Page 102 of Never Quiet

Chapter Twenty-Two

October 2016

Leaving Trois after hours of dancing on another fantastic night out with Hayden, he handed her into the car and slid in beside her with a smile.

They’d been kissing for almost three weeks and Amanda’s body was overheated, shaky, and incredibly needy.

As the car started to move, she straddled his lap and kissed him until he moaned into her mouth. One arm held her firmly, the other hand gently squeezed her ass. They parked in front of her building and she pulled back to stare at him.

“Hayden.”

“Yes, Amanda?”

“How would you feel about having good friends sex with me? I’ll make you breakfast.” She dragged her fingers through his hair and held him still for another kiss. “After breakfast, we’ll have coffee and talk some more.” She delivered another deep kiss that made his fingers dig into the cheek of her ass.

Sitting up, she held his face. “You can tell me why you’re in such horrible pain, Hayden. We’ll talk through everything together and find solutions. I’m excellent at problem solving.”

Shaking his head, he murmured, “I-I don’t…”

She rocked her center against a cock that clearly did. “Say yes, Hayden. Let me help you. Truly help you with the river of pain that runs beneath the foundation of your life. Pleasure, breakfast, discussion.” She stroked his hair, his neck, and his upper body while she kissed him, kissed him, kissed him. Against his lips, she murmured, “Trust me and say yes.”

“Yes, Amanda.” He nodded. “Yes.”

Hours later, when her body was physically weak from the skills Hayden had amassed over an additional twenty years of living, Amanda realized he’d been waiting for someone to phrase their offer of help a certain way.

For the next two days, she kept him in her apartment. She made love to him, fed him, talked to him, made him talk to her, and held him when he broke again and again.

While there were things his family, Noel, past lovers, or friends probably knew, she could tell by the agonizing poison he lanced in the safety of her arms that much of what he shared had never been acknowledged, much less dealt with or allowed to heal.

The morning of the third day, stretched out on her bed, she felt the change in him. He relaxed between her legs, his cheek on her belly, as she stroked her fingers through his hair.

“Amanda?”

“Hmm?”

“Will you love me?”

“Do you want me to love you, Hayden?”

“I don’t know.”

“Think about it and let me know.”

“Alright. I feel…like I just woke up from thirty years of nightmares I couldn’t escape. I slept all the way through the night with you. That never happens.”

“What do you plan to do with your newfound freedom?”

“I have no idea.”

“We should make pancakes. We can talk about it.”

Lifting his head, he crawled up her body, rubbing his cheek over her naked skin. “Not yet…not yet, Amanda.”

Wrapping her legs around his back, she smiled. “Alright.”

* * *

By the time he dressed to leave her apartment later that afternoon, Hayden looked different.

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