Before I could get the words out her lips were on mine as her arms locked around my neck and she pressed herself into me. A moan escaped the both of us as our tongues met. My hands left the piano to grip her waist as she shifted on top of me.
“You don’t need the strength the stop,” she whispered as she pulled back from me. Her hands fell from my face and began to undo the belt and buttons of her coat. When it opened, she was wearing nothing but…an oversized deep V-neck shirt
“You came over like this?” I said softly staring at the mounds of her breasts.
She placed her forehead on mine. “I watched you die. I felt you die…us die. I was so scared, Malachi. I didn’t think. I just had to come to you. I had to see…to feel that you were still here. So let me feel you.”
It was all she needed to say. I gave in and covered her lips with mine again. Rising from the bench, I gripped her thighs as her coat fell to the floor and I walked us through the parlor, not caring that I that bumped into the corner table and lamp on the way towards the bedroom. Never had a few feet felt so far away. Laying her on the bed I took off my shirt just as quickly as she took off her bra, and before she could drop it to the side I was kissing her skin. I pushed her back down onto the sheets as I trailed my lips from her neck to the space between her breasts.
She grabbed my hair as her body arched upwards.
“Mal…Malachi…” She moaned out.
My name on her lips, my lips on her skin. For this moment alone I was grateful, no matter what the future held.
18. WHAT LOVERS DO
ESTHER
My head rested on his abs as he sat up against the headboard of the bed. The smell of sex lingered in the air around us as we laid there, naked and breathing it in. My body was aching in the best way…in ways I didn’t realize it could. How many times had we made love? Made love. I’d always laughed to myself about that phrase. Making love. It seemed so archaic, a term that only seemed to exist in between the pages of romance novels. And yet, the way he’d kissed me and held me and touched me—gentle the first time, rougher the second, and downright pornographic the third—yet all still passionate. Each thrust was a confession that gave me chills all over. It was like he knew exactly what my body needed and when it needed it…
Was it because he’d been my lover so many times before?
Wait, were we actually lovers?
Holding on to the sheets I turned to look up at him but his eyes were closed. As I moved to roll over he put his arm around me. His eyes opened and I couldn’t help but notice how long his eyelashes were.
“What is it?” he asked softly.
The gentle look in his eyes, the sound of his voice, on top of the fact that the only thing blocking him from seeing me completely naked again was a thin sheet made me lose my nerve.
“Nothing.”
“Okay,” he nodded and closed his eyes again but he didn’t move his arm which rested right under my breast.
“Okay? You gave up easily,” I joked.
He nodded and without opening his eyes he said, “When you’re ready to ask I’m sure you will. Until then I’ll just wait and try not to be tempted by you.”
I put my hand on my face, I wanted to laugh, not because he was funny, but because I felt so giddy, like I was a teenage girl or something. Biting the inside of my cheek, I ignored the second part of his statement.
“I don’t know where we go from here,” I said to him and he didn’t reply so I kept talking. “I feel all lovey-dovey and it’s weird because I’ve never felt like this before. But I know that’s not true. Apparently we’ve done all of this before and that’s insane to me. All of this…is just…not only did I find out you’re …you and I’m…me and we’ve like…I just said ‘like’ unnecessarily because I’m rambling and I’m just going to think before I speak again.” I put my hands back on my face.
He snickered and then just laughed. His whole body started shaking which in turn made me shake as well.
“Shut up.” I frowned at him.
“Sorry.” He laughed again, looking down at me. “You’re cute.”
“I fell from tempting to cute?”
He sat up and brushed my curls off my face. “You haven’t fallen. You’re tempting when you’re cute too.”
I held on to his wrist as his thumb stroked my face. “Stop with all the romantic talk.”
“I’m being honest; I didn’t realize it was romantic.” He spoke a little softer now. “Would you like me to stop being honest?”
“Would you do whatever I asked?”