Page 111 of Someone to Watch Over Me

He looks up, catches my eye and smiles.

After my mom and I say our goodbyes, I get up and go over to Tom, who puts his phone aside when he sees me coming. I slide my arms around him and rest my head on his chest. “You know what one of the best things about being laid off and out of debt and having your new guy being out of work on medical leave is?”

“What’s that?” he asks, sounding amused.

“You could conceivably spend the whole day in bed and not have to feel one bit guilty about it.”

He’s immediately hard and ready for what I have in mind. “I’m really digging debt-free Lexi.”

“You haven’t seen anything yet, my friend.”

Tom

You knowhow you can be sure you’re in love with someone? When you’re happier for them than you are for yourself. I’ve never been happier for anyone in my life than I am for Lexi after hearing her horrible debt has been cleared. After everything she did for her beloved husband during his illness, she’s the last person who deserves to be saddled with that kind of burden for the rest of her life. I’ve been trying to think about how I might broach the subject of helping her with it, even if I knew she’d flatly decline such an offer.

What an incredible thing Joy did for her. I’ll love her forever for that. I’m so glad Lexi has friends like her and the other widows who look out for one another in ways that go far beyond the topics of grief and loss.

And when she suggested we spend the day in bed, I nearly had another heart attack—the good kind, this time, the kind that seals the deal, not that our deal needed sealing. I’m all in with her and have been from the start.

I can already see the difference in her since Joy’s life-changing visit. She’s lighter, unburdened, freer to enjoy her new life now that her greatest worry from her past life has been resolved.

She stands next to my bed and whips her shirt over her head while I stare at her, still unable to believe that I get to havethiswith Lexi Nelson.

“Are you just going to stand there, or are you going to get naked?”

“Uh, definitely the latter.”

“Well, hurry up already!”

“I’m a’hurrying.”

We fall into bed, wrapped up in each other and desperate for more of the intense connection we shared last night. I can already see that unburdened Lexi is also uninhibited Lexi, as if she’s been given a new lease on life, which, of course, she has.

Hands and lips and tongues and legs wrapped around hips—knowing we have nowhere to be and nothing to do other than fully indulge in each other has set us free to fully enjoy ourselves.

I push into her, loving the way she pulls me deeper, how her eyes close and her mouth opens on a silent scream of pleasure. God, she’s beautiful, sexy, sweet and everything I could ever want. I raise myself up on my arms and move with her, letting her set the pace, which is fast and furious this time around. I’m down with that.

“Tom.”

“I’m here, honey. What do you need?”

“Just this. Just you.” She opens her eyes, and as her gaze collides with mine, I fall even deeper in love with her than I already was, if that’s even possible.

We maintain eye contact as we chase the peak, crying out in unison from the power of what we created together. This goes way beyond anything I’ve experienced before. The difference between sex and lovemaking is finally clear to me.

“I have a confession to make,” I tell her in the sweet aftermath.

“Do I want to hear this? I’m in a really good mood.”

Smiling, I kiss her cheek and then her lips. “I think you might like this confession.”

“Lay it on me.”

“I have, at times, mocked the concept of lovemaking. Any time someone referred to it like that, I’d make fun of them. But now…” I kiss her softly. “Now I get it. For the first time in my life, I get why people call it that.”

Her smile touches every corner of her sweet face. “You’re right. I like that confession.”

“I never knew it could be like this, or how much of a difference love would make.”

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