Page 82 of Starting Back
It had been a long time since my sleep was so restful and dreamless that I didn’t know where I was when I woke up. Gray light filtered into my bedroom as the wind rustled through the bare branches of the trees in my yard, the faint whistling sound breaking through the morning stillness.
I buried my head back in the pillow when I read the time on my alarm clock. It was barely eight thirty a.m., and there were no children in the house to drag me out of bed for pancakes, or nochildsince Chloe didn’t unearth herself from her room until ten if she didn’t have school or a good reason.
I stretched out my legs and let out a groan. Muscles all over my body screamed at me as I tried to curl myself into a ball and go back to sleep. I sank my teeth into my bottom lip at the sting between my legs each time I tried to adjust my position.
I prided myself on being in decent shape, but I wasn’t built for a night of sexual athletics on every surface of my living room and up my staircase. The tension between Leo and me was combustible enough to explode, and it did—all over my house. I had a trail of clothes to clean up and pictures to rehang on my wall.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Leo grumbled as he looped his arm around my waist and pulled me back.
“Since I can barely walk, nowhere fast.”
He chuckled against my shoulder and ran his lips over the nape of my neck. I smiled at the scratch of his stubble as he dragged kisses down my back.
“None of that,” I protested despite squirming at the scrape of his stubble against my skin. “We have a living room to clean up.”
“None of that? What about this?” He skidded his hand up my thigh, gliding his fingers across my stomach until they settled at my core.
“Leo, please,” I begged into the pillow as my hips followed the swirl of his fingers.
“I can clean up.” He dropped kisses on my shoulder as he slid one finger inside. I groaned at his slow entry, my body sore from last night’s repeat invasion but still hungry for more. “It’s the least I can do since I’m the reason you can barely walk.”
My legs went rigid when he pressed his thumb into my clit. I’d thought my nerve endings would be burned out after last night, but I was still a live wire when it came to Leo. Sex was never like this with Colin or anyone else, and until Leo and I met, I hadn’t thought sex was like this, period.
During a terrible argument a month or so before he moved out for the last time and we started “dating,” Colin had called me frigid. He’d apologized right after, realizing he’d gone too far, but I’d never forgotten that. Each time we had sex after, I could never relax enough to enjoy it, always wondering what I was doing wrong or if Colin would be upset if I didn’t appear into it enough.
With Leo, I could let go and forget all the hang-ups that stemmed from old insecurities. Like everything else when we first met, I’d tried to write it off as the rush of something forbidden and temporary.
The almost all-night marathon we’d had and the destruction we’d left in its wake had proven me wrong.
What had always drawn me the most to Leo wasn’t the bedroom eyes, the muscles, or the sexy lines of ink on his perfect body. It was how, from the second we met, he made it clear that he just wanted to be with me—as I was. I didn’t have to change for him or try harder to be anything other than myself.
The inhibitions I’d fought so hard to shed were finally gone because I was finally with the right person.
He burst out laughing at my exhausted sigh into my pillow.
“You’re going to break my vagina if you keep doing that.”
“Nah, I think you’re both up for the challenge.”
I turned my head, warmth spreading in my chest at his wide grin.
“Good morning, gorgeous.”
“Good morning,” I replied in a gravelly whisper, still recovering from the early morning aftershocks he’d just given me. “I’m glad you’re here.”
“Me too, babe.” He pecked my lips and stood. “My clothes are all downstairs too, so before the girls get home, let me get dressed and clean up.”
“Wait.” I shot up, sucking in a breath at the new sting blazing through my core at the change in position. “I’m not totally sure if the curtains are closed, which is something that should have dawned on me last night. Let me get a robe on, and I’ll bring you your clothes.”
“It’s not like the neighbors are right on top of you like they are at my condo. The next house is almost halfway up the street.” He tilted his head to the side and laughed. “Are you afraid a deer is going to see my dick?”
I shrugged into my fuzzy robe, holding his gaze as I came closer.
“My eyes only, babe.”
“Fuck,” he hissed and pulled me back on the bed. “I love you possessive.”
I moaned into his kiss, running my hands up and down his back as I willed my heart to calm down. The rush from hearing him say I love you and the inclination to say it back, even if out of the right context, was so overwhelming I was afraid to tear my mouth away from his for fear it would slip out.
