Neighbor Dearest

“Why didn’t you contact me after that?”

“I’ve been so overwhelmed, just trying to process what I’m feeling. I wasn’t sure how to express it to you. I still really don’t know how to put it into words. So, I did what I know how to do best. I painted. I painted all damn day.”

“What did you paint?”

“Your room.”

“My room? How come you haven’t rented this apartment out? I assumed you’d done that a long time ago.”

“No. I couldn’t. This is your place. I think a part of me was always waiting for you to come back.”

Walking toward the room, I wanted to see what color he’d chosen for the space.

I stopped short and nearly fell over.

When he’d mentioned he painted my room, he didn’t mean a solid color. He’d used my wall as a canvas. He’d used our wall to create one of the most beautiful images I’d ever laid eyes on. Spray painted onto the smooth surface using a mixture of white and pastel paints, was a gigantic unicorn that looked like it was flying freely through the sky.

I covered my mouth. “Oh, my God. What did you do?”

“It’s you.”

“What?”

His mouth curved into a smile. “You’re my unicorn…”

I blinked repeatedly. “This is insane.”

He stepped toward me slowly. “Mythically beautiful. Unattainable. Remember what your therapist said? At the time, I thought it was ridiculous. But the more I think about it, the more it makes sense to me. You were a fantasy that I never thought would come true. That’s what you have always been to me. I didn’t get it then. But you’re my unicorn.” He placed his hands firmly around my cheeks. “You’re my fucking unicorn, Chelsea.”

“I am?”

“Yes. And there’s something else I need to tell you.” Goosebumps peppered my skin from the contact when he pulled me closer and placed his forehead on mine. “When I first woke up in that ambulance, for a split second, I didn’t know if I had died. They say your life flashes before your eyes, right? Well, you were the only thing that flashed before mine. Just you.”

He just kept looking into my eyes. For the first time, I could feel him surrendering to his feelings. You could literally feel the release emanating through his bones. I could feel it in the possessive way he was holding my face, in the way his hand was trembling ever so slightly. He was giving into the need within him—within us. He’d loosened the reins—no longer stopping the invisible pull. It had always been there and had only grown stronger.

“The way you look at me, Chelsea. No one has ever looked at me that way. When I was watching that video of you and him—the one I broke—you were giving him that same look. It killed me. That was the main reason I wanted to break it.”

“There’s no comparison, Damien.”

“You were never able to understand how he could do what he did to you, why things happened that way. I figured it out. You know why it didn’t work out with him?”

“Why?”

“Because God made you for me.”

Not even “I love you” could have topped those words.

“Then that explains it.” I smiled. My fingers raked through his already messy hair. “From the very beginning, even when you were pushing me away, I felt like I belonged to you.” Unable to wait a second longer to devour his lips, I reached up to kiss him. This time, I fully relished it, because I knew those lips were mine. His taste was all mine. He was mine. Finally.

He broke the kiss and spoke over my swollen lips, “You’re perfect for me, baby. I always knew that, never doubted it.”

Lifting me up, he wrapped my legs around his torso. He did it so effortlessly as if he’d done it a hundred times before. In his strong arms, I felt weightless. There was so much I wanted to say, but I was too worked up to speak. Things moved fast and furiously.

Grinding my clit against him as he kissed me, I swirled my tongue faster around his as he moaned into my mouth.

“You still on the pill?”

I nodded. “Yes.”

I didn’t bother to ask how he knew about my birth control situation. Damien just knew everything about me.

“You said you wanted to feel me inside of you. You mean that?”

“Yes.”

He unzipped his jeans and adjusted my body over him as he positioned the head of his shaft at my opening. I watched his eyes close in ecstasy as he sunk into me slowly. The girth of his cock was seriously a shock. He was so thick. My opening stretched to conform to him until he was fully inside of me.

“Oh…my…fuck…Chelsea. You’re so tight.” He filled me so completely as he moved in and out slowly. “You feel that?”

“Yes.”

He began to fuck me harder. “You feel me now?”