I carried the pizza into Neil’s apartment. In-N-Out and pizza in the same day. I half-expected his body to go into toxic shock.

“It’s finally over, isn’t it?” Neil asked as he pulled two beers from his fridge, opened them, and poured them in glasses.

“Yes, it’s finally over. I’ll try to get Vanesa to agree to release the video I took of her in the hospital. We’ll package that up with the footage of Ed admitting he was setting you up, and we’ll try to get that some airtime. Maybe we can go back to the Lunch with Diane show and see if they want to air it. I’d also recommend you put it up on your websites with the post where you denied any wrong doing with Vanesa. I want to burn that bastard Ed good.”

“Can I do that?”

“Check with your lawyers, but I think if we blur his face and beep out his name, it should be legal. He can’t claim invasion of privacy if you can’t tell who he is. It doesn’t matter who said it, you just want people to hear it said.”

He nodded as we sat down at his table, the pizza box between us. “I’ll check on it,” he said as he flipped the box open before dragging a slice onto a plate and handing it to me before doing the same for himself. I took a bite.

“Good,” I said, toasting him with my slice. “Pizza, beer, and In-N-Out, all in the same day. I’m corrupting you.”

His lips twisted into a teasing smile. “You gotta do what you gotta do. I’ll have to put in some extra time working this off.”

“You can start tonight.”

He looked at me over the rim of his glass, his eyes playful, before he took a sip. “My God, woman! After last night, how can you still be horny?”

“Just lucky, I guess. You up for it?”

“You’ll find out,” he said and looked down. “Telling you this over a takeout pizza wasn’t what I had in mind, but…”

He looked at me, apprehension clear on his face. I said nothing, waiting for him to tell me whatever he needed to tell me. I’d been dreading this all afternoon. I’d forgotten about it with the news of Vanesa, but now the dread was back.

He’d said it was good news, but I couldn’t shake the feeling I wasn’t going to like what I was about to hear. If it was good news, why couldn’t he tell me at In-N-Out? Why did it have to be in private? Was he afraid it was going to make me cry? I steeled myself for whatever came. If he was tossing me aside, or if he was sensing my growing attachment to him and wanted to be clear that he only wanted me for a fuck-buddy, I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of seeing me cry, and I wouldn’t beg him for more.

He looked at me, his face soft and kind as he took my hands. He was a good man. Even after what Vanesa had tried to do to him, he was willing to help her get back on her feet. I wanted to be like him. Being around him this last month made me feel like I was a better person. I was still a cynic and skeptical of people’s motives, but I was changing. He had shown me there were still good, kind people in this world, people who didn’t think only of themselves.

“I don’t know how to tell you this, so I’ll just come out and say it. Tanya, I’m falling in love with you. I don’t know when it happened, but I am.”

He pursed his lips, as if he was likewise steeling himself for bad news. I whimpered softly. Was he afraid I would reject him? Was that why he was so up and down throughout the day? I whimpered again. I was about to cry. I was starting to fall for him too. I wanted him like I’d wanted no other man. I wanted to be with him, to fall asleep in his arms each night and wake up there the next morning. I wanted to start my day with his kiss, and finish it the same way.

I wanted to make love to him and go shopping with him. I wanted to cheer his successes and kiss away his disappointments. I wanted to share meals and memories, to see new things and revisit old, all with him at my side. I wanted to be there for him, make him part of my life, and I wanted him to want me in the same way.

I whimpered again as all the feelings, all the things I’d kept shoved deep down, locked in a box inside me because I was afraid to let myself experience them lest I be hurt, broke free of their shackles and forced their way out. They flowed over me, warming me in a way I’d never experienced before.

“Do you mean that?” I asked, holding his gaze. “Do you really mean that?”

“More than I can find the words to say.”

He was still waiting for me to respond, to give some indication of my feelings. I wanted to tell him how I felt, but I was afraid, afraid of making the commitment, unsure of my own feelings and afraid to believe in his.

“If you don’t love me…that’s okay,” he said softly as he looked down, unable to hold my gaze. “I’ll wait for you if you think you can grow to—”

I threw caution to the wind and lunged out of my chair to kiss him. I wanted this! I wanted this more than I’d wanted anything in my life! His arms went around me and held me close. I felt hot and out of sorts. Was it love? I didn’t know, but I wanted more of it. Lots more of it.

I began feverishly kissing his neck, holding him tight. I wanted to say the words, needed to say the words, but I couldn’t. I writhed in emotional anguish, desperately trying to utter those three little words, but I lacked the courage. I was afraid of being hurt if I let myself believe. How could I believe him? So many people said the words, only to later start fucking around and breaking someone’s heart.

He grabbed my head, his hands holding me firmly but gently, so I had to meet his gaze. “I’m falling in love you with you, Tanya. I want you. I want you and no other.”

How had he known? Could he read me so well? I could see the truth in his eyes. He did love me!

“I love you too!” I blubbered, the words bursting forth as I fought tears, my need to say them unstoppable and overcoming my fear.

As I finally admitted my feelings, a great weight suddenly lifted from me. Saying the words gave them power and made them true. I did love him. I was falling hopelessly, madly, deeply in love with him. If I felt this way for him after only a month, I imagined how I’d feel after a year, five years, a lifetime. I wanted it. I wanted it badly. I wanted to love him and be loved by him in return.

In the last thirty seconds, since he’d admitted he was falling for me, and having admitted the same, my feelings for him had doubled and doubled again. Neil fucking Gibson said he loved me! I wanted to scream it to the world. The thought terrified and thrilled me at the same time. Other than my father, I’d never felt love, not as an adult, but what I was starting to feel for Neil was different. It was the difference between a candle and the sun. Both gave warmth, light, and comfort, but only one was blinding in its intensity.

“I love you!” I said before I kissed him again. He returned the kiss and my feelings for him swelled.

It was the single best kiss I’d ever received. My passions roared, the heat of the kiss melting my fears and doubts like a blast from a furnace.

“I love you!” I murmured again. Each time I said those three little words, it was easier. I wanted to say them again and again, and go on saying them forever.

“I love you too,” he breathed as he held me, his lips dancing on my neck.

God, how I loved to hear those words!

I’d eaten less than a half-slice of pizza, but no amount of food could sate the hunger clawing at my insides. I needed him in my arms and inside me. He must have felt it too, because before I could order him to take me to his bed, he picked me up and started to his bedroom. I loved how he handled me! His strength made me feel safe, like nothing could hurt me when he was with me.

He carried me into his bedroom and gently, as if I were made of the finest porcelain, lowered me to his bed. He hovered over me, watching me, holding my gaze. My eyes, he always came back to my eyes.

“What?” I whispered.

“I was just thinking how you are the most beautiful woman I have never known.”

I went all gooey inside. I didn’t think I was ugly, but I didn’t consider myself beautiful either. I’d have described myself as cute. Women like Julie, the waitress, or Vanesa, the porn queen, with their full, ripe, bodies, were the type of women men lusted for.

Hearing Neil say those words made me feel like, for the first time in my life, the most desirable woman in the world. He could have any woman he wanted, but he’d chosen me. Me! Tanya Renee Jacobs! The sexiest man on the planet had chosen me!

I smiled up at him, a smile I couldn’t wipe away if I tried. “You’re not so bad yourself,” I said softly.

His smile made my heart flutter. I pulled him down on me, taking his lips, luxuriating in the feel of his weight as his hard, muscular body pressed me into the bed.

He kissed me. I mean, he really kissed me. The kiss was slow, and deep, and full of desire and promise, but there was more. It was different than all the other heated kisses we’d shared. It touched me in ways I couldn’t describe, like trying to describe how a beautiful piece of art spoke to you. There were some things that couldn’t be described, things that you simply had to experience.

I felt safe and protected in his arms, like I was no longer alone in this world, as if together we could face and overcome any threat, any obstacle, life may throw at us. I moaned softly, the kiss filling me to overflowing with emotion. I wanted to cry and laugh, so I did a little of both as I pulled his lips from mine and held him with all my strength. I never wanted to let him go, and I would cut the heart out of the first bitch that tried to take him from me. He was mine, and I would guard him jealously.

He forced himself up from my embrace. “I want you,” he whispered, those three little words sending a chill through me. He’d said them to me before, but now they held so much more meaning for me.

“I want you…more,” I murmured in return.

I was in the first blush of new love. It excited me in ways I’d never felt before, but I knew as our feelings for each other developed and matured, as our love deepened, what I was feeling now would pale in comparison. I would love him like no woman had ever loved a man. He was giving me his heart, and I would treat it like the treasure it was.

I began to remove my blouse, but he gently brushed my hands aside. “No. Let me.”

He slowly drew me from the bed and proceeded to undress me with near infinite slowness. He kissed and nuzzled my neck as his fingers worked my various fastenings, slowly opening me to his inspection and touch. It was one of the most sensual things ever done to me.

Neil was the master of seduction. Washing me in the shower, this slow undressing, cooking for me, holding me as we soaked in the tub, he’d always made me feel like there was more to me than just a place for him to bury his cock, more than just a life support system for my vagina, and I loved him more for it.

As the last of my coverings were slowly removed, he stared at me, his gaze slowly traveling my length. “You are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met,” he said as his gaze returned to mine. Always the eyes.

“You said that already,” I teased, but he could say it as often as he wanted.

“And I’m going to keep on saying it until everyone I know has heard it at least a million times.”

I melted a little more inside. I glanced down to admire the bulge in his pants. “My turn,” I whispered as I began to undress him.

I started slowly, kissing my way down his body, my lips following the spreading V of his shirt as my fingers worked at his buttons. My lips danced and played over the ridges and valleys of his body as I slowly drew his shirt over his shoulders and allowed it to fall to the floor. I took a nipple into my mouth and used my tongue to scrape it gently against my teeth. He hissed, a big hand going to the back of my head to hold my mouth in place as I battered the point with my tongue.

I’d said he ‘wasn’t so bad himself.’ There had never been more of an understatement. He was amazing. His body was the stuff women dreamed of, perfect in form and without a blemish. His face was handsome, angular, and strong, with eyes that could look deep into your soul. He was kind and thoughtful, and his prowess in bed was second to none. I would never want for another.

I smiled, watching his face from under my eyebrows as I kissed lower, my tongue caressing the ripples of his abdomen. I slowly lowered myself to the floor, letting him anticipate as I opened his pants to free the object of my desire. I continued lower, sliding his pants over his taut, muscular ass. He stepped out of them, his hands resting feather light on the back of my head.

He didn’t try to force me. He would nudge, indicating his desire, but he never tried to make me do anything I didn’t want to. I teased him, kissing all around his manhood, but never where I knew he wanted me to kiss.

I loved how he was weeping, his cock bouncing and visibly throbbing. Using a finger, I slowly wiped away the slickness and deposited it on my tongue as I watched him, his soft groan of desire my reward for my play.

“You want me?” I whispered as my lips caressed his member with butterfly kisses.

“Yes,” he murmured.

I took him into my mouth, refusing my gag reflex as I took him deep. Neil was larger than most men, as large or larger than any lover I’d ever had. It tasked me to take all of him into my mouth, but for him, I would try anything, do anything.

His hands urged me down his shaft as he groaned, but so gently I knew I could easily pull back when I wished. I held him there until I felt my control slipping. I backed off, caught my breath, then took him again. I grabbed his tight ass in my hands, my fingers biting in as I tried to take that last little bit of him into my mouth.

“Fuck!” he barked as he threw his head back.

When I came up for air again, he hauled me up with a growl and kissed me passionately, his tongue snaking into my mouth as he ignored his slickness coating my tongue. He pulled back from the kiss and threw me on the bed. I scrambled to the center to accept him, but he pulled me back and buried his face in my womanhood as he draped himself over the edge.

He savaged me sweetly with his lips and tongue. I tried to escape, tried to urge him onto the bed so I could please him as he did me, but he was too strong and held me in place. I stopped struggling as my pleasure swelled. He smacked and slurped at me, as if he were starving and I was a banquet, while his hands gently kneaded my breasts.

“Don’t make me come! Please don’t make me come!” I begged.

I wanted him inside me, but it was too late. My orgasm began to spool, my skin heating as if I were lying in the hot desert sun. I tried to close my legs, but he was too strong and held my legs open as he continued to kiss and lick.

“Please!” I begged, as I took his head into my hands, no longer sure if I was begging him to stop or make me come. “Fuck…fuck…fuck” I began to chant, my voice and body no longer mine to control as he destroyed me with his lips and tongue. He did this shit to me all the time, and I fucking loved it. “Fuck!” I wailed as my climax rolled over me in a great wave, massive and unstoppable, my skin alive as I tingled in erotic agony.

I pushed at him, but he held me tight, my back arching as my body tried to pull itself apart. I cried out softly as I twisted, every muscle straining with the power of my orgasm. He moved with me, allowing me to turn.

I couldn’t take his kisses anymore. “Stop! Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop…” I begged as I slapped and pushed. He was going to give me a heart attack and an aneurysm at the same time.

Then his mouth was on mine, kissing me slow and gentle as my rapture seeped out of me. I needed a moment to recover, lacking the strength to do anything except kiss him. I draped an arm around him and pulled him down, drawing strength from his kiss.

He slowly pulled back and smiled at me as I woofed out a long, slow, cleansing exhale. “I love you,” I breathed on the last of my breath as I held his gaze.

“I love you…more,” he replied, his face and voice gentle.

Just like that I knew we had created a new game between us, and I could tell from his smile, he knew it too. I tugged at him and he came to me willingly. He entered me slowly, holding my gaze. He took me leisurely, lovingly, settling lightly over me as he caressed my face with fingers and lips while we made love in the most intimate position. Our joining didn’t have the white-hot heat of some of our other romps, but it was special in its own way.

There was no tumbling around in the bed. No Neil throwing me around and fucking me good. No me on top riding him to orgasm. I was sure we would come back to those things, but tonight he was taking me gently, sweetly, murmuring of his love as he made me his.

After many long moments, I could feel an orgasm stalking me, lurking in the shadows, waiting to be called into the blinding light of our passion.

“Make me come,” I whispered, the hovering climax teasing me with expectation. He was beginning to sweat from his slow, steady efforts and our combined body heat, the wetness between us another source of pleasure. He knew what to do. “Make me come and come with me, please come with me.”

He smiled at me, his finger brushing a bit of hair out of my face as he began to drive into me with purpose. His eyes and face hardened, his face twisting with pleasure. My eyes closed as ecstasy bloomed within me.

“Fuck,” he muttered as he picked up the pace of this strokes again.

He was winding himself up, and dragging me along with him. Knowing he was close always twisted me up, and this time was no exception.

“I’m going to come,” he panted.

“Don’t stop!” I hissed, our code word for I was getting close to my climax.

“I’m going to come,” he repeated, his voice strained.

“Don’t stop! Please don’t stop!”

He reared up. I didn’t want to lose the feeling of his flesh against mine, so I clung to him as he lifted my head and shoulders from the bed. I was so close! He began pounding into me furiously hard.

“Fuck…fuck…fuck…fuck!” I snarled as I clamped down on him.

“Fuck! I’m coming!” he barked over my own soft cry of completion, spilling his wetness into me as we clung to each other before we fell back to the bed with a gasp. We held each other as we panted, and then he kissed me.

“I love you,” he whispered.

“I love you…more,” I replied and smiled at the game. I liked it. “You said you were falling in love with me,” I pointed out as I drew a finger down his cheek.

“I am.” He gave me a teasing smile. “Think of it as falling into a well. Once you fall, you’re in the well even if you are still falling.” His smile spread as he touched my lips with a finger. “This is a deep fucking well, and I don’t think I’ll ever stop falling.”

I warmed with his words and nudged him. He tumbled to his back so I could snuggle close. We could make love again later, but right now, I wanted him to hold me. This had been some day, and I wanted nothing more than to go to sleep in his arms…and wake up the same way.

“I love you,” I whispered as sleep began to stalk me. I couldn’t believe less than an hour ago I was afraid of saying those three little words when they came off the tongue so easily now.

“I love you…more.”

I smiled. It was impossible for him to love me more than I loved him, but I didn’t say anything. After a long moment, the steady thudding of his heart and his slow, rhythmic, breathing, lulled me into sleep, and I slid peacefully into the darkness, a small smile still on my lips.