“Oh, my God, Kyle. I’m free. I’m free!” I squeal as we walk through the door to his apartment after our noon meeting at Ethan’s office. “Is it wrong of me to want to go down on the street and scream my name for all of New York City to hear?”
He laughs, tossing his keys on the counter. “If that’s what you want to do, Lex, I’ll go down there with you. Hell, I’ll buy you a megaphone. Anything you want to do to celebrate is fine with me.”
“Anything?” I raise a sultry brow at him.
We didn’t get a chance to be together last night. After we got home, Ethan came over with his high-priced lawyer. At ten o’clock at night, no less. Must be nice to have so many people at your beck and call. We went over the divorce papers Grant gave me. And we drew up papers for him to sign relieving him of all parental rights to Ellie.
There may not even be much red tape to work through since I never filed for an official birth certificate for her. And since she’s not yet a year old, Ethan’s lawyer said I can still apply for it without any problems. Kyle immediately asked if there was any way he could be listed as the father. I think I fell in love with him even more, if that’s possible.
Kyle picks me up, carrying me with one arm behind my back and the other under my knees. The way a groom carries his bride. He takes me to his bedroom. “When is Charlie bringing Ellie back?”
I smile up at him. “Not for a few more hours.”
“A few hours?” he asks with a smirk. “I can think of a lot we can do in that amount of time.”
He puts me down on his bed and I inhale the scent of his room. I haven’t been in here since the night I showed up on his doorstep over two months ago. “I love the smell of your room.”
He climbs on top of me, straddling me. “It’s your room now, too, Lexi. Everything I have is yours.”
I put my hands on his face, running my fingers across the stubble on his jaw. “And everything I have is yours.” I give him an apologetic shrug. “Sorry. I know you’re not getting a very good deal.”
In the past few months, I’ve come to have a pretty good idea just what he has. And it’s more than I can even comprehend. I’d love him without it, of course. I’d love him if he weren’t a doctor. I’d love him if he lived in a broken-down shack.
“That’s not true, Lex. I’m getting more out of this than you can imagine. I’m getting you. I’m getting Ellie. And you’re both perfect.”
“Thank you,” I say, a tear rolling off the side of my face. “Thank you for saying she’s perfect.”
I remember all the hateful things Grant said about Ellie last night and it makes me sick to think he was her father. But he’s not anymore. We made sure of that today.
For all intents and purposes, Kyle is her daddy now.
I spread out the fingers of my hand, tapping the tip of my thumb onto my forehead.
His smile reaches all the way to his eyes, telling me he knows exactly what sign I just did.
“Did you know that every time I would teach Ellie the sign for ‘Mommy,’ I wanted nothing more than for someone to touch my shoulder and teach her the sign for ‘Daddy’?”
I nod, my throat becoming thick with emotion. “I wanted that, too. I wanted it so much.”
“I’m sorry it took me so long to realize what an ass I was being,” he says, wiping my tears.
“I understand, Kyle. I understand wanting something so much that you can’t accept anything less than having all of it. It’s the way I feel about Ellie. It’s the way I feel about you.”
He leans down and presses his lips to mine. “I love you, Lexi Kessler,” he says, rasping my name in heated passion.
I smile against his lips. I had Ethan’s lawyer add an addendum to the divorce agreement that restores my maiden name. Not that it matters much, I don’t plan on being Lexi Kessler for very long.
“I love you, too, Kyle Stone,” I say, kissing him along his strong jaw. Then I pull my head back and look up at him as something dawns on me. “We need to Google it.”
He looks at me as if I’ve fallen off my rocker. “Google what, exactly?”
“Ellie Stone,” I say. “You know, to make sure she’s not a porn star.”
His body shakes with laughter and his radiant eyes shine in the afternoon light coming through the window. “I’ll get right on that,” he says, fingering the buttons of my blouse. “But first . . .”
He swiftly unbuttons my blouse, moving it to the side. Then he pulls the cups of my bra down, exposing my breasts to his wide and appreciative eyes. He takes one breast in his hand, the other in his mouth, causing my back to arch as I push myself further into him.
I throw my head back against the pillow as I moan, my hands grasping at his shirt, my words begging him to remove it. I need to be closer to him. I need to feel flesh on flesh. I need for there to be nothing between us. Not space. Not time. Not even air.
We make quick work of removing the rest of our clothing, not caring in the least if any get ripped or wrinkled. Then we lie facing each other, side by side, taking in each other’s bodies as if it’s the very first time. It might as well be. The only other time we made love was when we were fighting. When we were drunk. When we knew we wanted each other, but were afraid of what it might mean.
Now, however, we see each other in a whole new light. The past is behind us. Our future is a clean slate just waiting to be written upon.
“Christ, you’re beautiful,” he says, his voice slipping over me like crushed velvet as he strokes a hand up and down my bare thigh.
“You are beautiful, too,” I tell him. “You’re the most beautiful person I’ve ever met, Kyle. Inside and out. Without you . . . I . . . I don’t know what I would have done.”
“You’ll never have to find out,” he says, his teeth nipping at my earlobe. “I’m yours, Lexi. And you’re mine.”
“Say it again,” I beg, needing to savor his proclamation as his lips find mine.
“You’re mine, Lexi,” he says through our heated kisses. “You’re mine.”
His hand wanders over my chest, across my stomach, down through my soft patch of curls. I gasp when his fingers graze over my clit, teasing me as he coats it with the wetness he pulls up from beneath.
I reach down and grab his steely length. He twitches at my touch. I run my hand along him, slowly at first, then faster as he writhes against me. “Lexi, Jesus!”
We work each other until we’re right on the edge. Then he climbs down my body, making his intentions clear as he looks up and locks eyes with me. He kisses my stomach, kisses my faint silvery stretch marks, kisses my scar—the scar he so masterfully stitched to perfection.
When his mouth comes down on me, I shudder. I hold him to me, wanting everything he’s giving me. Wanting to give him everything he’s taking. Never has anything been this good. Felt this right. And as he makes me come, I cry out his name. And I know—I know it’s the only name I ever want to shout for the rest of my life.
“Kyle, please,” I beg, needing to feel him inside me.
He climbs up my body, his penis throbbing violently against me. He brushes the tip across my opening. “I want to feel you, Lex. I want to feel you with nothing between us. And if we make a baby, I’m okay with that, because nothing I’ve dreamed of accomplishing in my life will mean anything without you. Without Ellie. Without whoever else we bring into this world.”
“Yes,” I tell him, tears stinging the backs of my eyes.
He looks down at me, savoring every second of how it feels when he enters me. He kisses me and whispers words of love and longing in my ear. He takes his time with me, holding off his own release so he can build me back up with him.
“Oh, God, Kyle,” I cry, calling out his name for the second time as my walls spasm around him.
When he finally allows himself to come, he shouts out my name. My real name. That’s when I know for sure that Elizabeth is finally gone. I’ll always be grateful to her because she brought me to him, but it’s time for me to say goodbye to her. To move on to the next chapter of my life.
As if reading my mind, Kyle brings my wrist up to his mouth, kissing my tattoo. “This is only the beginning,” he says.
I nod, biting back tears of joy. “Never have I ever felt this way before, Kyle. Thank you.”
A broad grin splits his face. Then he startles me by quickly jumping out of bed. “Wait here,” he says, with a devious cock of an eyebrow.
He walks out of the room, not even bothering to put on a stitch of clothing. When he returns, his hands are full of small cups of Jell-O. I laugh, realizing what I had said a moment ago. He puts the cups on the bed and crawls back in next to me, pulling my body firmly against his.
“You forgot the spoons,” I say.
He chuckles behind me and then flips me over so I’m pinned underneath him. “We don’t need spoons,” he says, right before his mouth comes crashing down on mine.