at me like that, Kaley, and you won’t get the wine. Two years is a long time.”
There is nothing I can do to keep the smile from my face. I used to dream this moment and now I’m here.
“That’s not the worst idea I’ve ever heard,” I whisper.
He pulls me against him, claiming a fast, heated kiss, and then his laughter fills up the quiet house. “Then I’ll grab the wine and you get into bed.”
How wonderful it is to hear the sound of his laughter again. I want to lay in bed with him, stroll the aisles of a grocery store, learn to love these dogs, and be forever with him and his laughter.
I watch him disappear into the kitchen. I take in the lovely arrangement of the living room.
“Where did you get the money for all this?” I ask.
I hear laughter from the kitchen. “Kick-Start campaign. Donations. I board some dogs. I hold training classes and I’m thinking about releasing a book.”
“A book?”
He moves through the kitchen doorway, a bottle of chardonnay and two glasses in hand. “I’ve got an outline and four thousand words done. It’s about our foundation, our rescues operations, and the world of illegal dog fighting. When it’s finished I’d like you to be the first to read it. Everyone says the key to success is to market in multiple channels.”
He’s talking as though what we’re doing is not a one-time thing and my heart takes off racing again. Still, I feel a little worried that we haven’t covered any of our issues, not our breakup or that night or details of exactly what this is.
I watch as he sets the wine on a table and puts Tiki into her cage.
“Why are you caging her?”
“She likes it in there. It’s her safe zone and like I said before she isn’t used to sharing me.”
I laugh and roll my eyes. “You don’t have to pretend you haven’t been with anyone else since we broke up. I’m a big girl. I can take it.”
Bobby steps closer to me and starts to speak, but then his mouth is on mine before I can take in air. I am suddenly lost to everything but the feel of him and he is moving us toward the bedroom. He plunders deeply in my mouth and I find myself opening all parts of me to him.
“You have no idea how much I’ve missed that.” He kicks closed the bedroom door behind us. “We can talk as much or as little as you want, later. I’ll tell you anything, everything you want to know. But I am not going to bed one more time without you.”
He is staring at me with hungry eyes and I am just as anxious to make love to him and to kick from the room anything that might interfere with us loving each other forever.
I lean in closer as he starts to unbutton my dress. It may be the wrong time, wrong moment, but I can’t stop myself and I say, “I love you. I may have made a mess of us, but I have never not loved you.”
My dress is gone and Bobby sweeps me up into his arms. “I’ve always loved you and I’m going to love you the rest of my life. That’s what I figured out in two years without you.”
“Me too,” I whisper, kissing his neck and feeling myself being lowered onto the bed. “Make love to me. I can’t wait another moment.”
And then we are not waiting, we are naked in bed together, my flesh pressed to his flesh, my lips are being devoured by his, and the urgency of our bodies is capering in the air and making the room electric. All my parts awaken at once. How have I managed to survive two years without this?
The bed smells of fresh washing and Bobby, and the two scents together are rightly so. Fresh sheets. He planned this. Everything below my waist begins to throb madly. He wanted me even before I followed him here.
His kisses run over my mouth, my cheeks and neck, as if he’s reclaiming the feel of me and I am just as frantic to reclaim the feel of him.
He turns me beneath him on the bed and lowers his mouth to flick at my nipple. A violent shudder rolls down my limbs and I moan, arching into him, filling my hands with his soft,