“No,” she said at last. “You didn’t.”
He accepted that.
He had to.
“You’re right,” he agreed. “I just wanted you to know the truth.” He started to leave.
“Why?” she asked behind him.
He stopped and turned back to face her. “What?”
“Why did you want me to know the truth? Why now, after all this time? In fact, why now after the nonconversation we had about this earlier tonight?”
“Because even though we’d like to be mature people who don’t sweat this kind of thing, it’s been the elephant in the room ever since we started working together. It was starting to spill over into everything I did, everything I thought about.”
“So you needed to get it off your chest,” she challenged. “To relieve your conscience.”
“Mer, it would take a noble explanation for leaving to relieve my conscience,” he said earnestly. “That’s not gonna happen. The reason I wanted to tell you this is because you deserved to know it because it’s the truth. I love you, Meredith. I always have. And, God help me, I guess I always will.” He gave a small smile. “That’s the last I’ll say about it, though, don’t worry. Good night, Meredith.”
He turned to leave and had taken two steps toward the door when she said, “Evan, wait. Don’t go.”
She should have let him go, but she couldn’t.
She ran to him, and it all happened as if in slow motion. He turned to her, she threw herself into his arms, and they kissed. Long and deeply, and expressing all of the unanswered passion they had felt for all this time but had been unable to share.
Wordlessly she took his hand and led him up the stairs to her bedroom. He didn’t ask questions. He didn’t need to.
They stopped in the doorway of her bedroom and kissed again.
“Not the same room you used to have,” Evan murmured.
“That would be just too weird, wouldn’t it?” She smiled at him, and they kissed again.
He moved his hands up her back in tantalizing slow motion, moving his fingertips across her back so lightly she arched against him when it tickled. When she did, he unhooked her bra with one quick flick of his fingers.
She remembered that move.
The fabric fell loose and he pressed his palms against her back, drawing her closer to him still. She went willingly, eagerly. If she could have, she would have gone right into his soul.
They kissed for long minutes, maybe ten or fifteen of them, unhurried but both certain where this was going.
Just as Meredith began to feel as if her core was melting into a puddle at her feet, he whispered, “Let’s move to the bed.”
She didn’t argue.
They crossed the room and fell to the bed together, resuming their kiss and increasing the urgency. Evan yanked at Meredith’s shirt and it flew open, the buttons popping off and clattering to the floor like pennies. She didn’t care. The sooner he touched her, the more he touched her, the better.
His hand skidded across her rib cage to her breast, his touch hot against her skin. He moved his hand to her nipple, playing her like an instrument, until her breath came in short, shallow bursts, her heart pounding urgently, begging for satisfaction.
She cupped her hands to his face and kissed him deeply, then moved her hands down the length of his chest and the flat of his stomach, until she got to the buckle of his jeans.
She hadn’t forgotten her own moves, either, and she dipped her hand inside his pants, and snapped them open as Evan groaned against her mouth.
“If you’re going to stop this, you’d better do it, like, five minutes ago,” he said against her mouth.
“I’m not sure….” She smiled and kissed him again, enjoying the game.
Apparently, he was, too. He slid his hand inside her pants and cupped her, dipping one finger into her womanhood for just a moment. “No?”
She gasped. “I guess we could keep going.” She moved her own hand to hold him. She was awed by the power of his desire and it made her crazy with her own, but she tried to sound controlled. “Unless you want to stop …?”
“You play dirty.”
“You don’t seem to mind.” She moved her hand, looking into his eyes. “Do you?”
Evan finally lost the control he’d been holding on to. He rolled her over onto her back and slid her pants down, his breath traveling hotly across her thighs as he did so. She reminded herself that this was Evan, that this was the love of her life, and finally—finally—she was going to feel him within her again.
She’d waited a long time for this, even while she’d told herself she didn’t want it.
All of her thoughts disappeared when Evan took her to new heights of pleasure.
“You’re amazing,” she breathed.
“You ain’t seen nothin’ yet,” he said, with a pirate’s smile.
He moved over her, and she couldn’t wait any longer. She pushed his jeans down over his slender hips with her feet and pulled him on top of her. She wanted him.
She needed him.
She ran her hands across his tightly muscled backside, then around to the front, where she found him more than ready for her.
Their tongues moved against each other, echoing the drumbeat that was pounding within them. They were like a well-oiled machine whose sole purpose was to join their bodies and move them toward ecstasy.
She started to move, and he stopped her. “Wait,” he said. “Let me. Relax.”
So she did. She lay back against the cool, soft sheets and let herself sink into the magic that was making love with Evan.
His hand moved across her stomach and her muscles tightened in anticipation. He took his sweet time to move his hand lower, and lower, grazing her pelvis and slowing tantalizingly before finally cupping over the part of her that wanted him so desperately.
He paused for only a second, looking into her eyes, a moment that said more than words could, before slipping his fingers in and plunging her depths.
Meredith’s hands clutched at the sheets beneath her as Evan brought her to heights she’d never even imagined before. She closed her eyes and let it happen, feeling waves of warm and cold wash over her while she writhed under his careful ministrations. She could barely breathe. Every time she reached the brink, he backed off, until finally he allowed her release.
With perfect timing, Evan lowered his weight onto her, and she finally felt the satisfaction of being completely one with him.
