He didn’t wait even a minute before stripping off the rest of my clothes. And then his. I watched the muscles flex in his arms and in his chest as he crawled on top of me. He was so damn gorgeous to me, every muscle, every line, every curve in his sculpted, tanned body. His mouth hungry for mine, searching my breasts and my neck and the underside of my chin until he found my lips and kissed me ravenously. I speared my hands through his wavy, chin-length dark hair, and when I reached down and took his hard length into my hand he moaned against my mouth.

“I want you inside me, Elias,” I said breathily against his mouth. “I’ve wanted this for so goddamn long.” This time it felt real. It felt right. It felt the way it should have felt our first time. And I wanted to savor it as if it were.

His powerful hips rocked against mine before he reached down with me, and his strong fingers splayed around my hand as it held his cock firmly. He guided my hand, and I gasped and threw my head back against the pillow as I felt the head of his cock enter me. My eyelids fluttered and fell helplessly over my eyes. My lips parted and a sharp gasp escaped as he slid the rest of his length slowly into my wetness. I moaned with pleasure.

“I’ve missed you so much,” he whispered hotly against my lips, and then slipped his tongue into my mouth, his hips thrusting relentlessly against mine. “I never want you to leave me again.” He bit down on my bottom lip.

I wanted to cry hearing his words. And deep inside myself, I did. But they were tears of bliss. I wrapped my legs around his waist and pushed myself farther toward him, wanting him deeper.

“I’ll never leave you again,” I said, as those tears deep inside began to seep from the corners of my eyes.

I could hardly catch my breath.

“Promise me,” he said, thrusting harder.

I looked up into his eyes and saw that they were as tearful as mine; the intensity in his face much greater. I knew in that moment that if I ever left him again, it would kill him. It would kill me.

“I promise. I’ll never leave you.”

“Swear it on your life,” he said and rammed his cock into me so hard it took away what little breath I had left. My thighs trembled. My stomach flip-flopped with pleasure and excitement. Elias stared down into my eyes.

“I fucking swear on my life,” I said and meant every word. “I’ll never leave you again.”

His lips devoured mine and he fucked me harder than I had ever been fucked, until my fingers hurt from digging into the wooden headboard behind me and my legs were so weak I could hardly lift them. And when he came, he came hard on my stomach, his entire body trembling. I wrapped my arms around him, kissing the sweat from his temples and from his lips.

He rested only a few minutes before he was hard again, and then he made love to me slowly until I came.

We stayed in bed all day, tangled in the sheets, our arms and legs entwined. For a long time we didn’t speak. We just stared up at the ceiling, his fingers combing through my hair, my head resting against his warm, hard chest.

“You promised,” he whispered.

I raised my head and looked at him. “I did,” I said and leaned over to kiss his lips.

He kissed me in return, but a worried look lingered in his eyes.

“I’m not going anywhere,” I assured him. “I’ve lived for far too long away from you, Elias. I just wish that I had figured it out sooner.”

His eyes smiled faintly and he moved a piece of hair away from my face with the tip of his finger.

“I’m glad you kicked me in the hip that night,” he said and kissed my nose.

“Well, if you hadn’t have called me ugly, I probably wouldn’t have.”

Elias smiled and pulled me back down, laying my head against his chest again.

“You’ve always been beautiful to me,” he said, and then I felt his lips press against the top of my hair.

I was in heaven.

We were in heaven.

Chapter Six

Elias

It took us seventeen years to truly find each other. But now that we were together, neither of us was letting go.

The first two weeks of our newfound relationship was as I had always imagined it. We went everywhere together. I introduced her as my girlfriend to my new friends and she introduced us as a couple to our old friends. And it didn’t seem to bother Bray when we’d run into an old girlfriend of mine—or a one-night stand. It didn’t bother her much anyway. Bray took it all in stride.

“Elias Kline,” Jana said, coming up behind me as I sat in a booth at the Denny’s restaurant one day. Her blonde hair was pulled into a ponytail, and her eyes were painted with heavy, dark makeup that made her look somewhat like a raccoon to me.

“Hey, Jana,” I said, setting my fork down. I looked at Bray and then back up at Jana, hovering beside our table, and said, “This is my girlfriend, Bray. Bray, this is Jana.”

“Nice to meet you,” Bray said with a smile at first I couldn’t be sure was genuine or just for show.

Jana’s darkly lined eyes skirted Bray, and I noticed their smiles seemed to match. I wondered if Bray could tell right off that I had slept with this girl before.

“Girlfriend, huh?” Jana said.

“Yes.” Bray straightened her back and stretched her arms across the table in front of her. “And you are?” she said with a smirk.

OK, their matching smiles were definitely just for show. Suddenly I felt like a bear cub dangling between mother bear and an intruder.

“I’m just a friend of Elias and Mitchell,” Jana said, and I felt a little relieved that was all she said. “There’s a party goin’ on Friday night on the river. Everybody’ll be there. You two should come.”

Bray looked over at me and relaxed her back against the cushioned booth seat again. She pursed her lips contemplatively.

“You want to go?” she asked me.

It felt like a dangerously loaded question that I wasn’t sure I should answer, but Bray really seemed interested.

“Oh come on,” Jana said, propping a hand on her hip. “We plan to spend the weekend out there. Bring a tent. Oh and it’s BYOB. Allan will be there, too, so you know what that means.” She glanced at me once, and Bray definitely noticed.

“We’ll be there,” Bray announced.

I just stayed quiet. Seemed like Bray had this secret duel going on with Jana and could handle herself. Besides, it felt safer to just stay quiet.

Women really do scare the shit out of me sometimes.

Jana smiled with teeth showing, and I briefly thought about my dick being in her mouth not long ago. I flinched inwardly as if Bray could read my mind or something.

“Awesome! I’ll see you then.” Jana smirked at me as she left our table.

“You definitely fucked her,” Bray said and took a bite of her mashed potatoes.

I felt my face stiffen.

She wasn’t angry or jealous, but she wasn’t going to hold back, either. This was Bray, after all, and I’d be worried if she didn’t say exactly what was on her mind.

I let out a small breath of laughter and picked my fork back up. “Yeah, though that’s all it was.”

“I know,” she said, smiled at me, and washed her food down with a drink of tea.

“How would you know that?” I was truly baffled, but didn’t doubt her for a second.

“Because that one was oozing fuck-me,” she said and took another small bite. She added with her mouth full, pointing her fork at me, “Nothing wrong with that if that’s what she wants to do. As long as she keeps her lips off you, we have no issue.”

“I think we’re good,” I said. “She’s kind of into Mitchell now, though I think it has more to do with him supplying her with drugs than with sex.”

Bray cocked an eyebrow. “Mitchell’s selling drugs?”

“Well, not exactly,” I said, lowering my voice because of the topic. “He started doing meth about a month ago. The two of them have been spending a lot of time together since…” I hesitated because I didn’t exactly want to bring up the fact that I’d slept with Jana the same day Bray came home. “Well, it’s been about two weeks now.”

“Why is this my first time seeing her?”

Bray was living with me in my apartment now. It took her five days to even let her family know she was back in Georgia. But that didn’t surprise me. I would never say it to Bray, but I knew her parents wouldn’t jump at the opportunity to bring her home to them.

“I kind of asked Mitchell to meet up with her somewhere other than my place.”

“Because of me?” Bray smiled knowingly.

“Yeah,” I admitted.

“Well, don’t worry about it,” she said, moving her hand underneath the table and rubbing it across my thigh. “I’m not going to freak out on you over old girlfriends or whatever. I never expected you to be celibate.”

Was this her way of clearing a path for me before I found out who she had slept with since we had been apart? In a way it felt like that, but at the same time, I knew she was being sincere about it, too. I can’t deny that I started wondering heavily about her sex life in that moment. Not that it would ever have made me love her less, but I still wanted to know.

“Who is Allan?” she asked.

Instinctively, I looked up and all around me to make sure no one was listening.

“He’s the drug dealer,” I whispered.

“Oh…” Bray looked at me warily. “And you know him how?”

“Everybody knows him,” I said. “But don’t get the wrong idea. I’ve only met him a few times.”

“Met as in bought from?” She grinned.