Page 70 of When We Were Younger

"I would never ask that of you. Never. Trust me when I tell you that I have a plan. I'll go wherever youwant to go. Anywhere that you are is the only place I want to be, and I already have plans in motion for my job and my dad's retirement. Your pal James has been helping me out on that end."

I smile, but she can't see it. She's too busy staring down at her feet.

"I don't think I know how to do this," she whispers as I cup her cheek and tilt her face up to look at me.

"You don't need to know everything right now. I don't need any huge decisions. I just need to know if there's potential here. Not do you love me, but could you love me? Not the boy you grew up with, not the memory of who I was, but me, Stephen Hudson, as I am now. Because if there's even the slightest possibility that you could, I'm not going anywhere. I'm not giving up on you. I'm not letting you out of my grasp again. And if you want to run, sweetheart, you just tell me, and I'll lace up my shoes. Because this time, I'm ready to run with you."

She blinks, and a tear slides down her cheek. I swipe at it with my thumb, and she leans into my touch.

"There's no potential. No possibility. I'm already there. Stephen, I love you. I have loved you for as long as I can remember. I loved you when we were younger, I loved you when I was gone, and I love you now. I had to leave when we were kids, there’s no way around that. But now? Leaving you this time was the stupidest fucking thing I've ever done in my life, and I swear to you, I will never, ever make that mistake again," she leans up to kiss me, but I lean back. The roar of theparty has picked back up in the background, and the unmistakable sound of the New Year's Eve countdown penetrates the dark office.

"Truth or dare?" I ask her, and she smiles.

"Dare," she says as the crowd outside counts back from ten.

"Be my girl, sweetheart. Be my Dorothea," I dare her.

"Easiest yes of my life," she whispers.

I drop her hands and scoop her up by the waist, capturing her lips in a kiss. I pour everything into it, every ounce of love, desperation, all the years of yearning and wanting. I express it all to her with the way I kiss her. I'm not soft or gentle. I kiss her like she's the most incredible thing I've ever tasted, because she is. I seal my mouth to hers like I own her, but behind all the passion, I know the truth. She owns me. She always has.

39

DOTTIE

There's still so much to think about, so much for me to apologize for. So much of my own internal self-loathing to work on. Life's problems don't magically resolve themselves on the coattails of a life-changing kiss.

But a life-changing kiss never hurts.

I'll worry about all those other things tomorrow.

Right now, I've got Stephen's mouth on mine and my legs wrapped around his waist as he pins me to the back of his hotel room door. My skirt is bunched up around my waist and Stephen is grinding his rock-hard erection against my pussy as he devours my lips. Even through his jeans and my panties, the friction is nearly unbearable. I pull back and gasp, and Stephen drops his mouth to my neck, finding my pulse point and sucking on it.

"Stephen, I need you. Please," I beg as he drags his teeth down my throat. Without missing a beat, he takesme in stride and deposits me on the center of the bed. He stands back and strips, pushing his jeans to the floor and then pulling his flannel over his head. I catch a glimpse of something unfamiliar as he bends to push his briefs down.

"Stephen, what is that on your chest?" I ask, pushing myself up on to my elbows. He smirks as he rids himself of his boxers. His cock bobs, hard and leaking as he crawls over the bed, reaching behind me to unzip my top. I reach up, running my fingers of the tattoo on the edge of his pec, right towards the center of his chest. It looks like-

"It's a constellation. Cancer. This big looking circle, right here? The one that isn't a star? That's Mercury," he says as his fingers continue to work. He pulls off my top and throws it to the side.

"Mercury. In Cancer. This is what you talked to Ivy about?" I ask, gasping when he pinches my nipple, rolling it between his thumb and his forefinger.

"It is. Do you remember that summer night when we were thirteen? We snuck out because you wanted to see if you could see Mercury in the sky," he leans forward and pulls my other nipple between his lips.

"The first time you let me braid your hair."

He hums and I moan as a shot of pleasure rolls through my body. He kisses his way down my belly, pushing the skirt over my hips and down my legs.

"That was the night I knew I was in love with you. I didn't get it then, not really. But I knew that you were itfor me, that you were the only person I'd ever want. When you were gone, I used to lay in our field and look at the sky and think about how much I loved you. I’d count the stars and wonder if you were thinking about me."

"I was," I breathe as he pulls my panties down. "I was thinking about you. I thought about you all the time. I loved you all the time."

"Just like you promised," he murmurs as he runs a finger through my folds. I'm wet and aching for him, and when his finger slides inside of me with ease, he sighs.

"You're ready for me, sweetheart."

"So ready," I grab at his shoulders. "Please, please give me your cock. I need it. Need you."

He positions himself over my body, lining his cock up with my pussy and rubbing, teasing my clit with the head a few times before slowly sinking in. I cry out, and he sinks to his elbows, lowering his chest to mine and he pushes all the way to the hilt.

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