Page 9 of Chosen Road

After my latest breakup, I decided to go on hiatus, but I’d no sooner split with the obnoxious chomper than Gus sat his beautiful self down at my table in the café.

I knew how this would go. I’d think he was perfect, and I’d almost be at the point where I was ready to introduce him to Yiayia when he’d reveal something of himself that I could not live with.

The first guy was a cheat. I gave myself a pass for dumping him.

With Romeo number two, it turned out he was more interested in Mercutio than Juliet. Again, obviously not my fault. I didn’t have the necessary equipment to hold him.

After him, the faults became decidedly smaller but no less bothersome. One was far too absorbed in his work, the next one didn’t give me any space, following him was the one who refused to wear socks with his shoes. That got old fast. This last one chewed so freaking loudly I couldn’t hear myself think. Other than that, he was perfect. I was beginning to think the problem was me, but then Gus showed up in my life.

He showed up at the coffee shop every day that week until I gave him my phone number. And he kept showing up over and over, making me laugh, dropping a coffee off to me in class, scraping the ice off my car in the morning before I left for work, bringing me dinner when I had a late class, and before I knew it, I’d fallen for him, too.

There was only one problem with Gus. He could read me.

When I pushed him away, he gave me space. When life spun out of control, he held me close. When I bitched and complained about some trivial thing he was doing that irritated me, he laughed in my face and did it harder until I laughed, too.

My yiayia loved him. My sister, Ruby, adored him.

After a couple of years, he moved me into his place. I’m not even sure how he did it, but eventually I only had a few of my things left at Yiayia’s house, and it took only an afternoon to move in fully when he asked me to make it official.

The following week he slipped a ring onto my finger while I slept.

I woke up and stared at my finger, dumbstruck, before narrowing my eyes at him. I held out my hand and wiggled the offending object in his smiling face.

He tackled me to the bed and kissed my knuckle above the ring. “Wear it for the day and see how it feels,” he murmured, shifting to part my thighs with his knees.

I tilted my pelvis as he nudged my entrance.

My eyelids fluttered shut and he stopped.

I refocused on his face.

He shallowly dipped inside. “You want this?”

“Yes.” Gus introduced me to a world of sex I never knew existed outside romance novels. At first, his intensity frightened me, but it didn’t take long for me to learn to give myself over to him, finding freedom from the anxieties of my day, as he loved me. I reached to pull his mouth down to mine, but he refused to yield.

“It comes with a ring.” He grinned. “I’m not one of those loose men that will give it away without a ring.”

I guffawed. “You’re crazy.”

Holding my eyes, he slowly drove in to the hilt, rocking his pelvis against my clit. “I’m crazy about you.” He pulled out slowly and did it again. “I’ve loved you since I first heard you laugh.” He nibbled my bottom lip. “I want to spend my life with you.”

He stilled inside me, and I pulsed around him.

His eyes lit up. “Nice. Do it again.”

I smiled into his eyes and fluttered around him.

He pulled out to the tip and drove back in hard. “One squeeze for no, two squeezes for yes.”

I wiggled underneath him, pushed at his chest, and laughed. “Gus! Move!”

“Nope.” He grinned down at me then drew my wrists over my head and locked them together in his big hand. “I’m a catch, you know. You gotta lock me down. One squeeze for no, two squeezes for yes.”

I rolled my lips between my teeth, and he snapped his hips, making my eyes roll back in my head.

“Give me an answer.”

“Is this the proposal story I’m going to tell my yiayia?” I snapped.

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