Page 74 of Back To You

“Ride me like you own me, sweet girl. God knows you do.”

And she does.

She moves her hips against me, taking everything she needs from me while giving me more than I could ever ask for. She rests her hands on my chest, her fingernails leaving marks on my skin that I hope turn to scars.

I help her ease herself up and down, letting her control the speed as I lose myself in her.

With how sensitive she must be by now, it doesn’t take long for her to get close, her pace picking up, losing her rhythm. I take control, moving her against me, pushing up into her, hitting just where she needs to come undone with me right behind her, and I don’t know if I’ll ever recover.

It takes a moment for me to come back to earth, feeling Annie fall on top of my chest, her hair tickling my skin. I roll us on to our sides, gently pulling out of her and pressing a kiss to her forehead before running to the bathroom and coming back with a warm cloth.

I ease her onto her back, her eyes heavy and body relaxed, and she watches as I gently wipe her sensitive skin and her inner thighs before throwing the cloth towards our pile of clothes to deal with later.

I pull her into me, her legs intertwining with mine, her head resting on my arm as I hold her close to my chest.

A few moments pass, and I wouldn’t be surprised if she fell asleep.

“You’re telling me I missed seven years ofthat.” Her voice comes out muffled with her lips against my chest, and we both burst into laughter.

I lean back to look down at her, my cheeks hurting from how hard I’m smiling. “I’d say it was well-worth the wait.”

Chapter 29

Annie

Saying that the rest of the night, the week, the month, was a dream would be an understatement, and—for once—I am okay with eating my words.

Luke was right.

We will figure it out, and we’ll do it together.

The whole month of September flies by for more reasons than one.

Rotations are kicking my ass. Having a full-time job without the monetary benefits, in addition to hours of work to bring home with me, all to do it all again the next day, but I finally feel like I am using what I’ve learned the past three years.

I’m in my first week of my second rotation, this time at the Milwaukee Zoo, working at the zoological teaching hospital. I know it’s early to be deciding what I might want my main focus to be when I’m finally done with my rotation year, but I knew I would like working with the staff at the Animal Health Center.

This rotation is the one I talked to my advisor about over the summer, and I’m really interested in the AHC program they offer for fourth-year veterinary students.

With the stress of rotations, I thought a new relationship, especially one with someone as clingy—in agood way—as Luke was going to be just one more thing to worry about.

Turns out, having a boyfriend who makes it his goal to help you relax and rest the second you walk through the door was the perfect remedy for maintaining stress-levels.

Luke has spent the past month making sure Lenny’s is running smoothly since Emmett isn’t ready to come back just yet, but he still finds ways to help me manage everything—rotations, meals, getting enough sleep—all while making me feel like I’m being taken care of.

A feeling I’m not used to.

It took a week or two to actually let him help, even with things I don’t ask for, but his reassurance that he’s doing it for me because he wants to, not because he feels like he has to, has been healing in ways I didn’t know I needed.

It’s the last weekend in September, and the Lenny’s crew is together to plan our annual Halloween Party that brings all of us together plus the other people in our lives.

Luke always invites his brothers; Drew invites her brother, his wife, and her childhood friend, Lacey, and her husband; Eddie and Mia invite the Cross My Heart guys and Eddie’s three sisters, and we all dress in costumes that go with whatever theme we come up with.

“I think we should do superheroes,” Eddie says, from behind the bar. Lenny’s is dead for a Friday night, so we’re all just helping ourselves—all of us having bartended here for more shifts than we could count.

“We did that three years ago,” Mia answers, throwing her straw wrapper at her husband from across the bar. “What if we did iconic music videos?

“Like when Luke dressed up as Britney Spears from “Baby One More Time” with pink bows in his hair andeverything,” Drew laughs, two-and-a-half-month-old Lennon in her lap, half asleep. She takes after her dad with how much she just watches and observes everyone and everything around her—and usually gets bored and falls asleep which is what I’m sure her dadwantsto do.

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