Page 105 of Yours, For Now

He kissed me with adoration. I kissed him back, giving him another piece of me. He undressed me with revering hands, I caressed him like I treasured him. Seemed my body knew that I cherished him before the rest of me did.

Both fully naked, he put on a condom and kneeled between my legs. He dropped his body to mine in a series of slow movements, his hands caught in passing over my skin, as if drawn to cataloging each roll and dip and soft expanse of flesh. Minutes or eons later, he rested between my legs and kissed me again. I crossed my ankles behind him and hugged his neck, keeping him close. He rocked against me and I tasted his lips.

Gabe entered me in stages, pushing in a little bit at a time, a small roll of his hips with each deepening move. My breath caught in my throat and I pulled him closer, needing him to fill me up. He groaned and drove in until he couldn't go any further. I sighed in pleasure.

The rhythm we set fit perfectly like everything else. I met every pump of his hips with mine, both of us shifting, sliding, pressing, rubbing, tilting in sync. Arousal built with every pass of the head on my insides, and every tease of his pelvis on my heated flesh, adding to the waves of affection that sprung from my heart. By the time we came, warmth filled me up with as much intensity as the lovemaking had rocked my nerve endings.

He retreated but remained between my legs, his head on the soft round of my belly as we caught our breath. He kissed it.

My awareness sported a new thread, gold and silver twirling together, stitching the parts of me that didn't want to let Gabe go.

"Think about us, Lina. Think if there's a way we can have it all."

I ran my fingers through his hair and did just that.

Chapter 29

Foramanwholiked to take control in bed, I'd certainly given it all up making love to Lina that morning. I could still hear the tiny sounds she made as we moved together, so soft against my ear, yet with enough power to scorch every nerve that fired up in response. It wouldn't surprise me if some critical brain structure had already changed as a result of my time with Lina, both in general and this morning in particular. I'd surrendered, and I planned to not let it be for nothing.

We'd fallen asleep again afterwards, naked and in each other's arms. I'd forgotten to set an alarm, a first for me, and woke up a little too late to enjoy a lazy couple of hours with Lina. Instead, I gave her my phone again to order breakfast while I took a shower, then she did the same while I prepped a few docs I'd need later in the day.

I had a very important conversation with my parents ahead of me, and I wanted to be prepared.

So I'd kissed Lina before she got in her car and I got in mine, and I went to get some other relevant information from my office. Half an hour after that, I entered my parents' estate with nerves rolling in my stomach.

Just like that evening all those weeks ago, I entered the home through the unlocked kitchen. Unlike that time, I found my parents sitting on the patio having drinks, the table set for four.

"Gabriel!" Mom got up and came to meet me. Her hug was as perfect as always. "¡Qué bueno verte!"

"Tú también." I squeezed her extra hard, then did the same with my dad. "Is Vi joining us?"

"For food in a bit. ¿Quieres un aperitivo?"

My dad got me homemade pisco sour and we sat down at the table. My folders screamed at me from the empty spot next to me.

"How's Lina?" Mom asked. "How are things going there?"

I bit the inside of my lip. "She's… good. We are… it's complicated."

Dad frowned. "Are things not going well? I thought everything was wonderful, after seeing you two at the lake house!"

I opened my mouth to reply, before two thoughts clashed and they pushed a scoff out of my mouth. "You guys seriously don't beat around the bush, huh? You catch a whiff of a problem and sniff it out immediately, don't you?"

I smiled at my parents, and they smiled back.

"You know us," Dad said. "We want to know everything about our children."

"And I'm pretty sure you love it." Mom patted my hand twice.

"I do, yeah. Actually I was hoping we could talk about Lina."

"Lina?" Dad frowned. "I thought you wanted to talk about work. That that's why you brought paperwork with you."

Instead of my nerves going up, they went down. I trusted my parents that much.

"I want to talk about both, in a way. When I got together with her, I knew my chances of making it work would be low. You both know how much work there is in my position, and with the transition coming up… the logical thing would be to break up. I just… I really, really don't want to."

My parents exchanged a look, but gazed back at me a second later, as usual letting me get everything out of my chest before they started with questions or advice.