Page 16 of Coming Around Again

She still looks slightly stunned. “What? Oh—yes.” Then she blinks. “No. Can we get pizza and eat at your place, instead?”

The blood starts humming in my veins. “Whatever you want.”

We stare into each other’s eyes. I get lost. Suddenly, she smiles like the girl who came out of the lake all those years ago, and my heart turns over in delight. “Sausage and mushroom, please,” she says.

“You got it.” I hesitate and look around, but remember that it doesn’t matter who’s watching. “You’ve got me, Naya. Always,” I tell her softly.

When she comes to my apartment after work, I’m ready. Fresh sheets on the bed, three roses on the table, pizza and salad from Inizio’s waiting. Bottle of Chianti opened to breathe.

I open the door with my heart pounding, and notice that she’s got a small overnight bag with her. Does that mean she’s going to stay the night?

“I told Vivian I had a date,” she says, and makes a face. “She was disappointed. We usually watch something on Netflix on Thursdays.”

“Make it up to her next Thursday,” I suggest. “I don’t want you to push your friends away. I want you to be happy here.”

Her eyes glow when she smiles at me.

The pizza’s not as good as Slice of Heaven’s—or maybe the lake air always added a special seasoning—but it doesn’t matter. We don’t even finish before Naya’s reached over to wipe a dot of tomato sauce off my chin, and I’ve grabbed her finger and licked it, and we’re suddenly ravenous for each other, ignoring the food to lean in for kisses. The kisses get wilder and more needy, she’s in my lap, I’m picking her up to carry her to my bedroom but I get impatient and we wind up on the couch, I’ve got my hands under her skirt and she’s wearing silky underwear, I lose a button when she undoes my shirt and I don’t care, I need her, I need her skin on my skin, and when she shimmies out of her panties and hikes up her skirt I forget about being naked, I just need all I can get of her, my work pants are open and she’s sinking down on top of me, engulfing my dick in all her wet heat, and we’re panting like we’ve just run a marathon, kissing again, and the beautiful slick sounds of our bodies rocking together are about to make me lose my fucking mind—

—and then she keens out, throwing her head back and arching her body, and I can feel her coming, feel her secret muscles squeezing me, and I do lose my fucking mind. I lose control.

I give her all of myself.

She collapses forward onto my chest, and we lie crumpled together until we can breathe again.

“That was…” she says, trailing off.

“Yeah. It was. It was always like that,” I say. “Never been like that with anyone else.”

“I know. Nobody else ever made me feel the way you did.” She kisses my mouth. “Like you do.”

She gets off me, and I sit up, slightly panicked even though I know she has plans to stay. “Don’t go anywhere.”

Naya gives me an amused look. “I’m just going to clean up.”

“You can stay, can’t you? All night?”

I know. I’m a mess.

But her amusement turns to affection, and she touches my cheek. “All night. All week…all year. However long you want me, Desmond. I’m yours.”

“Forever,” I say, grabbing her hand.

She doesn’t laugh. She squeezes my hand back. Nods. “Forever.”

And so it begins.

Again.

EPILOGUE

NAYA, THREE YEARS LATER

“I’m glad we’re taking our vacation here this year,” I say to my husband as we pull up to the entrance of the Love Lake Resort Hotel. “I know it’s weird to vacation near your in-laws…”

Desmond laughs, turning off the engine and getting out of the car. He hands the keys to the attendant and thanks him, then takes my arm to escort me inside. The clerk at the front desk greets us; I don’t recognize her. Desmond checks us in, and I’m preparing myself for the luxury that surely awaits. I’ve had to get over my bias toward working-class accommodations, and he’s had to adjust to being more frugal from time to time. We compromise.

This vacation, on the other hand, is all Desmond’s plan. We both needed a week away from work, and GoPlay has just completed another small expansion so the pressure is off, for the time being at least. So we have ten days to spend together.

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