I brush his hair back as he carries me to the bed. “Where is it?”
“My wallet,” he says. I stretch out on the bed and luxuriate in the heat of his eyes. He barely looks away from me as he fishes the wallet out of his back pocket and shucks his pants off entirely.
His eyes trace every part of me. The modest size of my breasts, the stomach I can never quite get flat, and my long legs. While he takes me in, I watch as he rolls on the condom. There’s not a single trace of hesitation in his movements.
Isaac gives himself two slow strokes before he climbs onto the bed. “Finally,” I say. It’s meant to be half-teasing, half-sincere.
But the look on his face takes all the amusement out of me. Need, so sharp it’s almost painful, marks his stark features. He pushes my leg to the side and lifts the other up along his chest.
We both watch as he takes himself in hand and aligns us. He pushes in slowly, disappearing inch by inch inside of me. The view is delicious and the stretch even more so. We both exhale in relief when he’s fully in.
He grips my hip. “Finally,” he breathes, and starts to move.
The need has been building inside of me since we entered the hotel room, and longer still, lingering from the shower last weekend. It’s been heightened by the dinner and the knowledge that he’s here, with me, without time restraints or pretence. Anticipation has kept my body in a constant state of readiness for just this moment.
Isaac rolls his hips in deep, steady movements, and his hands never stop touching me. I can’t look away from his eyes, and it doesn’t take me long to hover at the edge of an orgasm. I feel full, and half-sated, half-needy.
“You’re close,” he mutters.
I nod. My breath is coming fast and I’m holding on to the sheet, to him, to anything I can grab. His eyes glint and then he sits up, spreading me wider, and his hand speeds up its tight, small circles between my legs. It takes me four more seconds to explode. My back arches up from the bed, and I stare unseeing at the ceiling while pleasure flares out from the spot where we connect.
Isaac groans at the feeling of my body convulsing around his. He lowers himself down, arms resting on either side of my head. It takes him a few more thrusts and then he’s there too, his hips sharp against my inner thighs when he explodes.
I close my eyes and luxuriate beneath the delicious weight of him.Only one weekend,I think, and tighten my legs around him.I have to remember every detail.
He lifts himself onto an elbow. Dark hair falls mussed over his forehead, now unlined, his brows unfurrowed.
“Hello,” I whisper.
Isaac smiles. “Hi.”
19
SOPHIA
I wake up in a bed much larger than my own. Cotton is soft against my skin, and I stretch my legs, finding that my muscles ache. There’s a heavy arm around my waist, beneath the cover. A warm body is lying behind mine.
Isaac.
I blink my eyes open and look at our surroundings. The hotel room, the sparse decor, the scent of citrus from their diffusers. We must have forgotten to draw the blinds, and soft light filters in through the giant windows. The sun is rising over the lake. It sets the rippling water ablaze in soft morning colors and the dense foliage around hints at fall. It’s beautiful.
I hadn’t realized how much I needed an escape from New York, and an escape from the ingrained routine that’s became my lifeline over the past year. Possibility feels thick in the air here. A different life, and a different outlook.
And I hadn’t realized how much I’d needed last night.
My eyes fill with moisture. I blink to clear them away, but they don’t stop, my emotions rising through my chest. It’s been a few intense weeks, and an intense weekend.
On top of the most intense year of my life.
And now this beautiful sunrise outside the window, setting off the fall colors. Another season changing and I’m here to witness it, and maybe I haven’t noticed the seasons changing, not really, not for an entire year. Maybe I can find something good again. Not like how it was with Percy, and not like how it was after him. But maybe I can create my own future, and it won’t be what I’d imagined, but it can still be a beautiful thing. I’m grateful that I get to see it all, and for the first time in months, the thought of the future fills me with excitement.
The warm arm around mine flexes. “Morning,” he mumbles into into my neck. His voice is rough, and hoarse, and my silent tears flow faster at the sound. He’s so unguarded here with me, and I’m grateful for that, too.
You’re so silly,I think, and blink rapidly to clear the tears before he notices. They’ve always come at the most inconvenient times. When I’m furious, or humiliated, or overwhelmed with emotion. Always and forever in situations where I feel the least comfortable crying. It’s an aspect of my body I’ve never been able to control.
“Good morning,” I murmur.
His body shifts behind mine. “Have we slept in?”