Page 86 of Wayward

“No, no, I don’t wanna wait. And I’ll cook for you instead.”

“You’re not cooking your first night home,” I said, smiling into the phone.

“Fine, I’ll have Chinese too, but I want to see you.”

“That can maybe be arranged,” I baited him.

“Oh, honey, please,” he said, his voice cracking. “I’ll be right there, but I’m dying to see you. A lot of the guys I was there on the training with, they’ve known me a long time, and they said they’d never seen me so excited to go home.”

“Is that right?”

“Yes,” he ground out. “Dying to see you.”

“Same for me so…yeah. I’ll meet you at your place.”

He was silent.

“What?”

“Can you open the goddamn gate?”

I groaned. “It’s been opening. It just takes a minute. The guy’s coming back tomorrow to reset it.”

His growl of frustration was adorable.

Walking out to the living room, I let Ada know that I was running over to Gale’s place and would bring him and the food back with me.

“Is he finally home?”

“Yeah, but what do you mean by finally?”

“Well, you’ve been pining, my darling, so I’m thrilled that he’s back.”

“Pining?” I was defensive.

She laughed at me and pointed at the door.

I bolted from the room and left the house fast with Misha right behind me. Even though I had the key, I knocked on his front door. I loved that the door was instantly flung open and he stood there staring at me.

“Hi,” I greeted him.

“Hi back,” he returned, smiling wide as Misha darted by him and into the house. “What took so long?”

“That wasn’t long,” I argued.

“Fine, whatever,” he said, hooking a hand around the side of my neck and drawing me close.

“Wait,” I said, both hands flat on his chest. “Did you kiss anybody else while you were gone?”

“Fuck no,” he replied sharply, glowering at me. “Did you?”

“No, I did not.” I grinned at him. “Okay, you can make with the kissing now.”

“Are you sure?” he murmured under his breath before he bent and kissed me.

I had missed kissing this man. It was new and exciting but also felt like I’d been kissing him for a lifetime. Like we fit together perfectly. There was so much yearning intertwined with a certainty of affection. I didn’t have to guess with him. I knew I was both wanted and needed. I felt the same.

In moments he had me through the door and knocked back against it, his hands all over me, up under my T-shirt, then down under the waistband of my sweats, squeezing my ass. I was his for the taking, my body hot and willing, going boneless under his touch.