She makes a noise and gives me a look. She’s perfectly annoyed.
“If this chair can’t even withstand my love for you it’s worthless anyway. I’ll get you a new one. Or we can use that one—” I motion to the one that’s still intact. The huge chair we can both fit in. The one we can screw in comfortably.
“I think you broke my chair on purpose.”
“Untrue. If you hadn’t started taking off my clothes and then your clothes, your chair might very well still be in one piece.” I drop my head and kiss the tip of her nipple.
Her hand goes into my hair, gripping tight to keep me there, her voice is breathy now. “I knew I should’ve moved it to my apartment.”
I move to her other nipple. “What would be the point since you’re not going to be there much longer.”
“I still have”—she gasps when I bite gently—“some time on the sublet.”
I push up on one arm so I can look at her. “You don’t have to stay until the sublet is up. Besides, my place is closer to the theater.”
“By all of five minutes.”
“Why can’t you make this easy for me? Does everything have to be hard?”
She smiles and tightens her legs around my waist, pulling me closer until my erection is pressed against her.
“I like hard things.”
I ignore the comment, although it isn’t easy. “I want you to move back in.”
Her smile drops a little. “I thought we were waiting until the sublet is up.”
“Do you want to wait until then?”
“Well, it’s been the plan.” She plays with the hair at the nape of my neck. It’s what she does when we’re having conversations she’s unsure of.
We’re still lying sprawled out on the floor. I push up onto my knees, which causes another huge crack and the top and bottom of the chair separate completely. At least there’s absolutely no way to fix it now.
“Are you committed to sticking to the plan?” I fold back on my knees and rearrange her until she’s sitting in my lap.
She glances at the broken chair beside us on the floor and nudges the top with her toe. “I don’t have to be.”
“Then move back in. You’ve proven you can do this on your own and I know that’s important to you. We both know you can. I want us to do this together.”
“Are you sure? It hasn’t been that long . . .”
“It’s been months if you count all our video chat dates.”
“You make it sound like bad Internet dating.”
My stomach drops a little. Maybe I’ve read all the signs wrong and she’s not as interested in taking this to the next level like I am. “Is this you skirting an answer?”
“You’re so cute when you’re insecure.” She wraps her arms around my neck. “I just wanted to give us enough time to make sure it’s not all hormones driving us, and you know, that the sex wouldn’t get boring or anything.”
At my narrowed eyes she leans in and kisses me softly through a smile.
“Of course I want to move back in with you.”
“We can clean out your apartment tomorrow.”
She laughs. “No rush, though, right?”
“I want what I want, and I don’t want to wait if I don’t have to.”
“It must’ve been hell for you to wait more than five weeks between first kisses.”
“Exactly.”
“Okay, tomorrow we move me back in.”
“And tonight we celebrate.”
“Oooh . . .” Ruby bites her lip. “What kind of celebration?”
I slide my hands down to cup her ass and pull her tight against me. “A naked one, with lots of orgasms. You in?”
“Will there be naughtiness to go with the nudity and the orgasms?”
“Isn’t there always?”
She doesn’t need to answer and I don’t need to say anything else. She skims my lips with her fingertips, then replaces them with her mouth.
Every kiss is an echo of the first time. Accidental or not, some part of me recognized her as my future and now she’s mine to love.