Chapter 7
Before nerves could settle in and grow roots, Cate dialed the number. One ring later and the phone clicked over. Thinking she was getting voice mail, Cate almost hung up until it began to ring again.
“Hello.” And somehow, his voice got sexier. She was so completely in love with this man, a man she barely knew anymore. Something she planned to rectify.
“Hi. Thank you for my painting.” Lame. Of all the things to say, she went with formal and expected.
“I hoped you wouldn’t be mad.” The insecurity in his voice warmed her heart. She could see where he was coming from. He had something so personal of hers that she hadn’t given him. To her, it showed love, but to many, it would be an invasion.
“I was beyond touched.” Those words didn’t encompass what she wanted to say, but they were the best she could do without allowing her emotions to entirely take over. “You were right. I did regret it.”
“I have to confess that I have other pieces of yours.” And now he was just being adorable.
“How did you manage that?” She had already seen them. No point being coy, but information seeking? She was all about that. Her painting was next to a flipping Rembrandt. She was never going to get over that one.
“Serendipity, I suppose.” Serendipity. She had to chuckle. When she first learned that term, they had just started dating, and she used it every chance she could in an effort to show off her smarts. At least that was her plan at the time. Now, she just saw it as the youthful silliness that it was. He remembered. Why did that make her so squishy in the heart?
“I was at an antique/junk store killing time between business meetings when I was in Chicago, and there they were. I immediately knew they were yours. One is the one you did after signing up for your SAT, and the other was the one you did after we took our relationship to a different level.”
She blushed at his admission. He wasn’t wrong at her muse for either of them. It was touching that he remembered the SAT one. People didn’t forget their first time, so while the SAT connection was nice, it somehow meant a little bit less than the first. Of all the paintings for him to find. Hers.
“You always had a smooth tongue.” She had to give it to him. He still knew how to make her blush. “You mean after we did it,” she added for humor and to break the incredible intoxication she was feeling over his confession.
“And you were always blunt.” His deep laughter filled her ears. She needed to record it for later. That laugh always could give her a sense of comfort.
“I can’t believe you put the painting I made about us losing our virginity next to a Rembrandt. Have you no respect?” she bantered back, accidentally giving away more than she had intended. She plopped into her armchair, hoping the conversation would be long enough for her to need the comfy place to sit.
“You knew I had them.”
“Not until tonight. I met with Susan.” She held her breath, his opinion on her meeting meaning more to her than she cared to admit, even to herself.
“And she recognized your work,” he concluded.
“She did. Says you won’t sell them.” She so desperately wanted to ask why. They were untrained, teen hormone-induced at best. Her work had gotten so much better over time. Not as emotional, for teens owned that, but technique-wise, certainly.
“I won’t.”
She couldn’t let him get away with his non-answer. He was in the business of making money. Lots of money. He had pieces in his collection museums had wet dreams about. It was a no-brainer to sell her pieces.
“The deflowering on display I understand, but why keep the ‘I’m so nervous for my SAT’ vent?”
“Because it was a part of you. All of your paintings were. It was why they were so powerful. So brave.” It was a good thing she had been sitting down, for her knees surely would’ve given way at his declaration.
“It isn’t like anyone who sees the painting knows what they mean.” But he did. He knew and revered it. She couldn’t wrap her head around that one, not one bit.
“You’d never guess how many people ask me about when I lost my virginity after seeing the painting.” Cate could picture the sexy wink she was sure accompanied his joke. Good old Levi always knew how to get her smiling.
“I’m sure.” Cate pulled her knees up, hugging them with one arm and perching her head on them. It blew her mind how quickly they fell back into the comfortable banter of their youth.
“They really are brave and powerful and honest and… you.”
“Thank you. I’m glad you appreciate them.” Her heart was beating in her chest so loudly she was pretty confident Levi could hear through it the phone. His words touched her so deeply, she quickly moved to change the subject without being too obvious. He would know, though. Levi could always read her. “Susan wants to show me.”
“I want first dibs.” Part of his words was to let Cate know he was letting her change of topic, or at least depth of topic, the other part… Cate bet he truly wanted to buy one, which still boggled her mind.
“Why?” It was a serious question and not the fishing for compliments he probably got all the time from gorgeous women. “You already have two, and had a third until an hour ago.”
The doorbell chimed. “Who is it?” Cate called as she made her way out of the chair and toward the door. Chances were it was a pizza for the house around the bend. For some reason they often stopped here first, trusting their GPS a little more than they should. “Can you stay on the line while I check the door?”
“Absolutely.”
It wasn’t a pizza. “Why didn’t you say it was you?” She put her hand on her hip in pretend anger as her eyes met his far-too-hot-to-be-legal smile.
“This was more fun.” He winked, knowing it always caused her to blush. Some things never changed. “Can I come in?”
“Please.” Cate stepped to the side, gesturing for him to enter and hoping he hadn’t noticed the pleading tone to her response.
“You asked why I wanted to see the paintings first?”
It was interesting to her that that was what he took from her question. She was still trying to figure out why he wanted them, and he assumed she questioned his desire to pick first. Maybe it was the art collector in him. Maybe it was the insecure artist in her?
“I did.” Or at least Cate did now. The other question could wait.
“Because I’m hoping you did one after our date last night.”
He was serious. Dead. Serious. How Cate was still standing was beyond her. He brought his wooing skills, to be sure.
“Date?” Cate’s voice quivered.
“Yes, date. I paid for dinner and held your hand. Date.”
She thought giving him a question would give herself a moment to regain her composure. She was so wrong. He had Cate blushing a shade she’d sure rivaled her red pigment in her painting supplies.
“I did.” Of course she did. “Why do you want to see it?”
“I want to see if you ran off because I came on too strong, or if your feelings had changed or something else.” Of course. He wanted to see it so he could look into her soul. She already admitted to the painting, so into her soul he would see.
“You could ask me.” She shrugged, wondering how they had ended up just standing in her entrance way.
“I still can, but I want to experience it.”
“Hold on.” Cate scurried out of the room to grab it. There was no point prolonging it, because every second of anticipation, her anxiety grew. What would he think after he saw? Things would change. There was no way they wouldn’t. Was she ready? Not that it mattered. “Here.” Cate held it out to him, not meeting his eyes. The moment too raw. Too real. Too… united.
“Oh, beautiful, your insecurities are unwarranted.” His voice caressed her as his eyes took in her work. The reverence he gave that piece of canvas was overwhelming. “You’re the only woman I ever truly loved, and all I want is a chance to love you again.”
A chance to love you again. Just the thought of it warmed Cate in a way she hadn’t felt in decades, actual decades. There was no reason for their time to not be now. Except, of course, the insecurities he so bluntly called her on.
“You got that from my painting.” It wasn’t a question. She took a bold step forward. In for a penny, they say.
“And more.” His hand reached out, gently caressing her cheek as if to test the waters. “I see you.”
“I’m scared.” Cate leaned into his hand, gaining the strength she needed for her confession. Cate was safe with Levi, always had been. He hadn’t broken her heart on purpose. He was young and had to move with his parents. He’d had no choice. He wrote her, the non-delivery of the letters outside of his control.
“My entire adult life has been about being everything for Jamie, and I forgot how to be anything for myself. That’s why I started painting again. I’m so out of practice on how to do this.” She took the final step to him before leaning into his waiting arms.
“By this, you mean being with me?” he verified, as if Cate could’ve meant anything else. “I’m equally out of practice.”
“But what if—” she began, before his finger touched her lips. Cate had spent years living in what ifs, something Levi had always been against.
“Shhh. Life could easily be clouded by what ifs.” He leaned down, giving a chaste and gentle kiss to her cheek. “Let’s just let our hearts lead us. Okay?”
“Okay.” Cate agreed, wanting it more than anything. “Are you going to kiss me now?” She parroted the words he used on her before their very first kiss. It had been an awkward moment, neither of them knowing what in heck we were doing, yet it was perfect and magical at the same time.
“Did you just… never mind.” He shook his head as if to clear it, obviously on the same trip down memory lane that she was.
When his lips touched hers, Cate melted into him. Slowly, he caressed her lips with his as if relearning their place there. She opened her mouth, giving him a not-so-subtle hint that she wanted more, and he took it. Levi deepened the kiss with each movement before his tongue moved to explore her mouth. Cate was both breathless and boneless when their kiss broke and his forehead settled on hers.
“Should I leave?”
Cate knew what he was asking without him being so bold as to ask if sex were on the table, most likely to give Cate a way out without the embarrassment she liked to dwell in.
Cate wrapped my arms around his neck, holding him in place.
“Please don’t.” There was no sense hiding her want, her desire. They might not have seen each other in far too many years, but their long-ago connection had never been completely severed. Levi and Cate both could read the need they were feeling.
“If I stay, I will want to stay all night.” Levi made sure to meet her eyes as he spoke, his hand rubbing the small of her back gently. He wanted there to be no mistake as to what they were about to do.
“When you stay, I will make you pancakes.” And without giving him a chance to respond, she slipped her hand down to grasp his and led him to her bedroom, a bedroom no man had been invited into. But this wasn’t just any man. This was Levi. Her Levi.
“This is my room.” She said it like the true dork she was. Of course it was—where else would she be leading him? So instead of continuing and making a fool of herself, she went for broke, throwing herself at him and kissing him with all of the passion she was feeling. Twenty years’ worth of passion for someone she had never got over turned out to be able to make up for her lack of adult time since then.
As his hand traveled down her back, she heard a telltale sound of her zipper being released, and she knew without a shadow of a doubt this was right. Perfect, even. Cate took a step back, missing the feel of his warmth, allowing the dress to fall to the ground. No part of her was the young woman he knew. She had years of eating food on a budget, often sacrificing quality for quantity; her breasts had performed their function beautifully for her dear sweet daughter, but looked worse for the wear; and her belly held all the squishiness and stretchmarks a pregnancy can leave.
When his eyes took her in with her far-less-than-sexy panties and bra, you never would have guessed she was anything less than a knock-out model wearing the finest of lingerie. That was how he saw her, as a beautiful woman, one he wanted to devour.
Cate reached to unbutton his shirt, cussing the buttons as she went. After Cate conquered all but three of them, Levi relieved her frustration by pulling his shirt over his head. My goodness, time had done well by him. Her fingers reached out of their own accord, tracing the lines on his abs, his chest.
“You are so beautiful.” The awe in his voice almost too much to handle, the emotion overwhelming.
He reached behind her, releasing the clasp of her bra, her breath hitching as it barely fell to her elbow before his lips found Cate’s breasts. Licking, nipping, sucking. It was so much, her knees almost gave way.
“I’ve got you,” he mumbled against her breast before scooping her into his arms, as if she weighed nothing, and brought her to the bed, gently laying her down before going back to work on her breasts.
She was pretty much panting at that point, yet couldn’t find a tiny bit of her to be embarrassed. This was Levi. Her Levi. As scared as Cate had been earlier, he had called it what it was, insecurity, and that had no place between them. He moved back up, kissing the entire path before his lips found hers again and Cate got lost in them. They stayed like that, making out like teenagers—okay, half-naked teenagers—until she couldn’t wait another moment. She needed more, and from the feel of his erection pressing against her core through his pants, he did also.
“More. Everything. Please,” Cate begged, as his kisses made their way behind her ear to the spot he knew drove her insane in the very best of ways.
“Are you sure, love?” He pulled back as if needing to see if her next words matched what he saw, which they of course did. She needed him inside her. Now.
“More than anything.”
Her words seemed to do the trick, and their kissing became more frantic. A moan escaped her lips as he decided to take his lips down, down, down, her body, stopping briefly to worship her breasts before completing their journey to the seam of Cate’s underwear.
“I need to taste you” was the only warning she got before he slipped her panties down and kissed his way back up her thigh where he found her very ready and willing. A few strokes of his finger later and a nod of admiration for what he found there, and his tongue was on her.
His fingers and tongue, with the slight addition of his teeth, worked her body as if they were made for it, which they just might have been. Before she knew what was happening, Cate was falling over the cliff of the most intense orgasm of her life, her body quaking, her ears filled with static. He had done this, her Levi, after all these years of being apart.
“That was …” She couldn’t begin to form the words to do it justice. Heck, she couldn’t form a sentence. Instead, Cate reached to his belt, working it with absolutely no grace, but with more than enough enthusiasm to make up for it.
“We don’t have to, love.” He laid beside her, his arm over her middle, his face nuzzled into her neck. Tonight was already bliss.
“I wasn’t thinking I needed to reciprocate. I was thinking I wasn’t done.” Or more honestly, that she needed him inside her… now.
“I love this side of you.” He chuckled as his finger absentmindedly drew circles around her breasts.
“When I am naked, you mean? That side?” She waggled her eyebrows.
“No, love, when you are uninhibited and free.”
“So that’s a yes?” Cate asked to make sure before she all but attacked him. His slight nod gave her the go-ahead she was looking for, and Cate rolled to her side, attempting once again to remove his pants.
“As if I could ever turn you down.” He winked before removing her hands and alleviating the pesky pants problem in record time and depositing a condom next to her pillow, as an unspoken question.
Unfortunately, the answer was yes, he needed it, and when she tilted her head that way, he just smiled and shrugged as it if it were no big deal. Although it kind of was because any barrier between them felt too much right now. Adulting won out, though, and Cate grabbed it, tore it open, sat up enough to reach his still-impressive cock, and rolled it on, feeling him shake slightly as she did, her touch having every ounce of the effect on him that his did on her.
Cate leaned into him, kissing him with all of the desire she felt, before the two of them ended up back on the bed, their legs entwined as they leisurely kissed, as if their commitment to the act allowed them the time to enjoy it.
His hand wandered down to find her even wetter than she had been earlier, and as his thumb brushed her clit, her begging began. She needed him in her, now. She didn’t need to beg long, and as Cate felt his cock nudge her entrance, she found herself squirming beneath him, needing more. Slowly he entered her. Cate couldn’t tell if it was to help curb his need after being hard for well over an hour, or if it were out of consideration for her and her comfort. Either way, she savored every second he took until he was fully seated.
“Perfect,” Cate whispered.
Levi brought his hands to hers and clasped their fingers together before bringing them up by her face, kissing her until he had completely stolen her breath. It was then that he began to move, oh, so slowly, making their reconnection last. His slow, leisurely pace didn’t diminish the level of passion, and before Cate knew it, she was cresting once again, taking Levi with her.
“I love you. I always have,” he spoke in her ear.
Cate had heard many times over the years that you never believe a man when he tells you he loves you after coming. She believed Levi though, with her entire heart. He did love her. Always had. Just like she had always loved him. Their time might not have been when they originally thought it should be, and that was okay, because the things that happened in those twenty years made them who they were now.
“And I have always loved you, Levi,” Cate confessed. For she did, with all her heart.