Page 116 of Bewitch

“I wouldn’t have blamed you.”

“I’m sorry too,” he says after a moment. “I shouldn’t have said those things I said, and training you was never a waste of time. Even if you would’ve walked away, it still wouldn’t have been. I was just bitter and hurt… No excuse, though. You just made me feel so many strong feelings, and I thought about telling you, but how would it have sounded? ‘Nice to meet you, Dawn, only we met before. In a closet. Where we had the most awkward sex in the world. Remember that?’”

“Would’ve made for one awkward conversation… and maybe not one appropriate for your work place.”

“Yes, but I could’ve walked you all the way to your car and told you in the parking lot. I could’ve asked you to dinner to talk over a meal plan—”

“That meal plan you gave me, was that just a way for you to troll me?”

“Not at all. That was the diet I used to first lose weight. I liked how it was open-ended so I could eat as much chicken and rice as I wanted. I tried to eat less, though, to learn how to accept being satisfied, but it helped me a lot to learn about balance.”

“Do you walk all of your clients to the welcome desk?” I ask.

“No, just you. I was trying to work up the nerve to follow you to your car, to maybe tell you or… I don’t know. I just didn’t like it when you left the gym, even when I wasn’t always the nicest to you. The place just seemed emptier without you.”

We’re quiet for a long moment, and I rest on him, my head on his chest, listening to his heartbeat. He wraps his arm around me as I drape my leg over him, some of our combined juices oozing out of me. I can feel it. I’m probably dripping onto him, but he doesn’t complain.

“I was trying to figure out if I should quit and what I would do if I did,” he says.

“Pamela mentioned you’re taking night classes. For what?”

“Physical therapy,” he says.

“Your dad… Do you want to talk about him?”

“A bit of a deep conversation for when we’re both naked.”

“We can get dressed first,” I suggest.

“We’re both sticky and messy.”

I shrug. “We could shower first.”

He laughs. “And risk you bolting again?”

“I’m not leaving anytime soon.”

“I’d rather shower after I’ve had some time to get ready for making love again.”

“Making love, huh?” I murmur.

“With those others girls, it was just sex. Learning what works, what a girl might like… I almost always pictured you, though, which made me so frustrated because I was doing it mostly to try to forget about you.”

“I was dating a guy, and it seemed like the next step, and he just wasn’t the one for me.”

Lucas lifts my chin and kisses me. “I know it’s more girls who believe in love at first sight, but that’s how it was for me with you. There’s never been another for me, not really.”

I melt and kiss him again, a kiss that has me curling my toes.

“Well, look at that,” Lucas murmurs. “I guess I’m ready after all.

I shriek as he sits up and manages to pick me up before standing. He carries me to the shower, and we pick up where we had left off from that other time.

There will be plenty of time for us to talk later. For now, I just want to love him.

And make love to him.

CHAPTER34