I buried my face in his chest, relishing his solidity beneath me.
“I don’t want you living in this neighborhood anymore,” he murmured into the top of my head. “We’ve gotta find you a new a place.”
“Damian, I can’t afford a new place.”
“Yes you can. I’ll help. And no more subway, okay? Only my cars.”
I pinched my eyes shut, feeling like I was dreaming. We’d gone from arguing to cold silence tothis. I couldn’t lie—I relished the attention. I could feel the tenderness radiating from him, the caring. The love behind his words.
Because that’s what it was. He loved me, just like I loved him.
I’d known he loved me since we started having sex. He couldn’t hide it, even though he probably wanted to. Even though he might deny it under oath.
“I’ll get you your own driver,” he went on. “Your own car.”
“Oh,” I said with a laugh, wiping at my eyes. “That won’t look suspicious.”
“I don’t fucking care how it looks.”
“Because all secretaries have their own Fairchild vehicle?”
He sent me a severe look. “Well this one will. End of story.”
I laughed again, wiping up the last of my tears. I couldn’t argue with him. I didn’t even want to. But when would he see the truth of what we shared?
“You should lie down,” he said, leading me toward the bedroom. In a few steps, we’d reached my double bed. The bed creaked as I sat on the edge, looking up at Damian’s concerned face, his square jaw, the hair tumbling out from behind his ear.
“Will you lie down with me?” I said, almost pleading. He nodded, and I scootched back onto the bed, making room for him. We lay facing each other, looking into each other’s eyes. This was my favorite activity—studying the worlds swirling inside his gaze, getting those brief glimpses of the torment and drive that fueled him.
I wasn’t sure how long we lay there. Damian’s hand drifted to my face to stroke my cheek. I scooted closer. And then his hand was on my hip, moving up to my waist. I didn’t know who kissed who first, only that our lips joined together, propelled by forces beyond my control.
Kisses tumbled off our lips, more passionate than ever before. They almost hurt from how heavy the air was between us. How thick things had gotten after our fight. But the passion was undeniable and unstoppable. When I rolled onto my back, pulling Damian on top of me, he paused.
“Are you sure?” He searched my face. “If you’re too upset…”
“I need this,” I whispered, desire and urgency pumping through my veins. Having sex after getting mugged didn’t strike me as a typical response, but it felt so right in the moment. I needed Damian’s reassurance, his firmness. I needed him filling me, reminding me of his love. “I needyou, Damian.”
He took my face in his hands, covering my mouth with his. He eased on top of me, the heat of him sinking down to my core. He was hard already—I could feel his cock pressed to my hip—and he tugged my dress up until it bunched at my hips. He broke our kisses only to lean back and unbuckle his belt. The metalzzzzipof his zipper was next, and then he fished his cock out from his briefs and filled the space between my legs again.
There was something urgent here, as if we were operating on borrowed time. We didn’t have a second to spare, and I knew this even without knowing the why. Damian pushed himself inside me, fitting himself into my slick channel with a ragged sigh.
Here. This felt like home. This felt like the resting point, the perfect union of passion and companionship and family and future. Damian was it for me. I knew it as he sank into me, just as I’d known it when I fell in love with him back in seventh grade.
That fact had never changed.
The only thing that had changed was that now I finally accepted it. I wasn’t just a foolish girl in unrequited love. This man loved me back. This man would race across New York City to hold me. This man would offer up his fleet of vehicles to ensure my safety, office reputation be damned.
Damian rocked against me, pushing himself in and out as he showered my lips with kisses. All I could do was cling to him and take him. All of him.
Tears pricked at my eyes. He took a soft bite of my neck and ground up into me, just the way he knew I liked, and I tumbled over the edge, clutching his biceps as the orgasm wound through me.
He came a moment later, heat filling me and eventually leaking out onto my thighs once he pulled out. We shared that drugged out smile, the one that told me everything was all right. That we’d hit the reset button.
As Damian and I were cleaning ourselves up, my phone rang from the living room. I rushed to answer it, finding it was my classmate Veronica.
“Hey, Jessa, are you coming today?” Her voice sounded hushed, as if maybe she’d called from the back of the classroom. “I just noticed you’re not here—is everything okay?”
I wandered back into the bedroom, where Damian was buckling his belt.