I pulled out, an erotic move that had me wanting to plunge back into her. “I’m not done with you yet,” I said. “I’ll shut off the shower. Meet me in the bedroom.”

Round two had her ass in the air, my chest pressed to her back, a soft mattress finally below us. I couldn’t drag out my pleasure long enough, loved learning every rhythm and angle that made her moan. It was a rougher affair. Skin slapping. More fucks shouted as my orgasm winded me. She claimed I’d turned her into jelly.

I kissed the back of her neck afterward, stayed in her as long as possible. “Not sure how I’ll live without this.” I shouldn’t mention my impending departure, but there was no point denying the inevitable.

She pushed her hips back into me. “Our reunion will be so sweet.”

The comment was lighthearted, but there was no disguising the break in her voice.

Needing to see her face, I pulled out and cleaned us up with a towel. Gwen’s bedroom was simple and neat. Blue-gray walls, a gym bag on the floor, laundry basket, fitness and outdoor magazines on her dresser. There was one photo, a candid of her with Rachel and Ainsley. Her friends, not her family. I wanted my picture here, too, to be her family. She was already that for me, but Gwen had always searched for more. Pined for it.

More reason the box in the kitchen could hurt her, and us.

I wanted to lounge under the sheets together, forget the world for the rest of the day, but I needed to know what I was dealing with. It was her birthday, too. We had plans with her friends. Last thing I wanted was to upend Gwen’s life more than I already had, especially when I was taking off tomorrow. She’d need her friends more than ever.

I crawled onto the bed, grabbed her hand, and lifted her to sitting. I kissed her nose. “I think it’s time.”

“To have sex again?”

Sneaky little vixen. “If I was twenty, maybe, but this old man needs a break. And we have a box to open.”

“Old-schmold,” she mumbled. Her silliness drained as she picked her nails. “Will you bring it in here? Actually”—she gripped my wrist as though I’d slip away—“what did my mother mean in her note, when she wrote: Remember what I told you on Gwen’s birthday?”

With all we’d been through, I’d forgotten about that detail. “I called her, to get your address, and she said the wildest thing.”

“What did she say?” Gwen looked like she was holding her breath.

“She said that you loved me. Told me not to let you push me away.”

“My mother said that?”

“Shocked the hell out of me.”

It was also one of the reasons I’d caught Gwen with Finch. A couple times that fateful night, I’d questioned if I should let things lie with Gwen, not get in any deeper. Then I’d replay Mary’s words and had eventually followed my gut. Walking in on Gwen and my brother had been the shittiest day of my life, but I’d believed it was supposed to happen. Like finding this journal, following the clues. That brutal event had given me my career. It gave me this time with Gwen. If we’d gotten together back then, we might not have lasted.

I snuck another kiss while she absorbed that confession, then pulled on my briefs and retrieved the keepsake. I cleaned the dirt from it before returning to Gwen.

She sat cross-legged on the bed, still picking her nails, wearing nothing but a thin tank top…and four-leaf-clover boxers. My lucky boxers. The ones she’d stolen. They looked fucking amazing on her.

I settled across from her, placed the keepsake beside me. “I see my boxers survived your sniffing.”

A sweet blush highlighted her cheeks. “They’re comfy.”