Page 116 of Begin Again Again

If you want me to leave that’s fine, I can come back whenever. We can have tea. We can do whatever you want. I can wait.

She stared at his words, on the precipice of a decision. She heard Byron sigh through the door, then turn and walk away, and she made up her mind. She swung the door open. “Hi.”

He turned, and the sight of his beautiful face was like sunshine. She absorbed him into her skin cells—could feel herself growing brighter because he was there in a green t-shirt that perfectly matched his eyes.

“Hi,” he said, a smile spreading across his face.

She ran to him as he moved toward her and she jumped into his arms and kissed him, tasting spearmint over whiskey.

Byron pulled away. “We should talk.”

The key word in that sentence was ‘should.’ Beth wrapped her arms around his neck. “Later.”

She got fifteen seconds of kissing before he moved back again. “Okay, whose house is this?”

Beth clutched a fistful of his hair. “Later.”

“Fine, but—”

She kissed him again and they tumbled back into the house, almost stepping on Muffin, who’d been inching toward the open door.

“Fucking hell,” Byron said. “Whose cat—”

Beth pressed her mouth to his, eating his words. Later. It could all come later. Byron laid her on Mrs J’s white couch and kissed her collarbone and shoulders. “I’ve missed you.”

“I missed you too, you giant psycho bitch.”

He kept kissing her, pausing only to pull his t-shirt over his head. “Um, I have feelings, you know?”

“Could have fooled me.”

Byron paused, his balled t-shirt in hand. “Do we need to talk?”

Beth instantly regretted letting him have full use of his mouth. She clutched his bare shoulders, trying to drag him down on top of her. “No. No more talking. More this.”

He hovered above her, the corner of his mouth curved in the way she sometimes dreamed about. “I’m only saying that maybe there are things we need to discuss.”

“No.”

Grinning, he tossed his t-shirt into the corner of the room and laid down on her. The weight of him erased every thought in Beth’s head. She ran her palms greedily across his back and hips and ass.

He bent his mouth to hers. “I’m not a psycho bitch.”

“Sure, you’re not.”

“And I do have feelings.”

“I know,” she whispered. “I just… not now, okay?”

He kissed the tip of her nose softly. Once, twice. “Okay.”

They kissed so deeply Beth felt that sweet falling sensation. Byron shifted, tugging his jeans down. He wasn’t wearing any underwear. The condom appeared like a coin trick, and she closed her eyes, willing herself to wait in delicious anticipation and not tear it from his hand and sit on him. It occurred to her that the blinds and windows were open, and all of Mrs J’s lights were on. She sat up, throwing Byron back a little.

“Everything okay?” he asked.

The way he looked at her almost stopped Beth’s heart. His eyes were tender in a way she’d never seen before, as open as the windows all around them. She cupped his jaw and pressed her mouth to his. She helped him pull down her leggings and as soon as he was safe, she urged him inside her. Because she didn’t care if everyone in St Kilda, Melbourne, Australia,theworld, watched her fuck Byron Thomas. She wanted to be as close to him as another human could be.

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