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“Don’t move,” he ordered. “I’ll be right back.”
She closed her eyes and waited. Over the shower’s white noise, she heard footsteps and a tearing sound.
“Lucia.” He said her name as if it were a benediction. “Lucia, look at me.”
She blinked away the water and stood and moved
to the glass wall and watched as he covered himself with a condom.
“I want to take you any and every way you can imagine. In public or hidden away, if it turns you on, I want to try it. And one way or the other, we’ll end with you screaming my name. But right now, I don’t want number one or number eleven on my list or yours.”
“Then what do you want?”
He opened the shower door and stepped inside. “Let me make love to you. No games or Post-it note plans. Just you and me.”
“Yes,” she said, her voice loud and clear over the shower’s spray.
He wrapped his hands around her hips and guided her back until she felt the shower wall behind her. His hands cupped her bottom and lifted her up. “Wrap your legs around me.”
She obeyed, savoring the feel of his powerful arms as they so easily suspended her above the shower floor.
“This is it, gorgeous,” he said, thrusting inside her, filling her completely. “This is the moment I’ll take with me.”
She held on tight, her thighs pressed against his hips as he began to move in and out.
I’m not going to leave you alone with memories for company. You deserve more, too.
And tomorrow, she’d tell him.
Chapter Eighteen
“You forgot to text,” Natalie declared, bypassing “good morning” or “hello.”
“It’s eight in the morning,” Lucia said. “I had a long night. And I assumed you did, too.” She pinned her phone between her shoulder and ear. She used the tongs sitting beside the doughnuts to select a Boston cream, a chocolate glazed, and a powdered sugar from the buffet, then carefully moved them to her to-go container. “And I don’t have much time to chat now. There’s six feet plus of orgasm-inducing male perfection asleep in my bed, and I plan to tempt him with doughnuts.”
“Oh my God, he trades sex for doughnuts?” Her sister’s shrill voice left her wishing she could end the call right now.
“Probably.” She closed the cardboard box and headed for the coffee station. “But I’m hoping he’ll agree to talk in exchange for a Boston cream. I plan to discuss our future. Together.”
“No, Lucia,” her sister said. “You can’t keep seeing him.”
She set the doughnuts on the counter with more force than she’d intended as she reached for a paper cup. “You can stop worrying. And let go of this sudden interest in my life. You don’t know me. Believe me. Until this weekend, I barely knew myself.”
“And sex with this virtual stranger changed everything?” Natalie snapped.
“Yes, it did. With Cade, I feel beautiful and alive. And I think he feels something for me, too.”
“What happens when he ships out for months on end to God knows where?”
“I wait.” Lucia reached for the creamer and filled her cup to the brim. “I’ve endured a lot worse.”
“If you want my advice,” Natalie said, “you should get the next flight to Tennessee and forget you ever met him.”
“Look, I know you’re trying to be a good big sister. And I realize I shut you out in the past, but I know what I’m doing.” She picked up the box in one hand.
“He’s going to break your heart.”
“You don’t know that.” She reached for the coffee. She and Cade would have to settle for sharing one cup. She couldn’t manage two.