Page 136 of Unexpected

I needed to see him again to make sure he was actually okay. He seemed better when we said goodbye, but I wasn’t ready to part for the night.

“Where’d you go, Hazel?” my mom said, scooting toward my side of the couch and waving her hand in my face.

I shook off the myriad of thoughts and focused on her. “Nowhere, just tired. It’s been the longest day.”

“Well, just answer me this, and I’ll leave you alone: does he treat you well? And treating you well doesn’t just mean that he does the basic things a man is supposed to do, like not hit you.” Her voice cracked over the words, and I was sure I knew what she was thinking about when it did. “But does he treat you well?”

I reached out and gripped her hand in mine. Even at almost sixty, she was beautiful. She’d aged gracefully. The lines around her eyes and her mouth were just proof that she’d had a happy life, and she still had the same spark for it as she did when I was a kid.

“Yeah, Mom. He treats me better than I could have ever imagined a man could treat a woman. He makes me feel like I’m his everything.”

Her green eyes roamed my face for a moment as a smile pulled at the corners of her lips. It was the first smile I’d seen from her all night, and I couldn’t help but smile back.

“You love him,” she stated, and my face dropped.

Since Luke had been staying with me, the word had rattled around in my head a few times, and I’d felt myself more inclined to randomly blurt it out at the most unusual times. Earlier that week, we were sitting on my new couch after dinner. I was writing—as I could be found doing most of the time—and Luke was eating a bowl of cereal as dessert. He had muted the wilderness TV show he was watching because I mentioned I was writing an extra intense scene having to do with my main characters and the villain. He didn’t want to distract me and didn’t want me to go into the other room, so he muted the TV and turned on the subtitles.

I was curled up next to him, but with my laptop facing away, since he liked to peek, when I suddenly also really wanted some cereal. Without thinking too hard about it, I looked over my laptop at him and Sadie and said, “Bite, please.”Immediately after I said it, I opened my mouth, waiting for the bite of cereal I had so nicely requested.

Luke glanced over at me, scooped a bite with the perfect cereal to milk ratio and fed it to me over my laptop. Once I took the bite, he returned to eating and reading the subtitles.

The entire interaction was so familiar and comfortable that my heart squeezed in my chest like it might explode with what could be love. It was the first time I thought about it, and I quickly went back to writing and didn't ask for another bite.

The second time I thought about it was later that night when he was buried between my legs, coaxing the fourth orgasm out of me with just his tongue and fingers.

“It’s a little early for that word,” I finally managed to say, but nothing got past her.

“Oh, honey, if you don’t know by now, love doesnothave a time line. But on that note, let me get out of your hair. I already booked a hotel, so I wouldn’t be too much of an imposition.”

“Mom, no, please—”

She waved me off before I could tell her to stay. “Don’t argue with me. I’ll see you bright and early tomorrow morning. I’ve already got all the groceries in my suite, so I’ll bring them for Thanksgiving dinner here. I’ll see you and Luke tomorrow.”

I walked her to her car, where she gave me a long hug, and with another promise to be here close to dawn, she was gone.

The moment I returned to my apartment and closed and locked the door behind me, I had my phone out to text Luke.

Me: Mom got a hotel for the night. If you’re not already asleep, do you want to come back?

It was well past eleven and it was completely possible that he was already asleep in his own bed with Sadie curled up in the crook of his legs. I didn’t have to sleep with him, I could very well spend a night on my own without a problem, but I wanted him there with me.

Only a second had passed when my phone buzzed.

Luke: I’m on my way up.

When he knocked on my door less than a minute later, Sadie trotted through first, but Luke was steady on her heels. There wasn’t even a hello between him opening the door and scooping me into his arms. He kicked the door closed behind him and locked both locks. Like we didn’t know if we’d see each other again, our lips crashed together. Our hands were everywhere all at once, and I couldn’t get close enough to him.

With my legs wrapped around his hips, he walked us into the bedroom like I weighed nothing while Sadie found her spot on the couch. He pressed me up against my closed bedroom door as we tore at each other's clothes, and I bucked against him. His erection hit me perfectly, and I knew I was already close. The need within me burned bright like white-hot flames.

We’d undressed each other in seconds, and after having set me down to rip my sweats off, Luke scooped me back up and plunged in deep.

My release had me screaming. And those three little words were taking up so much space in my head that I felt them clawing at the back of my tongue, also taunting me for release.

FORTY-EIGHT

Hazel

The morning was a disaster.Mom was freaking out over cooking in my tiny-ass apartment kitchen while I tried to refrain from drinking until at least eleven. I gave up at around nine and poured us both mimosas. She scoffed at it at first, but when she almost caught the dish towel on fire, she downed the entire thing in one go.

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