Page 47 of Passing Notes

I decided not to force the issue. It would serve no good to take a hard line when she was in no frame of mind to discuss the past. Reassurance seemed like the better tack to take.

“Clara, I am going nowhere now that I have a chance with you again. Please believe that. We can talk about this right now if you want or we can wait. I don’t care if you’re tired. I don’t care if what you say doesn’t even make any sense right now. We can figure out how to fix it together. I’m here and I’m not going anywhere, I promise you.”

“But are you really here with me?” She groaned in frustration. “I’m sorry. I’m such a pain about this. I can’t help but think?—”

“No apologies. Trusting each other after all this time isn’t going to be easy. We’ll have bumps in the road like any other couple and we’ll get through them all. Together.”

“I want that. I want to get through this with you.” She let out a breath, visibly calming down as she nodded slightly.

I held up a hand. “Do you want to know what I know?”

“Yes, I do. I feel so lost right now, so unsure of everything. But all I can think about is you and how much I don’t want to mess this up.”

“That’s good, baby. I know you’re not going anywhere. I know you want to try this with me. The fact that you’re so desperate to keep from upsetting me proves it.”

“Do you really think this is a good idea?” she whispered into the dark.

I shifted to face her fully. “I know what I feel in this moment, and you do too, don’t you? I want to kiss you—right now. I’m dying to know what it would feel like to be with you again after all these years. I can’t stop thinking about it. You haunt me, Clara. I’ve been living with the ghost of you since we ended, and I didn’t realize it until you were back in town to stay, living right next door to me, with your bed just two fucking walls away from mine.”

“I think about you too.” She gave me a side-eye. “Honestly, you’re driving me crazy, and it pisses me off.”

A familiar sense of awareness surged between us, and I knew for certain she wanted me as much as I wanted her.

I gripped her chin and turned her face to mine.

“Be mad at me if you need to. Run from me, hide from me, yell at me. All I want is to be with you again. Dish it out and I’ll take it all. I’d do anything for a chance to be with you again.”

“God, Nick, is this real? What are we doing?” She bit her lip as a flush rose over her neck to color her cheeks.

“We need one more time together, at least. For curiosity’s sake. For the leftover feelings. Hell, just to get each other off and work out some of this tension between us. Maybe it will make things better—who knows? I don’t care how much it will hurt if I have to let you go after. I need to be with you again, even if it’s only one last time, just to have some sort of closure.”

Having her this close to me was like a drug, lulling me into euphoria. She was on the cusp of saying yes, and I was desperate to hear the word.

“I want you too. I can’t lie to you, Nick. I’ve thought of you so often over the years, more than I want to admit.”

I offered her my most charming smile. “I have condoms inside my bedroom.”

She threw her head back and laughed. “Presumptuous much?”

My lips turned up at the corner. “More like wishful thinking.” The prolonged anticipation was almost unbearable. I ran a hand through my hair as I watched her decide. She was gorgeous, sitting twisted toward me in her seat, chest heaving, lips parted, eyes at half-mast as she thought it over.

“Fuck it. Yes.” My heart soared as she reached for me, pulling me close with her hands on my neck as her eyes searched mine. “Yes, to all of it. I’ve been thinking about you and me together since I saw you sitting in your truck that very first day. I’m done with denying myself what I want.”

Like magnets, our lips crashed together. I drank her in—the sweet familiarity of having her mouth on mine again was both nostalgic and brand-new at the same time. I couldn’t get enough.

I pulled back, pressing my forehead to hers. “Let’s go inside. I want your clothes off.”

I got out, racing around the truck to open her door. She jumped into my arms and wrapped herself around me, arms around my neck, legs around my waist. “Hurry,” she whispered, nipping at my ear as I took the remaining few steps to my kitchen door.

CHAPTER 15

NICK

It happened. And it will happen again. And from now on, it will happen often and repeatedly. I’ve had a taste of you, Clara, and I’ll never forget it. We can’t go back to just being friends now that we’ve kissed. - Nick

Once we got inside, the kiss went wild. Blood pounded in my brain and sent my senses reeling before shooting straight to my cock. I pressed her against the door after I kicked it shut, the warm heat between her legs cradling me as I grew impossibly, painfully hard.

“I feel that. Damn, how I missed you,” she moaned into my ear. “Take me to bed.”