After so long without Hannah in my bed, a single day should’ve been a cakewalk. I should’ve been able to give her the space she clearly needed. Should’ve been able to go about my day as usual like all the days prior to this weekend, not thinking about her but in the barest sense I’d allowed myself.
But things were different now.
All those years had gone by because I hadn’t known the taste of her lips or the feel of her tight little body under mine. I hadn’t known the sweetness of her whispering my name as she came around me. Hadn’t known the sound of her hushed laughter at three in the morning as I discovered all her ticklish spots.
And I wanted it back. More than anything, I wanted her. I needed to reassure her that she was my number one priority now, and I’d never keep anything from her again. The real kicker about this whole situation was that my asshole brother was still keeping us apart, this time with just his words. And it pissed me off.
Now, she was two hours away from me, and I had no fucking idea how long I should wait before going after her and fighting for us, just like I told her I would. I’d wanted to give her an hour and then follow her over the bridge and into the city. Wanted to show up at her door at midnight and tell her all the reasons we were perfect together, all the reasons she shouldn’t turn her back on us. But I’d promised I’d let her go. I just didn’t know how long was long enough. It’d been twenty hours since I’d last seen her, and already it felt like my heart was eating itself.
“Whoa, dude,” AJ said, taking away a glass I was drying. “You remember how much time we spent painstakingly picking and choosing the perfect mugs to carry?”
“What?” I asked, having no idea what he was talking about.
“These.” He waved a hand at the line of mugs I’d placed on the counter. “These glorious specimens of beer-toting goodness do not deserve your anger, asshole. Slamming them down on the bartop like they’re fucking rubber balls, Jesus Christ.” He shook his head. “Take it out on something a little less breakable, huh?”
“Shit, sorry.” I scrubbed a hand down my face and sagged against the bar, tossing the drying towel over my shoulder. It wasn’t quite four in the afternoon, which meant I had little time to get my shit together before our doors opened for the night. Not enough time.
“You gonna tell me what’s got your panties in a twist? You’ve been cranky as hell all day.” AJ raised an eyebrow. “With your texts over the weekend, I assumed you’d met up with a hottie and were passing the storm with some good old-fashioned fucking. And now you’re all mopey and shit. Since when does Luke Markos get mopey?”
“Since I did meet up with a hottie, and that hottie was Hannah.”
AJ whipped his head around to stare at me, mouth agape. “Hannah? As in, the Hannah? Your asshole of a stepbrother’s girlfriend, Hannah?”
“Ex-girlfriend. And, yes, idiot. How many fucking Hannahs have I talked about?”
“Just the one, but I had to be sure.”
“Yeah, well. Now you are.”
He whistled low. “So you got with Hannah. You said ex-girlfriend, so Barry’s not the problem—”
“Barry’s always the problem.”
“What’d the fucknut do this time?”
Blowing out a deep sigh, I tossed the towel onto the bartop and crossed my arms over my chest. “He caught us, and everything went to shit after that.”
“Caught you? Doing what?”
I raised an eyebrow. “What do you think?”
“No shit? Where?”
“Janitor’s closet at the high school.”
He gave an appreciative nod. “Nice.”
“Not the time, man.”
“Right, sorry.”
“He told her about when I found him with that other woman. Made it out like I’d purposely kept something from her.”
“God, I hate that fucker. Always have.”
“I’m finally starting to understand why.”
“It’s about damn time.”
“Yeah, well.” I shook my head, running a hand through my hair in frustration. “He’s still working his games. Keeping Hannah and me apart, even without him in the picture anymore.”
“How’s that? Why aren’t you at her place right now?”
“He told her all that shit, and then she said she didn’t know if she could trust me. Said she wanted to leave. Without me.”
“So you let her leave. Good call, but that was last night. What’re you still doing here?”
“What do you mean, what am I still doing here? Did you listen to the story?”
“Did you?”
I glanced at the clock on the wall, hoping, miraculously, it’d somehow fast-forwarded hours. Nope. “It hasn’t even been twenty-four hours yet.”
“Who gives a fuck?”
“I do. I don’t want to mess this up before I’ve even gotten her.”
“Dude.” AJ sighed, shaking his head and looking at me like I was a toddler. “I don’t know why I have to dole out the relationship advice, but here we are.” He gripped me by the shoulders and shook me a little. “You’re an idiot. Go.”
“Go where?”
“Her house. Jesus Christ, Luke, did you literally fuck your brains out this weekend?” He smacked me upside the head, then danced away before I could retaliate. “Get in your car, drive over the bridge, find her place, and knock on her door. It’s not rocket science, man.”
“What if I haven’t given her enough time?”
He shot his brows up. “Ever think she might be as miserable as you?”
I sure as hell hoped not. “But Hops—”
“Isn’t hoppin’ yet, and when it is, we’ll handle it. Been picking up for your slack-ass all weekend, anyway. What’s another day?” And with that, he shoved me toward the back, tossing my keys at me before pushing me outside and slamming the door in my face. “You can thank me later,” he shouted through the closed door.
I stared down at my keys, then glanced at my watch—again. But who cared what time it was? The only time I knew was too fucking long away from Hannah. I didn’t know if there was some rule I was supposed to follow, if I should’ve called first or warned her I was coming. But the beginning of our…whatever this was…hadn’t been conventional. Why should I start now?
Without another thought, I hopped in my Jeep and took off toward the bridge and then to her place, thankful I had her address stored in my phone. Hitting rush hour once on the mainland made the trip longer than it should’ve been, which only added to my frustration.
After too fucking long, I pulled up in front of her apartment, luckily finding a spot close, even on the busy street. The five-story brick building looked like it’d seen better days, but I’d passed the hospital only a couple blocks down, so I assumed that was why she’d picked it. I headed inside, scowling over the fact that there wasn’t any security, and took the stairs two at a time to get to her floor.
I didn’t stop before I knocked on her door. Didn’t take a minute to figure out what the fuck I was going to say, or how I was going to approach this. I just knew I was there, within a few feet of her, and I couldn’t wait a second more to see her face.
She answered without questioning who was there, just opened the door, her head down as she dug through her wallet. Wet hair framed her makeup-free face, and she wore nothing but a short robe, the front dipping down into a V. Jesus fucking Christ.
Finally, she glanced up at me as she extended a handful of cash, a polite and bland smile on her face. At least until her eyes connected with mine—until she realized who was on the other side of her door. The smile dropped, the cash and her wallet fell to the floor, and she stared, slack-jawed.
“Luke—”
“You always answer your door in a robe without checking to see who’s on the other side?”
“I ordered a pizza.”
Scowling at her probably wasn’t the best way to start this conversation, but nobody else needed to see her like this, especially considering she was probably completely bare underneath. “You’re wearing a robe, Hannah.”
“I…” She straightened, tightening said robe around her. “What are you doing here?”
I reached for her, ran my finger down her cheek. “I came for you. I told you I’d fight for us, didn’t I?”
A throat cleared to my right. “Uh…sorry to interrupt.”
I glanced over my shoulder to see a young guy in a red baseball hat, holding a pizza warmer.
“I have a Hawaiian pizza for”—the red-faced delivery guy glanced at the receipt—“Hannah Fedele?”
“That’s me.” Hannah bent down to grab her money, the front of her robe gaping open. If I’d been behind her, I had no doubt I’d have gotten a glimpse of her pussy, too.
As fast as I could, I slid in front of her, blocking the pimply faced teenager’s view and shooting him a glare. “You want a tip?” I snapped. “Keep your eyes up here.”
“Jesus, Luke. Give the guy a break.” She passed the delivery guy a handful of cash. “Sorry. He’s territorial, apparently.”
“N-no problem, thanks.” He stuffed the money into his pocket and rushed toward the stairwell.
I turned back to Hannah, gripping her by the elbow and leaning in until my mouth was against her ear. “Your tits were on full view when you bent over, so how about next time you don’t answer the door in your robe unless you know it’s me.”
A shiver racked her body before she straightened her spine and pulled away, holding the door open for me. “Next time, huh? Pretty presumptuous considering how we left things yesterday.”
I stepped inside, locking her door behind me and following her into her small galley kitchen. “Not presumptuous…hopeful. I don’t take on fights unless I think I can win, and I’m fighting for this.”
She pulled down two plates from the cabinet by the sink, then grabbed a couple cans of pop from the fridge, hip checking it to close the door. Acting like my being in her space was an everyday occurrence. She wanted to play normal? I could do that.
“Maybe I’m tired of fighting,” she said. “Maybe I just want things to be easy for once.”
I followed her lead, placing a couple slices of pizza on the plates and following her into the living room. It was…not at all what I expected. No color, no life. Not at all Hannah.
Settling next to her on the couch, I handed her a plate. “Then how about you sit there and look pretty, and I’ll do all the fighting?”
She shot me an unamused smile. “Be serious.”
“I am being serious. If I have to spend hours, days, weeks, fighting for this, then I will.” I took a bite of the pizza. It was no supreme, but this was her favorite and always had been, so I sucked it up. “Do you know why?”
She shrugged and took a sip of her pop. “Because you love beating Barry at everything?”
Was that really what she thought this was? Time to clear that up real quick. “Because I love you. And because you deserve someone who thinks you’re important enough to be willing to do anything to keep you.” I polished off my first piece and started in on the second.
Rolling her eyes, she set her slice of pizza on her plate. If I weren’t paying such close attention, I would’ve missed how her hand shook. “So now you think you love me?”
“I don’t think, I know.” I reached out, swiping my thumb over the corner of her mouth where she had a bit of pizza sauce. “And if you believe you're going to find someone who'll love you harder than I will, you're wrong. I've loved you for more than a decade, sunshine. I'm not stopping anytime soon.”
She bit her lip, glancing down before meeting my eyes. “If you loved me, then why did you lie to me? Why did you let Barry get away with what he did?”
I blew out a breath, hating that my asshole of a stepbrother was still fucking this up. “I didn’t let him get away with it. I caught him and told him he’d tell you or I would. I sometimes wish it had come from me, but I gave him the chance to make amends.”
“He never told me he was cheating, Luke. I found him with another woman in our bed.”
“What? No, he called me and told me he’d come clean, that you guys were going to counseling—even gave me the fucking counselor’s name. He said you were upset but wanted to try to make it work…”
She’d started shaking her head before I’d even finished. “Never happened. I found them, and two days later, I moved in to this place. There was no counseling.” She laughed. “Though, can you imagine Barry in a counseling session? I have no idea how you believed that one.”
I ground my teeth together. Once again, I’d let my loyalty to him cloud my judgment.
Never again.
“I should’ve known. I…” I blew out a breath. “I just wanted you to be happy. Even if it wasn’t with me. After all those years of his bullshit and lies, I should’ve been able to see through him, but he’d made it sound like you were happy…with him. And you never mentioned anything whenever we talked…” I placed my plate on the coffee table, then scrubbed a hand down my face. “Maybe if I had seen through him, you and I would be somewhere else now.”
“Like where?” she asked, her voice soft. She leaned toward me, her plate discarded on the table.
“Where?” I reached out, brushing her damp hair behind her ear, then trailed my finger across her jaw and down her neck, smiling as goose bumps erupted on her skin. “Name it. Temperance Falls, here, my bedroom, fucking Japan—as long as we were together, it wouldn’t matter where.”
She leaned into the hand I’d wrapped around her neck, my thumb brushing against her pulse point. “How would we make it work? Right here and now…how would we be a couple when you live on the island and I’m here?”
I straightened, darting my eyes between hers, not even attempting to push down the hope climbing up my throat. “However we needed to. Temperance Falls isn’t that far away. I’d drive here. You can drive there. Weekends, vacations… And in between, there’s always phone sex.” I shot her a smirk.
She laughed and ducked her face. “You’re not exactly the type of guy I see being satisfied with phone sex.”
I narrowed my eyes, trying to get a read on her. Trying to figure out what she was really asking. “This isn’t just any phone sex we’re talking about—it’s phone sex with you.” With a finger under her chin, I turned her head so she looked at me. “Is this about what Barry said?”
She shrugged. “I could never make him happy, and knowing I could disappoint you…that I might not be enough…”
“Sunshine…” Even though we were only six inches apart, it was too much. I gripped her by the hips and tugged her right into my lap, settling her knees on either side of my hips. Willing my cock to settle the fuck down because now was not the time to get hard. Or harder, as it were. I cupped her face, pulling her down so I could feel her breath against my mouth. “You made me happy when we weren’t together. If you were mine? I’d be the happiest man on the whole fucking planet.”
She closed the last couple inches, brushing her lips against mine. “Even if you don’t get to see me every day?”
Groaning, I covered her mouth with mine, unable to stop when she was so close. Unable to stop from tasting her, from pressing against the small of her back and grinding her down on me. To hell with acting like just being around her didn’t get me hard as steel. Let her feel what she did to me.
I pulled away, pressing a kiss to the corner of her mouth. “Even then.” I trailed my hands up and down her back as she melted into me. “If you were mine, you’d know that means I’d be yours, too. Just yours.”
Hannah sighed into my mouth, her hands fisting the front of my T-shirt as she slid her tongue against mine. Jesus, had it really only been a day since I’d last tasted her? Since I’d last swallowed her breathy moans, since she’d ground herself down on my cock? How the hell was I going to last when we were apart?
Didn’t matter how, just that I would. I’d deal with it, doing whatever it took to make this work between us. Hannah was worth every bit of sacrifice I could possibly make. And I’d make them all for her.
“Luke?” She panted, tipping her head to the side when I moved my lips down her neck. “Will you stay with me tonight?”
And every night for as long as she’d have me. With her ass gripped in my hands, I stood from the couch and walked down the short hall, finding her bedroom on the second try, my attention distracted as she nipped at my neck all the while grinding down on my cock. “Shit, sunshine.” I kneaded her ass, pushing her against me. “I didn’t bring a change of clothes, so that means a lot of naked time.”
“Oh, damn.” She pushed away from me, and I reluctantly let her down until she stood in front of me. And then she untied her robe and let it pool at her feet. I knew it—completely fucking bare. “Better be careful. It gets chilly in here at night.”
“I can see that,” I said, my voice low and gruff. “Or, are these for me?” I gripped her around the waist and leaned down, taking one pert nipple between my lips.
Her hands flew to my hair, holding me to her as she moaned deep in her throat. I smiled around her breast before switching sides, sucking her deep and making her arch into me. Her tits were small and perky and so fucking responsive.
“Someday, we’re going to see if I can make you come with just my mouth on your tits.”
“Not today?”
“No, not today,” I said as I guided her toward her bed and didn’t stop until she was lying in the middle, her legs spread the tiniest bit. Goddamn, she was a fucking goddess, and I hadn’t yet had a chance to really look at her. This weekend had been about rushed, secret encounters. But, tonight? Tonight, I was going to savor.
She made a move to cover her breasts, no doubt uncomfortable as I stood there and stared.
“You remember what I said the first time in the boathouse?” I waited for her nod before continuing. “Good, then you know I want to look at every inch of you.”
“But you’re still dressed.”
“You want me naked, sunshine? You just had to ask.”
“Please. I want to see you.”
I didn’t take my time stripping down, instead ridding myself of my clothes as quickly as fucking possible. I grabbed my wallet and dug out the backup condom, tossing it on the pillow next to her head. “Should’ve brought a box with me.”
She giggled, her tits bouncing slightly with the movement. “I don’t think we can go through a whole box tonight.”
“No?” I asked, picking up her leg and pressing a kiss on her ankle. Letting my tongue stroke the sensitive skin. I moved slowly up her leg, brushing my mouth over every inch of her. “I think we might need two.”
Her laughter cut off on a moan when I licked the crease between her leg and her pussy. “Luke…”
“Hmm?” I asked as I started the torture on the other leg, working my way up to where she was already swollen and wet for me.
“I want you inside me.”
“’Fraid I can’t do that yet, sunshine.”
“Why?” she asked, shifting under my wandering mouth. “I’m…I’m wet enough.”
Just to torture us both, I ran a finger through her slit, spreading her wetness. “That you are. Dripping just for my cock, isn’t that right?”
“Yes.”
“Do you know why I can’t give it to you yet?” I asked, then licked across the top of her mound.
She groaned, slipping her fingers into my hair and trying to push me down to where she wanted me. Seemed forty-eight hours of me worshiping her pussy with my tongue was enough to get her past her hesitance in that area.
“No answer?” I teased, dragging my bottom lip across her lower stomach as she panted, her head tossing back and forth on the pillow. “Because I’m going to worship this beautiful body. I’m going to spend as long as it takes until you realize you”—I nipped at the slight flare of her hip—“are the only one I want.” I moved up, licking the underside of each breast. “That I love each bit of you, want your scent all over me.” I moved down her body again until I hovered over her pussy, then I leaned in and swiped my tongue straight through her slit, letting it flick hard against her clit.
She gasped and bucked up against my mouth, using her grip on my hair to tug me closer. “There, Luke. Please, there.”
“You want me to lick your pussy? Suck this sweet little clit into my mouth?”
“God, yes.”
I licked her once more, then pulled back, using my fingers instead. “I will, but first I need to tell you something.”
“Now?”
“Yes, now. And I need you to believe me.”
“Anything, Luke, just please—” She moaned as I pinched her clit between my fingers.
“Listen. Are you listening?”
“Yes, yes…”
“A million women could come prancing through the brewery, buck-ass naked, and not a single one would turn my head.” I showed her mercy, stilling her rolling hips with my hands, my thumbs pointed toward her pussy to spread her wide open for me. Her clit was swollen and peeking out from under the hood, just begging for my mouth. “Not when I get to call you mine.”
“Oh God, I’ll be yours, Luke. Only yours.”
Christ, hearing that, I couldn’t wait another minute. I sucked her clit between my lips, sliding two fingers into her pussy and groaning at how wet she was. Gone was the shy girl who didn’t even want me to give her a lick. In her place was a woman who was too desperate to come to care what she did. With her hands clutched in my hair, she ground her pussy against my tongue, rolling her hips in the perfect rhythm to send her hurtling toward her climax.
“Shit, I’m gonna come. Luke, I’m—”
Not daring to stop what I was doing, I groaned against her, licking her as she screamed her release, no longer needing to stifle the sound.
When her tremors finally ceased and her hips stopped rolling, she tightened her fingers in my hair. “Now?” she asked, trying to slow her breathing.
I reached for the condom, sheathing myself before settling between her spread thighs and sliding into her, nice and slow. “Now,” I said, kissing up her neck as I lifted her thigh up and over my hip, sliding even deeper into her.
I caught her moan in my mouth, kissing her as I pumped into her body—the body that fit so perfectly against mine it was like she was made for me. After twelve years, there was no way in hell I was letting her go.
“Now,” I said again as I rocked us toward our release. “Always.”