4

“I’ve missed you.”

He was here.

With me.

That was the only thing I wanted.

“I can’t stop thinking about you,” he added.

That made me shiver.

Even harder.

I felt movement, and the blanket shifted. Then, suddenly, he was on top of me.

His smell.

His touch.

His presence.

I loved all of it.

While I stayed on my stomach, his mouth traveled down my back, peppering my spine with kisses. It forced my lips to spread almost as wide as my legs.

“You’re so fucking beautiful, Alix.”

Oh God.

My arm shot out from under the pillow, and it feathered down the front of me until two of my fingertips were pressed against my clit. “I want you,” I moaned.

My hips shifted higher to give him more access, his tip easily finding my wetness.

He growled in my ear, and then I heard, “You’re going to get all of me.”

I swallowed.

And then I gasped as his long thickness thrust deep inside me.

It was perfection.

So was the sensation that consumed my entire body, the tingles that spread to each of my limbs.

Emotion burned my chest.

And, with each stroke, my pussy pulsed even more.

“I love you,” I breathed.

It was true.

I loved him more than anything in this entire world.

He knew that.

I constantly told him.

“I love you, too, Alix.”

He always made his feelings extremely clear, and they were as strong as mine.

The prickling in my navel moved higher, the pulsing in my clit began to really throb.

My hair was pulled, and my face came out of the pillow; warm air surrounded it, and I felt his kisses on my neck and along my shoulder and all the way up my cheek.

It wasn’t just the intimacy I craved.

It was the affection, too.

And the build.

I was there.

So close.

I tilted my hips up, rocking them back and forth as the orgasm began to burst through me. “Dylan!” I shouted.

“Come for me.”

His demand was so incredibly sexy.

And it was what I needed to take me over that final edge.

While I moaned his name, his strokes turned even deeper and harder than before, and then he switched to short plunges until everything inside me and around me went completely still.

“Your pussy will always be mine,” I heard him say before he slid out.

My hair was released, my face slowly pressed into the pillow.

“Yours,” I uttered so softly.

His warmth moved across my back once again before the blanket was tucked over me, and I heard, “Good night, Alix,” spoken in his low, growly voice.

I felt his hand surround mine.

My eyes remained shut.

I took a breath.

And I whispered, “I’m so happy you came home tonight,” before I fell asleep.

 

  

Light from the open blinds trickled into the bedroom, shining directly on my face, waking me from the deepest of sleep. As my eyes opened, the sun burned my lids, so I quickly shielded them with the back of my hand.

I was still on my stomach.

I’d slept all night in the same position.

Rotating to my back, I gradually let in more of the light until I could keep both eyes open.

The first thing I saw was the empty spot beside me on the bed.

A coldness slipped inside my body.

I lifted the blanket, pulled it over my head, and tucked myself in a ball.

I hugged two pillows against my chest.

I squeezed them with all my strength.

My face dropped into the top of one.

My mouth opened.

I filled my lungs.

My jaw widened as far as it would go.

My eyes squinted shut.

And then I screamed.

This one didn’t have any sound.

This one was silent.

Still, my body shook as it all came out of me.

And it continued until there wasn’t any air left.

That was when I stilled.

When I shut my mouth.

When I waited for something to happen.

When I waited to feel different.

But nothing happened.

Nothing felt different.

So, I peeked out of the comforter to reach the tablet, hitting the button that would close the blinds. Once they were drawn, I wrapped the blanket over the top of my head.

I was in complete darkness.

That was where I belonged.

And that was where I stayed.

Four

Alix

Present Day

Unknown: Hey, it’s Peter. I work with Rose. Hopefully, she told you I’d be reaching out.

Me: Hi, Peter. Yes, she told me.

Peter: Are you free this weekend? Maybe we could do dinner or something?

Me: Yeah, that works.

Peter: How about Madison’s? Saturday at 8:00?

Me: I’ll see you there.

Five

Dylan

Three Years and One Month Ago

She’d called.

It had taken her three weeks and two days, but at last, she’d finally reached out.

It’d happened just as I was stepping out of a meeting with a company that was trying to sell me leather. It would be used to reupholster the seats and couches for my entire fleet of planes.

All forty-three of them.

I was a few paces past the conference room on the way to my office when my cell rang. The screen showed a number that began with Maine’s only area code.

I shut my door, held the phone to my ear, and said, “Dylan Cole.”

“So, that’s your name.”

I smiled as I walked to my desk.

I received over fifty calls a day.

But, before I’d answered, something had told me it was her—a woman whose name I still didn’t know.

“Now that you know mine, what’s yours?”

“Alix Rayne.”

Alix.

I liked the sound of that.

I also liked how sexy her voice was on the phone.

“You don’t do anything on a whim, do you, Alix?”