Page 129 of Past Due

“Bye, honey.”

“Bye, Mom.”

She pivoted toward the door and left quickly before either of us could change our minds. The door closed behind her, and it was as if an entire chapter of my life had just ended.

“Marley?” Besian asked carefully.

“I’m okay.” I wiped at the tears gathering in my eyes. “Really.”

He seemed unconvinced. “It’s okay if you aren’t.”

“I know, but I am.”

He left it at that. “Are you ready to go home?”

Exhausted from yet another long and trying day, I nodded. Realizing how long he had been awake and how little sleep he had had, I walked up to him and playfully slipped my hand into the front pocket of his pants where he kept his key fob. Desire sparked in his eyes, and I rose up on my toes to kiss him. “I’ll drive.”

“We have the room for the rest of the night,” he murmured against my lips.

“B, light of my life, fire of my loins,” I paraphrased Nabokov, “there’s no way any part of my naked body is touching that bed.”

He teased his mouth over mine. “Who said anything about the bed?”

And then he showed me exactly what he meant.

Twice.

Thoroughly.

---