by Vi Keeland
Then I was standing in front of Emerie’s door, and it dawned on me for the first time that I had no idea what I was going to say. Two hours on the plane, and I hadn’t come up with an opening statement. Good thing I’m a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kind of guy when it comes to oral arguments.
I took a deep breath, steadied myself, and knocked.
When the door opened, I realized how completely unprepared I was.
Because it was Baldwin staring at me from inside.
Drew
“Where’s Emerie?”
“She’s getting dressed. We have a breakfast meeting at the college to attend this morning. Not that it’s any of your business.”
Professor Putz was still standing inside, and I was the one out in the hall. The symbolism ate at me. I brushed past him and went into Emerie’s apartment.
“Sure, come on in,” he mumbled, sarcastically.
I turned to face him, folding my hands across my chest. “Now leave.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“I need to speak to Emerie alone, so I would appreciate it if you would disappear.”
He shook his head. “No.”
My brows lifted. I didn’t think the peckerhead had it in him. If it were any other time, I might’ve been impressed with his tenacity. But right now, it just annoyed the shit out of me.
I took a step forward. “You can either leave on your own, or I’ll help you leave. Either way, you’re leaving. What’s it gonna be?”
Finding I wasn’t playing around, he took the smart route and opened the door. “Tell Emerie I’ll see her at school later.”
“Yeah. I’ll be sure to give her the message.” I gave the door a shove, slamming it closed on his heels.
Turning around, I found Emerie’s living room cluttered with office furniture. The place barely had enough room for a couch and chair before. Now it was also filled with a desk, office chairs, file cabinets, computer equipment, and everything else from her office.
The door to her bedroom creaked, and Emerie walked out, looking down as she scrolled through something on her phone.
“I pulled up the psychology department bios on the college’s website. Tell me again who we’re meeting? I’m so bad with names.”
My answer stopped her in her tracks. “It’s just me and you.”
Emerie’s head whipped up, and she blinked a few times as if she were imagining the man standing in her living room.
“Drew. What are you doing here?” She looked beyond me. “And where’s Baldwin?”
“Gone.”
“Gone where?”
I looked down at my feet for a minute, then caught her in my gaze. There was a crushing sensation in my chest as I found the same sadness that loomed inside of me behind her eyes.
My voice was low and hoarse. “Do you love him?”
She stared at me for long seconds, the wheels in her head turning. I held my breath the entire time. Finally, she shook her head.
Thank God.
That was all I needed to hear. Anything and everything else we could work out. I could make her forgive me, she could learn to trust me again, but I couldn’t make her not be in love with another man. She was still standing in her bedroom doorway, and suddenly there was way too much space between us. I stalked over to her, not giving a shit if it was a caveman move. The overwhelming urge to touch her outweighed any need for etiquette.
She didn’t move. With every step I took, my heartbeat grew faster. She still didn’t move when I reached out, cupped her face in my hands, and slowly brushed my lips against hers, testing the waters. Taking that as a green light, or at least not a bright red flashing one, I went back for more. Planting my lips over her mouth, soft went out the window, and I kissed her hard. She opened, moaning as I pulled her flush against me. The sound shot right to my dick, and the hard kiss quickly elevated to a frenzy. She smelled amazing, tasted as sweet as I remembered, and the feel of her body pressed to mine was better than I’d ever experienced.
God, I was such a fucking idiot. How could I have ever walked away from this?
The kiss went on for a long time. When it broke, it didn’t take long for her doubt and fear to creep back in—not to mention anger.
“You can’t just show up—”
My lips crashed down on hers, cutting her off. This time, she tried to fight me. She gave one weak shove to my chest, which only made me wrap my arms around her tighter. Eventually, her fight went limp, and she gave in again. When our kiss broke, I left my lips inches from hers as a reminder that I’d be on her in less than a heartbeat if she started again.
“Just give me a minute before you rip into me, okay?”
“Sixty seconds,” she said.
The corner of my lip twitched. God, I missed that mouth. And not just the feel of her soft lips and submissive tongue—I missed her sass. Brushing two fingers across her cheek, I gave it to her straight. My voice was raw as I laid it all at her feet.
“I love you.”
A hopeful smile rose on her beautiful face. But then she remembered. She remembered what I’d done to her the last few weeks, and her smile fell.
“You have a funny way of showing it. You love me, so you dumped me?”
“The judge didn’t change my visitation schedule with Beck, but he allowed Alexa to stay in Atlanta. I have to move.”
“I know all about it. Roman told me.”
“Roman?”
“Yes, Roman.”
“What the fuck?”
“Don’t you what the fuck me. At least Roman had the courtesy to fill me in on why you were acting like an asshole.”
“I was scared.”
“So was I. But I didn’t walk away.”
I looked down. “I know. I could give you a million excuses about why I did what I did, try to justify myself. But all those reasons lead back to one thing.” I paused and then spoke into her eyes. “I was afraid.”
“And now? Now you’re not afraid anymore?”
I shook my head. “I finally realized I was more afraid of losing you than I was of taking a chance and getting hurt. Guess you can say I grew a pair of balls.”
She softened. It looked like she wanted to believe me, but was skeptical. I couldn’t say I blamed her.
“How do I know they’re not going to shrivel up and disappear again?” Her voice cracked. “You really hurt me, Drew.”
“I’m so sorry. And I know right now my word isn’t worth much to you. But I swear to God, Em, if you give me another chance, I won’t fuck things up this time.”
Her eyes welled up. “You’ll be living in Atlanta, and I’ll be here every day—some days working at the college with Baldwin. How would it even work?”
“However you need it to work. We’ll take turns. One week you’ll come to Atlanta; one week I’ll come to New York. Or every other if that’s too much on you. And we’ll do a fuck of a lot of sexting and FaceTiming. I don’t have it all planned yet, but we’ll figure it out. It won’t be easy, but it’ll be worth it. I love you, Emerie. I’d go three hundred and sixty-four days thirsty if it meant I got to drink you in for just one.”
A tear slid down her cheek, and I caught it with my thumb. “Please tell me these are happy tears, Em.”
“I don’t think a long-distance relationship will work.”
“We’ll make it work. Please. Please give me another chance.”
She shook her head rapidly. “No.”
“But—” I attempted to change her mind, but this time she silenced me.
Emerie pressed her lips to mine.
The kiss was filled with so many crazy emotions that I could feel them pulsing through my veins and into our connection. When we finally broke, she was panting, and I was in a fucking panic. She’s saying goodbye.
“It won’t work long distance.”
“Em, we’ll make it work.”
“No. I’m going with you to Atlanta.”
“We’ll figure it—wait…what?” I stared at her,
incredulous. “Repeat that.”
“I said I’m going with you to Atlanta.”
“What about the job you applied for at the college? Your patients?”
“I’m a TA for the rest of this semester. I just interviewed for the guest adjunct position. They may not even hire me. The semester ends in three months. We’ll commute back and forth until then. With a little experience on my resume, maybe I’ll have an easier time finding a part-time adjunct job down there. And most of my clients are portable—they were doing video-counseling sessions before. Maybe I’ll even keep a few and come back and forth while you keep your clients here. You need to be near your son, and I want to get to know him, too. He’s part of you.”
“You’re serious? You almost gave me a heart attack saying long distance wasn’t going to work.”
She smiled. “Good. Serves you right after what you’ve put me through the last few weeks.”
Without warning, I lifted her into the air. She yelped, but the smile on her face told me she was happy. Her legs wrapped around my waist, arms wrapped around my neck, and I squeezed her so hard, I worried I might hurt her.
“God, I fucking love you.”
“You better.”
“I do.”
I took her mouth in another kiss and walked with her in my arms until I could find a clear surface to set her down on. That surface happened to be the kitchen counter, which also happened to be the perfect height. My dick was already hard, feeling her heat through my pants.
Somehow we managed to rip each other’s clothes off while keeping connected the entire time. I sucked beneath her earlobe, and my fingers explored the crack of her ass while she unbuckled my pants. When my pants fell to the ground, I slipped down my underwear, and my cock bobbed against my stomach.
Looking between us, I said, “We missed you.”
She laughed. “I missed you both, too.”
I needed to be inside her so bad. “The foreplay is going to be short, but I’ll make it up to you on the back end. It’ll be postplay instead.” I reached down and grabbed my cock, lowering it to half-mast so I could use it to rub her wetness all over her. She was slick and ready, and I was impatient as hell, so I pushed inside. Emerie looked down between us, watching my cock disappear inside of her as I slowly pushed in.
When I was fully seated, I lifted her chin. “Watching you watch me put my cock inside of you is the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen in my life.”
She smiled. “I’m glad, because I really liked watching it.”
I stroked her cheek with my thumb. “On second thought, this smile right here, this might be the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen in my life.”
I began to move, slowly at first, gliding in and out. Something was different about this time, like all the barriers between us had been removed, and I was finally free to love her.
I kissed her lips gently. “I love you.”
She searched my eyes. “I love you, too, Drew. I didn’t know it until I felt the real thing, but I’m not sure I was ever really in love before I met you.”
It felt like she’d given me a crown. In that moment, I was a fucking king. I wasn’t sure what I’d done to deserve her, but I was greedy enough not to care. She was mine to keep, and I planned on keeping her forever this time.
Even though it had been only a few weeks since the last time I was inside of her, that was way too long. I tried to go slow, but when she tightened her legs around me and her pussy clenched, fisting my cock, I knew I wasn’t going to last long. She liked it when I talked during sex, so I whispered everything I wanted to do to her in her ear—how I couldn’t wait to rub my face in her pussy, how I wanted to come all over her tits, and how later I was going to bend her over the counter she was sitting on and take her from behind, finishing all over ass cheeks that would be hot and red from my hand stinging them.
She moaned loudly, yelling my name and begging for me to go harder. I sped up my pace, and after I felt her body spasm all around me, I came long and hard inside of her. There was no way the neighbors didn’t hear our spectacular finish—and I certainly hoped one in particular had enjoyed hearing it.
After our breathing calmed, I wiped a stray hair from her cheek and looked into her sated blue eyes. “So, you’re really moving to Atlanta with me?
“I am.”
“I found a little house with a yard that’s available to rent. Maybe you can come see it, and we can decide if we want something bigger.”
“I’ve been living in this shoebox for six months—anything will seem bigger.”
“It’s got three bedrooms, a big bathtub, and the landlord told me I could repaint it if I want to.”
“Are you saying you’ll allow me to add color to your life?”
“I’m saying you already have. You’re the red in my black and white world.”
Emerie, One year later
“Did you get it?”
Roman reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out an envelope. “Right here.” He shook his head. “Still can’t believe you pulled this shit off.”
I spotted Drew coming down the hall. “Put it away. Here he comes.”
Roman slipped the envelope back into his pocket and pulled out a flask instead. Twisting off the cap, he offered it to me. “Swig?”
“No, thanks.”
Drew walked in as Roman put the beat-up, old metal flask to his lips. “You still carry that thing around with you?”
“Never know when you’ll need a shot of Hennessy, my friend.”
I was surprised Drew hadn’t started doing shots after the last few days. I’d pretty much driven him crazy getting ready for tonight. My parents would be arriving in the next few minutes, and a half dozen of Beck’s friends were coming, too. Even though we’d lived in Atlanta for nearly a year now, it was really the first time we’d be having company. Well, except for Roman—who didn’t count as a guest. He was always family to Drew, and over the last year, he’d become my family, too. He was the annoying brother I’d always wanted.
Sometimes when he’d visit, I’d find him on the couch playing video games with Drew at two in the morning. Other times, he’d make Drew miss his flight when he had business in New York because he’d dragged him out on a stakeout. But all the time, he was there for us. Most people got scars from the chicken pox. Drew got a treasured friend for life. Somehow that made sense with those two.
Beck came barreling in from the yard. His clothes were drenched, and brown water dripped from his little head. “I watered the garden!”
“Ummm…did you water the garden, or did the garden water you?” I pointed to the bathroom. “Go take a bath before everyone gets here.”
“Can I just go in the pool naked?” He jumped up and down, holding his hands in the praying position.
“No, you can’t go in the pool naked. The neighbors will see you.”
Beck pouted and slumped his shoulders before turning to drag his feet en route to the bathroom.
“Roman and I are going to pick up beer,” Drew announced. “Need anything while I’m out? Pick up the cake you ordered?”
“My parents are swinging by the bakery on their way here. It’s a tradition that they pay for the cake. Don’t ask,” I lied.
Drew kissed me on the cheek. “Whatever you want.” Then he whispered. “By the way, you didn’t seem to mind if the neighbors saw you when you were naked in the pool the other night.”
I suppose he had a point. Although in my defense, we’d just had Beck for three weeks while his mother was on her honeymoon in Bali, I’d had a glass of wine, and Drew had just come back from the gym so his muscles were particularly bulgy. Plus, it was dark out, and hell—have I mentioned that his muscles were particularly bulgy?
Ten minutes later, I’d just finished prepping the melon ball salad when the doorbell rang.
My smiling parents greeted me with arms in the air. “Happy Gotcha Day!”
After coming inside to go to the bathroom, I stood watching the party in the yard f
rom the kitchen window for a few minutes. Everything was going great. My parents were talking to Drew’s new law partner and his wife, Roman was flirting with the single mom of one of Beck’s best friends—I might have mentioned the other’s single status to each of them ahead of time—and Beck was climbing in the treehouse he and his father had spent four months building after we moved here.
And today was Gotcha Day. My parents were here, and this year was going to be even more special than ever.
From the yard, Drew caught me watching and excused himself from conversation with one of his new friends. He slipped into the house and came up behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist and joining me to gaze out the window.
“What are we looking at?”
“My life.”
“Yeah?” He turned me around and gave me a sweet kiss. “Now I’m looking at mine, too.”
My heart sighed. “I love it when you sweet-talk me.”
“Last night you loved it when I dirty-talked you.”
I wrapped my arms around his neck. “Maybe I just love you.”
“I am pretty awesome.”
Rolling my eyes, I laughed. “Egomaniac.”
Drew kissed me on the forehead. “Your parents are anxious to have cake. I think your mom has a sweet tooth.”
My parents had started bugging me about the cake the minute they walked in. Only not for the reason Drew thought. The sun had started to set, and it was probably an hour past the time I should have been serving cake—but I was stalling. A sudden case of nerves had hit me, after more than six months of anxiously waiting for this time to get here.
“I promised Beck he could help carry the cake. Why don’t you make a pot of coffee, and I’ll go grab him?”
I found Beck, and he raced to the house when I told him it was time. He smiled from ear to ear, and it brought back so many memories of the excitement of my first Gotcha Day.