Come Together (The Cityscape 3)

His eyebrows knit. “Since when do you like tattoos?”

I laughed. “I don’t.”

The look on his face betrayed his skepticism. “What does ‘ten times’ mean?”

I loosened my shoulders when I saw that he was beginning to thaw. “I told him my boyfriend is ten times the man he is.”

He looked me up and down. “Ten times, huh? Did you use a ruler to figure that out?”

I blushed and glanced at the ground. “I didn’t have to. You’re ten times any man I’ve ever been with.” When I looked back he was grinning foolishly. I arched an eyebrow at him. “Like you don’t know that you have a huge cock.”

He laughed his surprise and then leaned into me, taking my entire jaw in one big hand. “What a dirty mouth you have, Miss Germaine.” Finally, he kissed me. “I might have to spank you for that one.”

I wriggled, smiled and wrapped my arms around him.

He let go of my face and hugged me back. “You look beautiful, baby. Too beautiful to be out without me.” He ran his hand over my hair. “You’re cold.”

“I’m getting warmer, sexy.”

He laughed. “Feisty tonight?”

“Very. You never answered my question. What are you doing here?”

“I wanted to surprise you, so Brian told me where you guys would be. What he didn’t tell me was that you already had a date.”

I laughed. “He had no idea, but he was keeping an eye on Jordan. You have a good friend there.”

“Speaking of, you say that Greg orchestrated this?”

I nodded as my smile fell. “I understand if you’re pissed. I am.”

“Damn right I’m pissed, and I’ll tell him next chance I get. I don’t like that shit.”

“All right. Come on, and help me finish my dinner.”

“I’m not sitting next to that tattooed asshole.”

“Don’t whine,” I said, taking his hand and leading him back inside. They were already settling the bill so David took my seat, and I perched on his knee. I told him I was full, and he made short work of cleaning my plate.

“I’m going to take off,” Jordan said a few minutes later. “Got plans tonight.”

I wasn’t surprised, as David was literally using his large body to block Jordan off from the rest of the table.

“Bye,” I said. Even though he’d irritated me, he was harmless and he was still my friend. I tried to get up and hug him good-bye, but David’s arm tightened around my waist, securing me to his knee.

Jordan stood awkwardly for a moment. “Okay, then. Have a good weekend, guys.”

“Ready to rip, Bri?” David asked, ignoring Jordan as he waited a moment and then left.

“I don’t know, man, looks a little bleak out there. We’ll give it a go though. Greg?”

“I might just hang back with the girls.” He looked over at David. “I had a two-hour phone call with planning and zoning officials today. Feeling like a zombie.”

David didn’t respond, just rubbed my knee absentmindedly.

“Sounds brutal,” Brian said when David’s lack of response became uncomfortable.

“Maybe we want to go surfing,” I quipped.

“Do you, baby? I’ll take you,” David decided before I could respond. “Brian and I are going to hit the line-up pretty early, but mid-morning should be good for beginners.”

“How ‘bout you?” Brian asked.

“I’m in,” Gretchen exclaimed and then reddened when she realized he was talking to his date. Kat only shook her head.

“We’d better get some rest then,” David said to me.

I clasped the hand moving on my leg and whispered back to him, “Don’t count on it.”

We fell into couples on the walk back to the house. “I know I said it already, but I missed you,” I told David.

“Me too.” He rubbed his thumb over my knuckles. “Baffling how we went all those months away from each other.”

I snuck my arm across his lower back. “You must be tired,” I murmured, snuggling into him.

“Yes, and I didn’t even get everything done.”

“I’m sorry,” I said, because it sounded like an admonishment.

“I’m not,” he said softly and stopped walking. I looked up at him expectantly as we stood. “Everything is better when I can look into your eyes. That’s what I realized being away from you.” He lifted his hand and ran his thumb over my cheek. “They’re the most beautiful shade of green. They’re the first reason I fell in love with you.”

Warmth spread through my body, and I wrapped my arms tighter around his waist. David could be so rough with me sometimes, so angry. In the beginning, I never would’ve believed he could also be so endlessly romantic. “What did you see that first night at the theater?” I whispered.

“Hmm?”

“At the ballet when our eyes met. I never understood what it was you saw in me.”

“I just saw you. Clear. Raw. I felt like I was witnessing something I shouldn’t be. I’ve often wondered what you were thinking in that moment that you would let me see inside you like that. Ironic, because for months after, you tried admirably to shut me out like everyone else.”

I closed my eyes and smiled as I remembered the night that changed everything. “I was with Bill, Lucy, Andrew and Gretchen. The girls left for the bathroom, and the guys went to get us drinks. The performance was so beautiful, wasn’t it? I remember thinking how much I loved it, and how I wished life were that perfect and flawless.” I sighed. “I didn’t know that it’s not supposed to be that way,” I said, my voice hitching. “That life can be messy and still be beautiful.” His hand raked through my hair soothingly. “So it was just me in a crowd. I was thinking about how even in a room full of people, I could still feel so alone. That’s the last thought I remember before I saw you.”

“You let me in before you could stop yourself,” he murmured. He pressed his lips to mine, and my body reacted instantly, melting into him. “I hate to think what would’ve happened to you if we hadn’t found each other.”

“I had a good life, David. I never would’ve known anything else.”

“I can’t think of anything worse than nobody loving you as much as I do.”

My heart throbbed painfully with his words. I didn’t know what I’d done to deserve him, to deserve words like those from his mouth, but I promised to be good every day of my life to keep him.

He took my hand again, and we continued walking. When we arrived, he left to grab his bag from where he’d left it on the back porch. Though the rest of our group had already cracked open a round of beers and were hanging in the kitchen, David and I said goodnight and went upstairs.

In the hallway, he dropped his bag with a loud thud and embraced me, dipping me slightly for a kiss. My arms automatically went around his neck. I was happy to see, and feel, that despite his fear of hurting me during sex, his desire hadn’t waned in the slightest. But I had yet to see if he would still be able to let go with me.

With a low moan, he deepened the kiss while fumbling with the door to our room. I heard him kick his bag in without slowing the pace of our kiss. He backed me into the room and into the nearest wall before slamming the door shut with his foot. “I need you,” he growled between breaths. “It’s been too many days.”

“I tried to tell you,” I whispered back.

His lips devoured mine greedily as he pulled me away from the wall and closer to his body. He tugged the hem of my dress up around my waist as my hands plunged into his hair. His fingers hooked into my thong, and it dropped around my boots. I kicked it away, and his hands slid under my ass. He pried my cheeks apart while pulling me against him, inspiring a feverish heat between my legs.

His fingers found me wet, and I shivered against him when they massaged me. He slid two in and out slowly from behind, pulling out every few seconds to reach deeper and fondle my clit.

I writhed against him as his other hand wrapped around my shoulders and under my hair to

hold me still.

“I want to be buried deep inside you where I belong,” he said into my mouth.

He fingers continued to leisurely probe into me as I hastily undid his pants. My impatient hands found him impossibly hard, and he sucked in a breath. I stepped back to tug his pants and underwear down, and when he squeezed me back to him, his erection dug into my stomach.

His fingers withdrew, and I hopped up suddenly so he had to catch me. He smiled into my mouth right before we effortlessly came together. We were frozen as we adjusted to each other, exchanging charged breaths. My arms and legs wrapped tighter around him, and I moaned from the way he completely possessed me. His hand ran up my back and gathered my hair before pulling lightly. I drew back from his mouth to look at him.

He didn’t say anything, just looked into my eyes as we stood, immobilized by the overwhelming connection. There were no words so we remained that way, breathing and kissing and feeling each other. We were so lost in each other that once we started to move, it didn’t take long before we were both climaxing. I held onto him as my orgasm swelled through me like my love for him: steadily, no end, no beginning. He rested my back against the wall right before he came with shuddering intensity, pulling my hair gently and groaning against my neck.

Later, I fell asleep with him hugging me so tightly, he was almost crushing me. I didn’t ever want it any other way.