Anna

I’d always loved Christmas. Loved the chaos and the needless presents, the rush to get everything done and the time spent with my parents and my brother. This year it felt like it was just a warm up for the main event of seeing Ethan.

The actual day was fun, but not as fun as it could have been if Ethan and I had been together. Mum had sensed my distraction, telling me with a meaningful look in her eye to “take care” as I left them, which was the most demonstrative my mother ever got. Dad was oblivious, which suited me.

Back in London, I gave in to the excitement of seeing him. I’d been patient enough. Now, I wanted to be in New York already. I’d packed and repacked about seven times. I would only be there a little under a week, and I planned to spend most of it naked, but just in case we ventured out, I wanted to make sure I had every base covered.

My phone buzzed and “Sex God” flashed up on my screen. I grinned. He did, after all, live up to the self-titled nickname.

“Hey,” I answered.

“Are you packed?”

“And hello to you, handsome.”

“Sorry, I just want you here already.”

I didn’t know when the ache for him started. Maybe I’d had it since New York, since our first night together. Maybe since he’d left London. I did know it was getting bigger, more needy, more pressing. Speaking to him made it worse.

“I’m packed and just about to leave.”

“Just bring a carry on. You won’t need any clothes anyway. And it means you won’t have to wait for your bags.”

I laughed. “I’m not bringing just a carry on. Girls don’t do that. Well, I don’t anyway. Apart from anything else, I have to bring some of the gifts you’ve bought me.”

“Well, any of the gifts that I want you to bring with you don’t take up much space.”

Every couple of days a new gift had arrived from Ethan. It was mainly underwear but I also got a framed film poster of Pretty Woman signed by Richard Gere and Julia Roberts, after which I promised him head every hour we were together over New Year. I also got a vibrator, which I refused to use without him and wouldn’t need when I was with him. But there was lots of underwear. Underwear he made me try on and then take photos of myself in so he could “see if it fit”. I feigned exasperation but I loved that he wanted reminders of me. And I thought it was funny that he thought he’d have to convince me to send them.

The underwear didn’t take up much room, and I’d packed every single piece.

The door buzzed but I wasn’t ready to hang up on Ethan so I maneuvered my case out of the flat, and outside to the waiting cab while Ethan told me about his day coming back from Aspen. I wanted to ask whether he’d told his parents about us, but I held back. I didn’t know what New York would bring me on this trip. Last time it had brought me Ethan, but would this visit take him back from me? Would we find a way to be together? I pushed the thought from my head and tried to concentrate on what he was saying.

“Were your parents unhappy to only have such a short time with you?”

“I don’t think so. They seem to be delighted that there may be a prospect of continuing the Scott name. I’m sure they thought I was gay.”

I half choked on the breath I’d inhaled. “So you told them about me coming to visit?” I managed to push the words out of my still-winded lungs.

“Of course. Shouldn’t I have?”

“Of course. I just . . . ”

“Did you tell your family about me?”

Jesus, was this going to be a thing?

“Umm, kinda.”

“Don’t bullshit me, Anna. You didn’t say anything?” He sounded puzzled more than anything.

“Well, not specifically. I really don’t have that type of relationship with them. They knew something was going on. I mean, I spent my whole visit either on the phone with you or texting you.”

“Wow.”

“It’s no big deal, Ethan.”

“Apparently not,” he said. I wasn’t quite sure what he meant by that. “Listen, it’s late. I’ll see you at the airport.”

“Ethan.”

“Have a safe flight. I love you, Anna.”

And he was gone.

My ache for Ethan intermingled with the anxiety that had sprouted out of our last conversation. I just needed to see him and it would be like it always was when we were together, wouldn’t it?

Time on the plane seemed to pass at a different speed than in real life. I couldn’t focus on my book or any of the films. I just needed Ethan. I wanted him to tell me everything was going to be okay.

By the time the plane arrived and I’d passed through security, my excitement and nerves had brought on full body shaking. Border control must have thought I was smuggling something illegal. I was surprised I wasn’t searched.

Ethan spotted me before I saw him and the smile that spread across his face made my stomach curl. Jesus, I’d forgotten how handsome he was. I was tempted to dry hump him right there. Our eyes locked and he cupped my face with his hands and slid his lips across mine, softly, gently.

“God, you smell good,” he said into my mouth. “And you taste good,” he said, trailing his tongue along my bottom lip. “And you look phenomenal. Are you sure you’re real?”

He dipped his tongue past my lips and pushed against mine. I moaned. God, how I had missed the feel of him. I smoothed my hands up from his shoulders to find his neck, straining and tight under my fingers. He pulled me toward him, deepening his kiss, pressing my body to his, pushing his hardness against my stomach. I needed him, in every way, right there. He circled his hips and then pulled his head back.

“We should go, or I’m going to get arrested.”

“I think it would be worth it.”

He growled and grabbed my abandoned suitcase in one hand, my arm in the other and started charging toward the exit. I had to half skip to keep up with his large strides and determined pace.

“Like the idiot I am, I drove,” he said tightly. “Thought it would stop me from having you in the back of the car in front of Rory.”