The Loner's Lady

My feet don’t want to move when we climb out of the Uber and enter our building, but I put a smile on my face and follow Mason into the elevator, overnight bag in hand. My expression even looks brittle when I glimpse it reflected back in the stainless steel walls, so I give up altogether and stop smiling.

“Hey, are you all right?” Mason asks.

I press my lips together. “I-I think I just need some time.”

A lot of it.

“Some time for what?”

To get over your father.

Is such a thing even possible?

We were connected from the moment we met. We both felt it.

No one is ever going to make me feel like John.

“Nothing,” I croak, grateful when the elevator doors open. I lunge into the hallway, blinking to erase the moisture in my eyes before Mason sees it. “So, um…” My voice wobbles and breaks. “What kind of t-takeout are w-we getting—”

The apartment door across from ours opens, surprising me into silence.

Ducking beneath the doorframe and stepping out into the hall is John.

My John.

He’s in a dirty white T-shirt and faded black jeans, hair wild around his face and shoulders. He crosses his arms, stretching the shirt material to the point of nearly ripping, and oh-so-casually leans back against the doorframe.

His eyes are anything but casual. They eat me alive and I burn under their regard, coming alive after two days in the cold.

“I suppose you can order takeout if you want,” he says gruffly. “But I’d rather you come inside and let me feed you some stew.”

“Hard pass,” Mason laughs. “But I’m willing to bet my best friend here will take you up on that offer.”

“What are you…” Lamely, I point to the apartment he walked out of. “What are you doing in there?”

“Signed the lease yesterday. I’m your new neighbor.”

“What?” My jaw is on the floor. “But you hate New York!”

“Not nearly as much as I love you, Lyssa.”

A sob escapes my mouth, but I hesitate to throw myself into John’s arms like my body is begging me to do. I turn to Mason. “You knew about this?”

“Of course I did.” He grins and ruffles my hair. “Lyssa, you didn’t betray me. Once I saw how you reacted to John, I was scheming to get you and him together. There was never an econ paper. I just wanted to see you both happy—and I should have been upfront about it. Would have saved my father two days of misery.”

I turn my attention back to John and devour every detail of him, down to the salt and pepper in his five o’clock shadow to the bags under his eyes. “I’ve been miserable, too.” Finally, I take a running leap into his open arms, wrapping my legs around his hips and burying my face in his neck. “I love you. I missed you so bad.”

His arms close around me and I feel safer than I ever have in my whole life. Safe and turned on, because his erection is already wedging between us, demanding attention. I can’t help but shift against it and John growls deep in his throat.

“I think that’s my cue to leave,” Mason says dryly, vanishing into our apartment, the door closing behind him.

John backs the opposite direction into what is apparently his new digs, taking my clinging form with him. “You really moved to New York for me? And was that you in Brooklyn tonight? Did you grab the man who was following me? And—”

“Shhh, sweetness, we have forever. I’m not going anywhere,” John says against my mouth, his muscular form flattening mine on the door and leaving my feet dangling a yard off the ground. “And of course it was me. I spent the last two days canvasing tattoo shops in Brooklyn until I found someone who gave a man a Tweety Bird neck tattoo…when I wasn’t checking on you, of course.”

His mouth takes mine in a searing kiss and I almost lose my train of thought. “I knew I sensed you around. I knew it.”

John’s hips thrust up between my thighs and we moan in unison. “I couldn’t believe you walked by right as I was getting ready to move on him. He paid extra hard for following you again, Lyssa.” His brown eyes glitter momentarily with malice. “It won’t ever happen again.”

“I know.” I bite my bottom lip. “You won’t let it.”

“You’re going to let me take care of you.”

I nod enthusiastically at his non-question while he licks a path up the side of my neck. “Didn’t someone live in this apartment before?”

“Yeah. He suddenly had to move.” John winks at me. “Pity.”

“You’re crazy,” I laugh.

“Only when something stands between you and me.”

Keeping me propped against the wall, John strokes a hand down over my right breast, lower until I hear him unzip his pants. I’m all but panting by the time his thick member bobs free and smacks against my belly. “I need you inside me,” I whine. “Please.”