finally he laid down next to me, wrapping his arms around me.
I nuzzled my lips against his chest, feeling his strong heartbeat under his skin. He kissed my forehead. “I love you, Fiona.”
“I love you too, Jake.”
He held me tight for several minutes until finally he shifted around, half sitting up, and fished the yardstick out from between us. “Maybe next time we should invest in a real pool cue,” he said.
“Definitely,” I said. “But what are we going to do with an apartment and a house?” I had no idea why that occurred to me right after sex, but somehow it did.
Jake didn’t comment on my non sequitur. He laid back down beside me and kissed me again. “It’s okay. I got a short-term lease. I was hoping I wouldn’t be staying there very long. I can leave whenever.”
“So you’ll move back in?” I said, smiling up at him.
“Are you kidding? Have you seen how many repairs this house needs?”
I laughed and smacked him on the arm. “That’s why I need you here. Well, it’s one of the reasons,” I said, kissing him.
“Then I’ll move back right away.”
“Do you really think it’ll be different this time?” I asked.
“Yeah. I really do. We know now what it’s like to be without the other. We know how bad it feels. So we’re just going to have to suck it up and be adults and deal with problems as they come up.”
“That sounds like a plan,” I said, tracing lazy circles in the dusting of hair across his chest. “Did you ever think, when you asked for that first Fiona’s Finest that it would lead here?”
“No, but I’m sure glad it did. Thank you for tonight,” he said, kissing my forehead. “For everything. For cleaning and drying my stuff. For the meal. For the hot sex. Oh, and for that dress, too. You looked so beautiful in it.”
“Thank you for not tearing it off me. Now I get to wear it again.”
“How about you wear it tomorrow night, and I’ll take you somewhere nice?”
“Sounds good to me. Where are we going?”
“That’ll be my secret for now. But it’ll definitely be someplace with a pool table in the back room.”
I laughed and smacked him again. He pinched my nipple in return. And that led to round two. It was a long time before we got out of bed, but that was okay. It was our bed again. And even when we left it, I knew we’d both be back again soon, the next night and the night after that.
For the rest of our lives.
Coming Soon!
If you can’t stand the heat,
stay out of Chef Bryant’s Kitchen!
Available in August, 2016
Sophie Brooks
www.sophiebrooksauthor.com