Chapter 37
After dodging sly smiles from Callie all breakfast long, I was thankful she was heading home that afternoon, and I’d get the weekend alone with Abraham. After breakfast, he drove me to my car, searing his presence in my mind with a long, slow kiss that had my toes curling, and my heart pounding. When we finally managed to pull ourselves apart, there was a satisfied grin on his handsome face.
“Have a good day, baby,” he murmured, his soft lips against my temple sending shivers down my spine.
I smiled up at him. “Thanks, I’ll see you tonight.”
He nodded, and brought my hand to his mouth, kissing my knuckles. He leaned his massive frame against his black truck, and watched with hooded eyes as I climbed into my little gray compact car, and drove away.
The further I got from him, the more uncomfortable I felt. It was like a small hole in my chest that slowly expanded the further I got. At the first red light, I pulled down my visor mirror to find I was red faced, and wide eyed. And happier than I’d ever been.
I soothed down a few flyaways and straightened my suit jacket. I was due in court this morning, and I couldn’t go in there looking like a love struck hot mess. The air conditioner blasted against my heated face in the hopes it would cool me down before I arrived.
It was around lunchtime when court was dismissed, and I made it to my office for the first time. There was a pile of messages, and emails I needed to return, and I worked at that for the rest of the day. At five o’clock on the dot, I turned off my desktop, and sprinted for the elevators. I was thankful that my day had been so busy. If I’d been able to think about how Abraham was in my house waiting for me, I would have probably clocked out after lunch, screw the consequences.
When I arrived home, Abraham was at my table, staring intently at his laptop screen. The computer illuminated his face, casting harsh shadows across his face. When he saw me walk in, his face cleared, like the sky after a thunderstorm.
He spun in the chair and opened his arms for me. I wasted no time kicking off my heels and running into his open embrace. He smelled like spearmint, and fresh clean man, and I breathed deeply, having missed that scent all day.
“Are you sniffing me?” he asked, a smile in his voice.
My face heated. “Um. Maybe? I got my sense of smell in,” I said in my defense.
He pulled back, his eyes light with humor. “I know. Callie told me.”
I pulled back, mockingly incredulous. “You were keeping tabs on me?”
He rolled his eyes. “Of course I was.”
I shook my head. “I can’t believe Callie was living in my house whilst reporting to the enemy.”
He wrapped his hands around my waist and pulled me onto his lap. “The enemy?” I nodded seriously. “I’m not your enemy, baby.” He leaned down and pressed his lips against my neck right below my ear. “I can be your best friend, if you’ll let me.”
I shivered under his ministrations, my blood heating along with my face. “The position’s already filled,” I breathed.
He shook his head, pulling a patch of sensitive skin between his lips, and sucking. “And who is it I need to fight to get that position?”
I gasped. “Aah! Um, that’d be your sister, I believe.”
He pulled back and looked me in the eye. “Which one?”
“Well, I love them all,” at least most of them, “But, I’m closest with Evey. She’s my best friend.”
A slow smile spread across his face. “I like that,” he admitted before leaning down to kiss my throat again. “My girl, and my sister, best friends. A guy couldn’t get any luckier than that.”
“I’m not your girl.” My response was pure reflex. I wasn’t sure I believed those words anymore.
He shook his head, his dark hair falling forward to tickle my face. “Aren’t you?”
I shook, and gasped in his arms as he pulled the shirttail out of my skirt, and ran his big warm hands against the small of my back. My head fell to the side giving him better access as I struggled to reach the hem of his shirt. He kissed a trail up to my mouth before gifting me with one of his soul shattering kisses.
We sat like that for a while, me on his lap, and him worming his way under my skin, before something small and furry bumped against my ankle. I pulled away from Abraham’s lips to find Charlie looking disgruntled and entirely left out.
I slipped off Abraham’s lap and picked up my cat. “Oh I’m so sorry, Bubba. Momma forgot all about you.” I nuzzled my face into his soft fur while I watched Abraham try to catch his breath out of the corner of my eye. A small satisfied smile crept across my face that I hid behind the cat.
“Never thought I’d be jealous of a cat,” he grumped, reaching out a tentative hand to give Charlie a pat on his head. Charlie tolerated his touch for a short moment before he leapt from my arms, and headed for his purple flower cat house.
I met Abraham’s heated gaze and realized; I wasn’t ready for this. Not all of it. Last night had been a spur-of-the-moment thing, but I didn’t think I was ready to just jump in bed with him. We needed to slow things down.
“How about I order dinner, and we watch a movie?”
“Sure, but I’m paying.”
I rolled my eyes and shook my head. “My card’s the one saved in the app, so I’ll be paying.” He frowned, and I laughed. “Poor alpha not getting his way?”
He nodded petulantly and pulled me back onto his lap. “At least let me hold you while you do it,” he muttered.
“That’s a compromise I can live with.”
I ordered us a couple of subs and took a shower while we waited for the delivery to arrive. When I came out of my bedroom, refreshed and clad in my comfiest pajamas, Abraham already had our food laid out on the coffee table with the on demand screen pulled up.
I sat next to him and dug into the food as we debated about what we were going to watch. I finally won that battle too, and keeping with my desire to branch out, I chose The Notebook.
“Do I really have to watch this again?”
“Again?”
How many other girls had he watched this with?
Who was I going to have to beat?
Were they in his pack?
Was it Peyton?
My blood boiled as a million scenarios flashed through my head, each worse than the one before it.
Abraham’s chuckle broke through my murderous haze. “Down girl. I have four sisters, remember?”
My ire slowly subsided. I guess that made sense too. “You saw this with one of them?”
He nodded, a big stupid smile still plastered against his satisfied face. “A couple times.”
I huffed unhappily and took a large bite out of my steak bomb sub. Abraham laughed harder and pulled me into his hard chest. He wrapped an arm around my neck and kissed the side of my head. “You’re really cute when you’re jealous.”
I frowned and pulled away from him. “I’m not jealous.”
“Uh huh.”
I shot a glare his way which only made him laugh harder.
With a roll of my eyes, I hit play and sat back, resting my head on one of his thick biceps. “Whatever, let’s just watch the movie.” He chuckled again and kissed the top of my head. His laughter subdued a lot of my anger, but I wasn’t telling him that.
By the end of the movie, I had my legs draped across his lap, and a box of tissues on my stomach, the tears running steadily. Abraham’s eyes hadn’t left my face in the past few minutes, and I wondered what he saw. A hysterical woman? A silly girl? An emotional wreck?
Because I doubt he saw what I was really feeling or understood the reason behind my tears. It wasn’t the sad ending that made me cry. It was the love they shared. A love I had only previously imagined in my wildest dreams. A love that transcended time and even death.
Abraham reached over to collect my sadness with his rough thumb. “Please don’t cry,” he begged. I did my best to stop the flow of tears, but they continued to fall. He sighed, and pulled me onto his lap, wrapping his big arms around my shoulders, and stroking the hair from my face.
“That’ll be us one day, you know? Fated mates can’t live without each other. They always pass at the same time or shortly after one another.” He kissed my wet cheek, leaving his lips pressed against my skin as he continued to speak. “I never understood why until I met you.” He pulled back, his eyes a dark limitless blue. “Now, I get why they die together. I can’t imagine surviving even one minute without you.”
His sweet words had my tears falling faster, and soon I was sobbing. “I didn’t say that to upset you,” he spoke hurriedly, stroking my arm with one hand as the other tried its best to catch the endless tears.
“I’m not upset,” I whimpered.
Abraham sighed. “Then why are you crying, baby? It’s killing me.”
I shook my head. “I don’t know. It’s just so sad. And so beautiful. I never thought I’d find something like that,” I nodded at the television.
He sighed again and stood from the couch with me clutched against his chest. Abraham carried me to the bedroom and held my shaking body as I cried out this overload of emotions.
I cried for a long time as Abraham whispered sweet words in my ear and rubbed my back. When my eyes had finally run dry, I lay spent in his arms, halfway between sleep and reality. I felt him roll over, and make a move to get out of my bed, and I clutched his hand. “Stay,” I pleaded softly.
He sighed softly and pulled me back into his arms. “Always,” he promised as I lost the battle with my heavy eyelids, and slept.
The next day dawned with no tears or sadness, only blue skies, and the delicious adrenaline rush of a new relationship. After breakfast, we drove into Durham to hit up their amazing farmer’s market. We stayed away from any booths that sold things we’d have to cook and instead patronized the craft stands. I picked up a few ‘thank you’ gifts for his sisters, and we bought some baked goods from a patisserie before we headed back to Raleigh.
I took Abraham to one of my favorite museums in the city, the North Carolina Museum of Natural History. It ranked at the top primarily because it boasted a butterfly room. We stood in the steamy little habitat as butterflies of all colors flapped and swirled around our heads. More than a few landed on Abraham, and I laughed as this big hulking man tried to keep still so the fragile little butterflies didn’t get hurt.
Abraham took me out to dinner, and when the sky turned dark, I had a brilliant idea.
“I want to take you somewhere,” I told him as we climbed into his truck. “It’s my special place I want to share with you.”
He smiled broadly. “Then I want to see it.”
I directed him onto I-40 and then to 540. We pulled off an exit, and I guided him to a small, dark parking lot.
“This is?” he asked warily.
I laughed and jumped out of the cab. He turned the engine off and followed me around to the back of his truck. I opened the tailgate, and hopped on, patting the spot beside me for him to join. With furrowed brows, he climbed up into the truck bed, and sat quietly, looking around the dark parking lot with confusion clouding his face.
“What are we doing here?” he finally asked.
I heard it coming in the distance and placed a finger against his lips. He kissed it and pulled my hand into his. “It’s coming, just wait.”
Abraham did as I asked, and a few moments later, the loud roar of the huge airplane drowned out everything else. It flew directly overhead, so close it seemed like we could stand up, and touch it. Just as suddenly as it’d appeared, it was gone, finding a spare runway at Raleigh-Durham International airport, and landing on its tiny wheels. With my improved senses, I could actually hear the tires squealing against the tarmac, smell the jet fuel from the massive aircraft.
I turned to Abraham, his eyes wide, head still tipped back toward the sky. “What do you think?”
He turned to me. “That was amazing!”
I laughed at his joyful response and lay back on the bed of his truck. He pulled a blanket out of the tool box near the cab and laid it down before motioning me over. We laid side by side, hands entwined as plane after plane flew above us. Some coming, and some going, but all of them making us feel so small, and insignificant when compared to their massiveness.
A yawn escaped me, and Abraham sat up, pulling me with him. “I need to get you home to bed.” He drove us home as I dozed in the seat next to him, head on his shoulder, and arms wrapped around his bicep.
When we arrived, he scooped me into his arms, and carried me up the stairs. “I can walk, you know,” I good-naturedly grumped.
He smiled wide, his white teeth shining in the dark. “I like holding you,” he replied with a shrug, making my insides clench almost painfully. How could such sweet things fall from his lips so easily? Would it always be like this?
He carried me in the apartment, and into my room where he left me on the bed to go change. I stripped, and pulled my pajamas on, leaving the door open when I was done. He peeked his head into my room to find me lying in bed with the covers drawn on his side. I patted the mattress, and he smiled, his eyes softening as he climbed in next to me. Just like the past two nights, he pulled me tight against his chest, and kissed me long, and slow before pressing his lips against my forehead.
“Night, baby,” he said, his deep voice rumbling through my chest, the vibrations lulling me to sleep.
And as I lay there tucked against his chest, I opened the door to my fortress, leaving it ajar behind me. I snuck up to the top floor, and into a closet full of things I’d rather forget. Up on a shelf behind years' worth of baggage, I found the highest hopes I’d ever had for my future. I took them down, and dusted them off because for the first time in a long time, I had use for them.