Page 102 of Fabulous Filthy Friend

But then, when I poured my drink, instead of heading back to the bedroom, I found myself drifting to the window. Just to glance over at Rachel’s house, as if staring at some inanimate object was going to somehow change the situation.

And through the pouring rain…she was there. Staring right back at me. Like we’ve done so many other times over the years when we would happen to catch a glimpse of each other.

Only this wasn’t a glance. This was the kind of connection that you feel in your soul when you’re looking into somebody else’s eyes, and even with our side yards between us, I felt it in every fiber of my being. Every part of me was screaming at me to run over there. But I didn’t know if that’s what she wanted or not.

Then I checked my computer instead of going to bed. I read her words. How she really feels. The confession that went straight to all the parts of me that hurt and have longed for her so badly.

There was only one thing I could do—tell her to meet me outside.

I tug open the door and step out into the cold rain. This isn’t the mere drizzle it was before; this is God angry at the world, flood of biblical proportions type of rain. But it can’t stop me now.

I don’t even know if she responded. All I know is that even being struck by lightning at this moment wouldn’t keep me from going over there even if she doesn’t come out.

But her front door opens, and she steps out into the rain. The white T-shirt she’s wearing over tiny sleep shorts soaks through almost instantly, perfectly molding to her body, accentuating every valley and curve I love so much.

I fight against the desire to sweep her up into my arms and ravage her right here and right now.

We meet at the hedge. The same place we discovered what we should’ve known all along. Where we truly saw each other for the first time.

She stares at me, her perfect black eyelashes clinging together, from rain or tears. Her soft, pink lips part, and a gentle rush of breath flows out, visible in the freezing air.

Christ, she’s beautiful.

All I want to do is take her into my arms, but there’s too much to say, too much that can’t be skipped over.

I swallow thickly, remembering the words she wrote. “You love me.”

She said it in her message, the three words she couldn’t say all weekend, the words I kept saying to her, but she couldn’t repeat. Even when I pounded into her and made her orgasm more times and harder than she has in her life, they didn’t leave her mouth. She just couldn’t say it, but for some reason, with the keyboard and internet between us, when she was INEEDSOMED and I was HRD4U, she was finally able to.

That’s not good enough, though. I want to hear it from Rachel—from her lips. I want to know it’s true and not something she said to try to smooth over the situation. I want Rachel to tell Flynn she loves him.

She shakes her head. “Of course, I love you. Was that ever in question?”

“I don’t mean as your best friend, Rachel. I mean, in the ‘I would die for you and forgive you anything because you’re the most important thing in my entire fucking world’ kind of love—the way I love you.”

Tears visible in her eyes trickle out and mix with the falling rain. “Of course, I love you like that, you idiot. Do you think I’d be such a wreck over someone who didn’t own my heart and soul?” She fights back a sob and holds out her hands. “I’m so sorry.”

“I am, too.”

We reach for each other at the same time, her arms wrapping around my neck and mine around her waist to lift her up and over the hedge. Just like the last time, she wraps her legs around me and squeezes as I capture her mouth with mine.

The icy-cold rain cascades around us, but neither of us cares. It may have only been twenty-four hours, yet it feels like an eternity since I held her, since I touched her, since I kissed her. And now that she’s finally said the words that I wanted to hear so badly, I’m not ever going to let her go.

It’s like every prayer I’ve ever prayed has been answered in the form of this woman. And she’s mine.

Time to bring her inside and show her how much I love her properly.

Headlights flash over us from a vehicle that turns onto the street. At this time of night, with the vast majority of the exterior house lights off, it’s so dark that I doubt the driver will even see us, but I still freeze in place and pull my mouth away from hers for a second until they pass.

An older Lexus sedan drives slowly down the road, and I turn back to the house to bring Rachel inside. Two steps later, the headlights fall on us again, and I crane my neck around to find the vehicle pulling into my driveway.

What the hell? Who the fuck is that?

With the lights directly in my eyes, I can’t see the driver.

I set Rachel down reluctantly and cup my hand over my eyes to squint into the windshield. All I manage to make out is an amorphous shape in the driver seat. I glance back over at Rachel. “Maybe someone’s lost?”

She shrugs and huddles closer to me, shivering in the cold rain. She has to be freezing by now. Whoever this is needs to get on his way so I can bring her inside and warm her up.

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