been?” I bolt up from the sofa as she comes through the front door.
The second she sees me, she flings her purse on the marble floor and runs to me. I catch her in my arms as she almost knocks me flying. She feels even smaller in my embrace than usual. Like the past forty-eight hours have worn her down. Chipped away at her somehow.
“I went straight to Maria and Griffin’s when I got back, and they said I’d just missed you. That was half an hour ago, Angel. Where have you been?”
“I… I called Mom for a chat. I went out on the roof terrace for some air.” Her voice is muffled against my shirt.
“Okay.” I dip my face to her hair and inhale her familiar scent.
“How was your day?”
I kiss her hair, stroking her back as she stays glued to me. “It was productive. Stuart and I got a lot done… And Bea stopped by.”
Harley jolts back from me but only manages to create a small space between us because I’m holding her so firmly. Her eyes dart to my shirt collar and they widen before she looks at me.
“Did she kiss you?”
“What? Of course not. Why would you even think that?”
Her fingers brush my jaw, and my breath stills as I revel in her skin on mine after what feels like a lifetime.
“You have red lipstick on your collar.”
Harley’s fingertips trace a featherlight route down the side of my neck to my shirt. It takes all my strength not to groan out loud at how good the contact feels. If this were any other day, and I wasn’t so concerned over what’s going on in her head at this moment, then we would both be naked, and I would be claiming her body with my own by now.
My Angel. Me. Together in every sense of the word.
I swallow, heat stirring in my dick at the way Harley’s fingers have moved back to my jaw. Tiny strokes, one after the other, back and forth as she gazes into my eyes.
“She congratulated me on winning the election. And then she hugged me and said she had thought about me over the years since our relationship ended. It was weird.” My spine stiffens and I get the urge to crack my knuckles before Harley’s soft voice washes over me.
“Who can blame her? Especially when you wear these.”
Her breath is soft as her eyes roam over my glasses. I just watch her. Taking in her beauty, and the fact that she is content to just look at me, and me at her.
Nothing else matters when it’s just the two of us like this.
“I forgot to take them off before I left work. I was in too much of a hurry to come home.” I reach up with one hand to remove them, but Harley’s eyes constrict at the corners, and she shakes her head.
“Don’t… will you…will you keep them on a little longer? I like seeing you in them.” Her eyes soften and she brings her other hand to my jaw as well.
“I’d do anything for you, Angel,” I say, with a soft smile, expecting her to return it, or to say something.
She doesn’t.
Instead, she stands on her toes and crushes her lips against mine in a deep kiss that I feel in every fiber of my body. I hold her close as she sinks into me, kissing me like she has the saddest love song playing in her head. I screw my eyes up and cup her face in my hands, wanting whatever it is that’s upsetting her to leave her. If only I could kiss it away. Let my lips show her exactly what she means to me. Let them reassure her that she’s safe with me. That she can open up and tell me what’s going on.
Let me help her.
Because I know what it feels like to need help and not know how to ask for it.
We drop down onto the sofa and I pull her into my lap, our lips sealed together as I encourage her to wrap her legs either side of mine and straddle me. To think I never did this with her before. I avoided it, albeit subconsciously. But now? Now I couldn’t love it more. Holding her, seeing her above me. I love having her any way I can. But this is special. Her on top of me, controlling the pace, is for her and her alone. A new memory that completely eradicates even a trace of old, lingering ones.
Harley’s fixed the tiny broken part of me I didn’t know still existed. The tiny remnant of darkness that was still embedded in my soul. She’s done that. She shone her light on it.
Her.
“Harls… I…” I break our kiss and hold her eyes, the words held in my heart rushing to the tip of my tongue. The words that will tell her exactly what she means to me. How I feel about her. How much I adore her and never want to spend a day without her.
“Reed.” She presses a finger to my lips and her eyes shine as she draws in a shuddery breath. When she sees me exhale, she takes her finger away and slips her hand between us, pulling down my zipper. “Please, Reed. Don’t say anything. I need you to kiss me. Kiss me and make me… make me…” Her lip trembles.
“Hey… hey,” I soothe.
My heart twists in pain seeing her like this. This isn’t her. She’s bright and bubbly. A light to my dark. Anything less than a luminescent Harley is soul-shattering. Whatever this is, I need to fix it.
I wrap her face in my hands. “Whatever you need, Angel. Just tell me.”
“You, Reed. I just want you,” she says, her voice tiny, but weighed down with sadness.
“I want you, too. Always,” I promise her.
I drop my hand to hers and free my cock, then drag her panties to the side beneath her dress. She rises, then slides down onto me, gasping softly against my lips as I moan against hers and our bodies lock together. We kiss over and over until she pulls back to ride me.
I hold her hips and watch as her eyes flutter closed while she tilts her head back, savoring the way I’m filling her. I move one hand down and stroke her clit in deliberate circles, matching her pace.
She’s beautiful. She’s really fucking beautiful. And it’s not just because she has her warm, tight, silky little cunt wrapped around my cock.
It’s her.
It’s always been her.
She’s in her own world right now. Wrapped up in pleasure. The anguish in her voice gone as she sighs out my name and sinks down onto me. The tension in her shoulders, in her chest, gone, as she rotates her hips and grinds against my thumb.
And her eyes…
She opens them and I’m blasted with baby blue that has the power to reach down and caress my soul. They search mine, an unspoken confession held in them the second before she clenches around me.
“I know, Angel,” I whisper.
Then she comes, pulling my lips back to hers again as I spill inside her at the same time.
“Reed,” she cries, and I swear I taste salt in her kiss, but as our bodies slow, she drops her head against my shoulder, pressing it into the crook of my neck. “Just hold me like this. Hold me like this and pretend you never have to let go.” Her breath is warm against my neck, and her arms are tight around my neck. But her voice is tired, weary, and flat.
“I never will let go, Harls. I told you. You’re mine.”
I stroke her hair and press kisses to her forehead, losing track of how long we stay like this. Of how long we just hold each other without saying anything, our bodies still connected. I hold her until her breathing slows and the shaky breaths leave her body, replaced by slow, rhythmic ones.
“Harls?”
She doesn’t answer and I know she’s asleep.
“I’ve got you, Angel,” I whisper as I ease us apart and carry her to bed. She doesn’t even stir as I lay her down and take her dress off, so she’s just in her underwear.
I tuck her beneath the covers and climb in behind her, wrapping my arms around her and pulling her against me to keep her warm. Just like that first night. God, how much has changed? I used to think she hated me. Well, maybe not hated, but strongly disliked. I chuckle at the memory of how pissed she would look each time I stopped by to see Griffin. Like I was a major inconvenience. For someone so gentle-natured, she sure knew how to make her feelings known back then.
Now… now I’m the luckiest man on the planet.
I lift my head and watch her sleep. She’s peaceful like this. I only hope that peace stays with her when she wakes and that she can find it easy to let her feelings known again.
Because fuck, I need to know what’s going on in her head.
I need to know where my girl went.
“Reed?” A soft voice breaks into my dream, and I couldn’t be more relieved. It was more of a nightmare. Harley was in it. But she was with someone else. Another man with his arm around her. And when I tried to talk to her, she just walked right through me. Passed through like I was a ghost.
I blink my eyes open.
I’m lying on my back and it’s dark. Only a soft glow from the city’s lights from where I forgot to close the drapes provides a little light to the room.
“What’s wrong?” I pull her to my side and dust my lips over her forehead. It’s still the middle of the night. She was exhausted. Something must have caused her to wake.
“I need you to make love to me… Please.”
I tip my chin down so I can see her face. Her eyes are shining in the dim light. And her cheeks are glistening too.
Fuck. She’s been crying.
How can I have been asleep and missed her crying next to me? Guilt envelops me like a dark fog, making my voice hoarse as a lump sticks in my throat.
“You don’t need to ask, Angel.”
I roll on top of her and press my lips over hers, kissing her gently. Then I kiss her cheeks. I kiss away the warm, fresh tears. I kiss her eyelids to keep more from falling. And only when I’ve kissed every inch of her beautiful face more times than I can count, do I seal my lips over hers, and kiss them again.
Her hands slide to the nape of my neck, stroking my hair, her tongue searching out mine as I push inside her. She wraps her legs around my back and pulls me close, holding me.
“Whatever it is, Harls. We can deal with it together,” I whisper against her lips, catching the sob that’s threatening to leave them in another kiss. “Nothing is stronger than the way I feel about you, Angel. Nothing. You just need to talk to me.”
She tightens her grip on my hair and keeps kissing me.
“Just talk to me,” I plead gently as I slide inside her over and over. She moans against my lips and her body shudders beneath me. “Are you pregnant?” I kiss away another small sob as she clutches me hard. “Because if you are, you don’t need to worry. I couldn’t think of anyone I’d want a family with. Other than you.”
“No,” she mumbles, sounding almost regretful.
“Then what is it? I know something’s wrong.”
“I…” She looks into my eyes and swallows. “Tomorrow. It can wait until tomorrow. I need you tonight, Reed. Please.”
The turmoil is in her eyes again and my heart feels like someone is carving into it as I clench my teeth so hard, I’m surprised they don’t crack.
“Reed?” she says again, stroking the back of my neck. “I’m okay. I promise. I’m just tired and emotional.” Her eyes flick between mine. “And more than anything, I want to just be together. You and me. And not think of anything else. Can we do that? Please?”
“Will it make you happy?”
Her lips drop open as if she’s about to speak, then she closes her mouth again and nods.
“Then I will make love to you until dawn breaks, Angel. Longer if you want me to.”
She lifts her head, placing her forehead against mine.
“Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me. I would do anything for you.”
Her eyes flash with something, but she blinks it away quickly and drops her head back down, granting me access to the fluttering pulse point in her neck. I kiss and suck it, savoring every moan and whimper that leaves her lips as I start to move inside her again.
And I make love to her all night long.
Just like she wants.
A part of me wishes that for the first day in the history of creation, dawn doesn’t come.
Anything to stay here with her.
Even an apocalypse.
Because something tells me that once the sun comes up, everything is going to change.
