“Some of the best romance movies are based on plots like that,” I pointed out. “But, in real life, some of the best romances full stop are based on situations like that.”
“They’re perfectly matched,” he agreed, sifting his fingers through my hair. “I don’t believe in puzzle pieces.” I tensed, wondering where he was going with this. “When I saw you, it hit me like a punch to the chest and gut, like when thunder strikes really close to you, and you can feel it like it’s hitting you.”
I’d been in that situation a couple of times, so I knew what he meant by it. I just didn’t know what he was saying.
“Is that a bad or a good thing?”
My mind immediately went to when we’d taken a trip to Malaysia to see Mom’s uncle and cousins, and we’d gotten stuck outside during the monsoon. The lightning was so fierce and looked like it was closer to the ground than we got here, and the thunder… holy shit, there was nothing like it.
“You know that when I saw you again, Thunderstruck was playing on the radio in my truck. It was the first day I’d been able to even turn it on without feeling like I was being kicked in the nuts whenever a commercial played. Hearing the jingles and wondering if you’d written them. Then that song came on, and there you were.”
I already knew some of this, but the surrounding details were beginning to give me a better idea of how much this meant to him and what exactly him being thunderstruck meant.
“Well, you already knew I was trying to stalk you on social media.” I winked and blew him a kiss. “Thanks for adding me, by the way.”
He burst out laughing so hard, he fell to his back, giving me the chance to enjoy the hell out of how his muscles rippled as he continued laughing. Seeing him do it with his clothes on was awesome but seeing him laugh naked was a whole other world of beauty for me.
While I waited for him to settle, I traced over the lines and bumps on his stomach with the tip of my index finger.
Finally, he was able to talk again. “You’re welcome. I also tagged you as my relationship status.”
“You did?” How had I missed that?
“Yeah, Santana told me it was a feature on the app and then showed me how to do it. I had no clue that was even possible.”
“Do I have to do anything to confirm it?”
“Yeah, you’ve got to accept it, and then it links us together.”
As soon as he finished, I went to get up to find my phone, but he grabbed me around the waist and pulled me down on top of him. With one arm wrapped around me, holding me in place while I straddled him, he pushed the fingers on his other hand into my hair at the side of my head while his eyes searched my face.
Figuring now was the time to admit something, I whispered, “I’ve got a photo of the sky that I took when we were flying back from Italy once. It’s been pinned next to my piano or in my purse for almost a decade and has given me inspiration when I write.”
He smiled as he skimmed the pad of his thumb over my cheekbone. “I realized the color of the sky was the same blue as your eyes when I got back to LA after the Orlando disaster. That’s why it’s the background on my phone now. No matter where I am or what I’m doing, I’ll be able to see that blue and think of you, which sounds corny, but as someone whose job needs things that inspire her, it means a huge deal to me.”
His eyes were at half-mast with this information, and then he leaned up and gave me a lip touch before slowly lowering himself back onto the mattress. “Thank you for making me thunderstruck, baby.”
I felt my throat closing slightly as the tears stung my sinuses, but I breathed through it, not wanting to turn this into a crazy and dramatic moment.
“Thank you for being my inspiration,” I whispered, lowering my face onto his chest and finding my new favorite place in the world.
No, we might not have had sex again that night, but I had to think we jumped ten steps up the relationship ladder with the revelations from both of us.
I don’t think either of us was ready to even consider being in love with each other, but that didn’t matter. Our admissions showed what we had ran soul-deep, and that was huge.
Chapter Ten
Marcus
The morning after we’d had sex for the first time, I woke up to the feeling of wet heat encompassing the tip of my dick. As someone who took time to wake up properly and for my brain to get back online, it was a confusing sensation and experience until I looked down and saw the lump under the duvet and remembered Addy had spent the night.