Chapter Twenty-One

Rue

I barely had time to process the front door crashing open before I saw Richard stalking down the hallway toward me. His eyes burned into me, an intensity in them that left me breathless before he even touched me. I started to say his name, but before I could, his mouth was on mine. His arms wrapped around my waist and he scooped me off of my feet, kissing me with a possessiveness that seemed to reach down into my soul and touch something that had never been discovered. I clung to him, not caring what brought him here, not caring about anything. I couldn’t deny myself any longer.

Richard held me to him and sank to his knees, tipping me back so that I lay across the kitchen floor. We tore at each other and for a moment I wondered if I was dreaming again. This was dizzying, overpowering, and I couldn’t bring myself to believe that it was real. In an instant, though, Richard had tugged my pants away and plunged his fingers inside of me. I cried out, knowing that this was utterly, undeniably real. As his fingers explored my core, coaxing my arousal upward, I reached down and pulled off my shirt, exposing my breasts to him, not wanting anything between us.

He reciprocated, and I could finally see his body. I ran my hands down his chiseled muscles and he leaned down over me again, catching my mouth again. He tore his mouth away from mine and reached down to grab his pants. I saw him fish in his pocket and come up with a condom. He tore it open and rolled it down his cock in record speed, and suddenly he was inside of me. My body was only just ready for him and I screamed out at the intensity of the sensation of him filling me. Richard didn’t slow down. It was as though all of the need, all of the tension that had built up between us had reached such a fevered pitch that it could no longer be controlled and all we could do was let it burn.

I gave myself over to the power of his thrusts, luxuriating in the feeling of our bodies together. He dropped his head down and caught one of my nipples in his mouth, sucking it in and encircling it with his tongue. I gasped at the feeling and arched up into him. Richard tucked his head into the curve of my neck and shoulder and continued to stroke deeply, his grunts shivering across my skin and his sweat mingling with mine. Suddenly his sounds grew desperate and he thrust into me hard one more time, roaring as simultaneous orgasms slammed over us. My body clenched down on him, drawing him deeper and milking him, seeking as much of him as I could bring into myself.

****

Richard

I felt the plane touch down, jostling me out of my sleep. In the first few seconds that I was awake I wondered if I had imagined it all. Had I just made it up? Was I going to look down at my phone and see a message from Flora complaining that I hadn’t done something at the house before leaving? Had I dreamed of Rue, imagined what it would feel like being pressed deep inside her on the kitchen floor?

As the plane glided to a stop, though, I knew that I hadn’t imagined it. It had been real, every moment of it, and I couldn’t help the smile that spread over my lips thinking about it. Rue’s body had been sweet and compliant, ready to accept me, wanting me as much as I wanted her. I hated that I had only gotten to spend such a short time with her before leaving. We had been sitting on the same floor, not trying to hide our nakedness from one another, eating cold leftovers, when my phone rang, and the sound of Ellery’s voice had brought me back to bitter reality. I had to go to the office for a presentation and gather up the papers I would bring on my trip with me, then pack and get to the airport in time for my flight. Leaving Rue had been the most difficult thing that I had ever done, but I had to do it. There were things that I needed to do, and I couldn’t just turn my back on them because I wanted to do nothing but explore every inch of her body in every room of her house.

Could I?

Five hours later I was pulling back into Rue’s yard. Lights were burning in the windows, so I knew that she was still awake. I let myself in and made my way to the living room where I found her curled up on the couch beneath a blanket, her face calm and peaceful under the flickering light of the TV. I touched a kiss to her lips and her eyes fluttered open.

“Richard,” she said. “What are you doing here?”

“I didn’t want to be away from you,” I said. “Not yet.”

She opened her arms to me and I folded into them, taking my place on the couch so that she sprawled across my chest. I ran my fingers down her back and tried to figure out what she was watching.

“What are they making?” I asked.

“Pies,” she said dreamily.

“They don’t look like pies.”

“They’re full of meat.”

Everything felt calm, contented, like this was the way that it was always supposed to be. She knew now that Flora was gone, though I hadn’t told her the full story of what happened. I didn’t want her to feel betrayed or taken advantage of. For now, all that she needed to know was that Flora was not a part of my life any longer. The peaceful quiet was suddenly broken by a whooping sound in the distance followed by what sounded like a low explosion.

“What the hell was that?” I asked.

“Probably just some of the guys doing target practice.”

“At night? That doesn’t seem wise.”

“They want to make sure that they can still hunt even if they went blind.”

She said it in complete seriousness, as though it made all the sense in the world.

“Can I ask you something?”

“Of course.”

“Why did you come back here?”

She pressed on my chest to lift up so that she could look at me.

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“Why did you come back here? Why did you leave your apartment in the city to come back here?”

“It’s my home. It was going to be foreclosed on. I needed to save it. That’s why I agreed to be a surrogate.”

“It was?” I asked, stunned.

“Yes,” she said. “I needed the money.”

“Why didn’t you tell me that?”

“No one ever asked.”

“Yes, they did. That was literally one of the first things that Ellery asked you during your initial interview. You just said that you had reasons for needing the money. Then you seemed to have a panic attack when he walked out of the room. Maybe that should have tipped me off that you weren’t telling the total truth.”

Her eyes narrowed at me.

“How did you know that?”

Heat burned across my cheeks.

“I was watching you through a hidden camera,” I admitted.

“You were what?”

“I wanted to make sure that I was getting the full picture of each prospective applicant.”

“So, you spied on us? You let us think that we were alone and then you watched us?”

She sounded horrified, and I knew that she was justified.

“Look,” I said, trying to deflect the situation. “That’s not the point. I wish I had known that this was your motivation all along. I could have just bought it for you.”

“I didn’t want you to.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s my responsibility, not yours. Money doesn’t always just automatically fix everything. My family earned every day in this house, and I wanted to earn it, too. If you had just paid for it, it wouldn’t have had any meaning.”

I tried to understand, but I couldn’t, so I pushed the thought aside.

“Now that you’ve paid for it, though, what are you going to do with it?”

She tilted her head at me.

“Live in it,” she said.

“Always?” I asked.

“That was kind of my plan for the foreseeable future.”

“Look, you don’t have to do that. And you don’t have to drive so far just to come to the medical center. Let me get an apartment for you in the city. You can live there, be close to everything, and it will make it much easier for all of your appointments especially when the baby gets closer to coming.”

“I don’t need you to get me an apartment,” she said.

“But it will be so much better than this.”

I knew as soon as I said it that I shouldn’t have. I was right back in the position that I had been in on Thanksgiving and she was looking at me with the same disappointment and pain in her eyes.

“Don’t you have a plane to catch?” she asked, standing up from the couch and disappearing into the bathroom.

I heard water rushing into the tub and I knew that I had been dismissed.