Chapter Thirty-Eight
Emily
Grant reached up and undid my ponytail so that my hair fell down around my face.
“You’re beautiful,” he said and pulled me toward him.
I leaned in close and kissed him. After not kissing him for so long, it felt like we had a lot of making up to do. I wanted him more than I’d ever wanted anything in my whole life, and I didn’t want the moment to end. His hands moved through my hair as we kissed, and then he pulled away and began kissing me on the neck. I could feel his hot breath against mine, and the hairs on my arms stood up as I shivered from it. Nobody had ever made me feel the way that he had. I could barely remember what it was like to even be with another guy. The memories all seemed to morph together. The only thing that seemed real to me was Grant.
I moved my leg over him so that I was sitting on his lap. I pulled off his shirt, and he pulled off mine. I reached around and tried to undo my bra, and I chuckled when he couldn’t figure out what to do.
“What’s going on? I’m not normally so bad at this.”
I pointed to the front. “You do it from here with this one,” I said.
He saw the clasp and undid the bra. He smiled. “Well, that’s convenient,” he said. “You should wear these ones more often.”
“Or maybe no bra at all?” I suggested.
“That would work too.”
He looked eagerly at my breasts and reached out to touch them. I watched him watching me, and I could feel myself getting more and more excited. His fingers trailed around my breasts, circling them one at a time. When he got to my nipples, he leaned in and licked them. I arched my back and groaned. When I opened my eyes, I saw that he was tracing my rib tattoo with his fingers.
“I think you should get one too,” I said.
“You think?”
“Oh yeah. It would suit you.” I’d thought from the beginning that Grant looked like a man who would look incredible with a tattoo. And I still thought that about him.
“I might just do that. Will you get another one?” he asked.
I smiled. “Yeah. I might. We can go together.”
“I’d like that,” he said. “Turn around so I can see your other one.”
I stood up, turned around, and sat back down on him. His one hand moved around and clasped my breast. He used his other hand to touch my tattoo. I was still wearing my skirt, so I stood up and pulled it down, along with my underwear. I turned back around and looked at him.
“Come on,” I said. “Let’s go to the bedroom.” I didn’t want to do it in the living room this time. Nor did I want to do it in the bathroom or the kitchen. I wanted to lie down in bed with him. I wanted it to be slow and sensual.
He took my hand, and we walked to the bedroom. When we got there, I lit a few candles and turned off the light. The room glowed as the candles flickered on and off. Grant took off the rest of his clothes and climbed onto the bed with me. We sat facing together, just kissing and touching one another. Neither one of us seemed to want the night to end. Instead of jumping straight into hot sex, we lingered on each other’s bodies and took our time with one another.
Eventually, we fell down onto the bed, and I groaned with pleasure as Grant touched every surface of my body. Every nerve within me ached for more, and when he finally climbed on top of me, I pulled him down and arched my body against his, welcoming him inside me. We both cried out in pleasure as he entered me. I held onto his waist and pulled him deeper.
He leaned down and kissed me. He was usually clean shaven, but he hadn’t shaved in a while, and his stubble brushed against me as we kissed. I liked it. The sensation of the rough surface and his soft mouth heightened every one of my senses, making every tingle feel like electricity. He rocked over me, over and over again, until I knew I couldn’t take it anymore.
“Harder,” I said, and he pushed against me some more as I pulled him in tight against me, driving him in as deep as he could go.
He leaned down and kissed me on the neck. And as he was about to come, the kissing turned into sucking, and I pushed him down so he wouldn’t stop. He sucked on my neck as my entire body vibrated in orgasm.
“More, more, more,” I groaned. Then, as I reached my peak, I felt him shudder inside me.
He didn’t climb off me right away. Instead, he lay on me and kissed me. The kissing had changed, shifting from hard and passionate to soft and loving. When he did, eventually, move off me, I felt like a part of me was missing. We lay, side by side, holding hands.
“That was . . .” he started.
“. . . Amazing,” I finished.
I turned to him. “That was amazing,” I said again. “You’re amazing. Thank you for coming to see me tonight. Tonight has turned out to be one of the best nights of my life. Let’s not ever fight again.”
“Yeah. Fighting is so overrated. I basically just had a week of feeling crappy when I could’ve just been with you all week. Let’s definitely not fight again. I’d rather just make love to you all night.”
“That’s a good idea. Every time we feel a fight coming on, we just fall into bed together.”
He laughed. “It’s a deal. Em,” he said, and I looked back at him.
“Yeah?”
“I’m so in love with you.”
“You are?”
He smiled. “Of course I am. I think I’ve been in love with you for a very long time. I was just too scared to admit it to myself. I mean, I didn’t come here looking for love. I came here looking to escape my old life for a while. Little did I know that I’d end up doing a job I loved and meeting the woman of my dreams. It all sort of just happened without me trying too hard. I guess that’s when you know it’s all meant to be.”
“I’m the woman of your dreams?” I said. I didn’t think I’d ever be the woman of anyone’s dreams.
“Oh, you are most definitely the woman of my dreams.”
“I like the sound of that,” I said.
“I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
“I’m so relieved to hear you say that,” he said.
“Really? I thought I was super obvious. Terra keeps telling me that I like you more than I think I do. Even my father said that to me. I didn’t expect to meet anyone either, you know. I mean, especially in this crazy small town. It’s not the easiest place to meet new people. I never thought I’d meet a man like you. You’re all sorts of wonderful; you know that?”
BEEP BEEP BEEP!
“What the hell is that?” he said and sat down.
I burst out laughing and jumped out of bed. “That is the sound of the fire alarm.”
I ran downstairs and opened up the oven, and quickly fanned the air to get the alarm to stop. Thankfully I’d caught it just in time, and the alarm stopped within a few seconds. When Grant came down, he saw the smoke and groaned.
“Are you sure you love me? I can’t cook to save my life. I mean, I can’t even cook a pizza where the base was already made. I thought that there was no way I could mess something like this up. Although I guess I didn’t take into the account that we’d fall into bed so quickly. That was stupid of me. I should’ve known I wouldn’t have been able to wait until after dinner to touch you. Ah man, look at the pizza. It’s completely ruined.”
For some reason, the more I looked at the burned pizza, the funnier I found it. I was laughing so much that I had to sit down.
“What’s so funny?” he said.
“First my house burned down. Now the pizza burned. What is going on? I don’t even know why I find that so funny. I just do.”
He laughed. “Want to know something even crazier?” he said.
“Always,” I said and looked up.
“We’re both running around a house filled with smoke and burned pizza, and we’re completely naked.”
I looked down at my body and laughed. “I didn’t even realize that. We look like mad people. There is one problem though,” I said and sighed.
“What’s that?”
“I’m starving.”
“Me too. Uh, should I order in?”
“Yeah, I think that’s best.”
“Okay, I’ll order the pizza. You pour some more champagne. Oh, and I suppose we should put some clothes back on for when the pizza man comes,” he said, and we both chuckled at the thought.
When the pizza arrived, we sat down in the living room to tuck in, and I looked at Grant and grinned.
“Remember the night of the fight?” I asked.
“How could I forget it? Yeah, I remember. I remember it a little too well, actually. Why? Did you want to talk about it? I know I have a lot of apologizing to do.”
I shook my head. “No, you don’t need to apologize. That’s all over. And we honestly don’t need to rehash it. No, I’m not talking about the fight. I’m talking about the food. Remember, I was making my gran’s curry for you.”
“Oh yeah, I remember that. It smelled so delicious. I was so looking forward to it.”
“Well, I burned it.”
“Oh no!” he said in shock. Then he started laughing. “I know it’s not funny.”
I burst out laughing too. The tears were rolling down my face. “We really shouldn’t be left unsupervised. Thank goodness I’m dating a fireman.”
He smiled. “We’re dating?”
“Oh. Uh, I don’t know,” I said nervously. I hoped I hadn’t just ruined anything. Why did I have to go and open my big mouth? But when I looked at Grant again, he was grinning.
“Emily Wessler, will you officially be my girlfriend?” he said in a way that made it sound like we were teenagers.
I chuckled. “I would love nothing more, Grant Maxwell.”
“I’m so glad we’ve stopped pretending for a change. We should’ve just admitted our feelings for each other from the start. We would’ve avoided a whole lot of unnecessary fighting if we had.”
“Yeah, I agree,” I said. “Although, it was a weird way to start a relationship. There was a lot going on. I don’t think many people start off a relationship with a burning house and a father that reemerges from the dead. It’s not exactly what you’d call a conventional start.”
“Now maybe we can start a normal relationship,” he said.
“Somehow I doubt it will ever be normal,” I said and chuckled as I thought of the pizza again. “And I’m perfectly fine with that.”
“Yeah, normal is overrated, anyway.”