Page 276 of Falling Backwards
I smile but quickly take my chance to speak before they can get chatty.“Joy, I came to say bye.Luke and I are going in a few minutes.”
Her, “Aw!”now is much the same as her previous one.She, like Emma, doesn’t appear to mind if I end this outing.“Okay!You tired of the crowd?”
I nod and she does, too, managing to show understanding even in her current state.
“Well, I wuv you!”she says.“Give me a hug!”
“And me!”Emma chimes in.“I wuv you too!”
I hug them and assure them, “I wuv you both,” and they hug me, making affectionate little noises.Well, they’d be little if these goofy girls were sober.“Y’all be sure to text me once you’re home safe.”
“Will do!”they say at the same time.
Shortly, Emma and I release Joy to the guy at the bar and make our way back to our table.Paxton is there again, nodding with whatever Luke is saying.We sit, and not thirty seconds pass before Joy and her guy actually pop up to join us.They slide into the booth while she does a round of introductions.I only partly register his name being Justin—my attention mostly gets split between Luke’s hand finding my thigh again and our server stopping by, perfectly timed for Luke to say he’s ready to pay for our stuff.
It takes every ounce of control I have not to let my eagerness to leave show on my face.To not even try to smile at Luke because I know that smile will falter into a look that’ll give me away to anyone watching.
So I just lace my fingers with his, pick up my glass of water, and wait until it’s time to go.
L U K E
Going by how time naturally works, it doesn’t take that long for me and Maggie to arrive at my apartment.To my body and mind, it’s felt like an hour has passed since I set up our ride away from the bar.
But it all balances out with every second spent walking to my front door.The night air is frigid, open, refreshing.We hold hands going up the stairs and it’s an even tighter grasp than what we had in the car.Everything is quiet except for our thudding steps, the vibrations of which are doing their part to root me in this reality we’ve been wanting and are getting at last.
It’s just us now.
I feel it in the way Maggie’s hand rests low on my back under my coat while I unlock the door.
It comes clearer still once we’re shut off from the world, secured inside the comfortable stillness of my place lit only by the glow above my kitchen sink.
And I swear it whispers around us as we wash our hands of the evening and go back and step out of our shoes in the living room and shed our coats standing so close together that our arms slip out of heavy fabric and right around each other.
The L of my name hits my lips with her huff of breath, the rest halted by the kiss we finally press into.
Sink into.
Moaninto.
Inhale out of just to gobackinto with tender desperation.
It’s just us now.
The thought settles away, content to be overtaken by action.By our kiss going deep.By Maggie’s hands sliding into the back pockets of my jeans and bringing my hips to her.By one of my hands finding its way under the skirt of this damn dress, over the tights I like the smoothness of but want out of my way.
I want everything she’s wearing to be out of my way so I can fucking worship her.
My grasp of her thigh just below her ass makes her hips move pleadingly against me.Them doing that while her tongue grazes my bottom lip makes me lose my breath.
Still, I manage to ask her, “You’re not in pain?”
“No,” she says, softly short on breath herself.“Please.I….”
When she kisses me instead of finishing her sentence, I kiss back long and slow and hot.But then I murmur, “‘Please,’what?I wanna do whatever you want.Tell me what you want and I’ll give it to you.”
Her hands on my lower back now.My free one framing the side of her face, feeling the warmth there, feeling her swallow.
“Touch me,” she whispers unevenly.She fumbles for my hand on her back side and shyly drags it around to the front of her thigh, stopping short of going between her legs.“Please—please do it, Luke.I want…I’ve wanted….”
