Page 28 of What If It's You?

I hurried along the platform, desperate to be out of the stifling, trapped air beneath the earth. Aboveground, the tight band compressing my lungs, squeezing every breath, loosened slightly, and by the time I made it across the plaza to a cluster of bistro tables, the black border at the edges of my vision had dissipated. Hand still shaking, I clicked my phone to life, frowning when I saw the Museum of Natural History site. That was World D, right?

But there was one surefire way to know which world I was in. Iwent into my text messages, and there, at the top, was the one I had hardly dared to hope for, the one that could only exist in one world. I clicked the phone icon next to the name, fingers trembling…

“Lo? What’s up?”

It was Ollie.

“Ollie…are you…Where are you?”

“At the apartment…where you left me twenty minutes ago.” His voice was wary. “Are you okay? Did they cancel your appointment?”

“No, I…I just…”

And then I burst into tears.

“Lo? Lo, where are you, I’ll come get you.”

“No, I’m…okay. Just…stay there, yeah? I’ll be home soon.”

“Okay. Yeah, okay. But call an Uber if you start feeling weird. Promise?”

“I promise,” I choked out, then hung up, practically running the mile from the station to our apartment, looking down at every intersection to confirm I was still wearing the sneakers, stillthisLaurel, that my life hadn’t slipped sideways again when I wasn’t paying attention.

When I got back to the apartment, Ollie was waiting in the living room, pacing. I collapsed into him, sobbing, the relief at finding him there—where he was supposed to be, whereIwas supposed to be—liquefying my legs. I hadn’t realized until I’d somehow made it back here how much I’d missed him…and how much the strain of performing a life, rather than living it, had been compounding.

“It’s okay. I’m here. You’re okay,” he murmured as he held me tight, rubbing my back in slow, regular circles. I breathed him in, a hint of cedar beneath the spicy notes of his bodywash. I could feel my shoulders loosening at the smell, so familiar I’d almost stopped noticing it.

After a few more seconds, he placed his hands on my shoulders, gently holding me just far enough away that he could fix me with his dark, concerned gaze.

“Do you want to tell me what happened?”

“It was…I was…I wasn’there,Ollie. And I couldn’t get back.” I bit my upper lip at the widening of his eyes. He was doing his best not to react in a way that would freak me out more, but I could hear how I must sound to him, halfway to a nervous breakdown. I drew in a deep breath and shook my head slowly. “It doesn’t matter, I just…I was having an extremely anxious moment and I needed to see you. I’m sorry.” I wrapped my arms around him more tightly and lowered my head to his shoulder, as though enough physical contact could keep him from flickering out of my life again.

“You never need to apologize for that, Lo.” His arms tightened around me protectively, and I sighed. My body ached as the tension I’d been holding since the previous morning—every nerve and muscle and sinew on high alert, my animal brain expecting the threat to be physical—slowly dissipated.

Ollie bent to press a soft kiss to my temple.

“Are you feeling better?”

“A little,” I murmured into the juncture between his neck and shoulder. I inhaled him again, deeply. Heat stirred at the base of my belly, and I pressed my body closer to his, enjoying the low, lazy ache between my thighs that was growing with each passing second in the comforting circle of his arms. I hadn’t felt a desire this insistent in ages, my need to connect with him approaching hunger. I turned my face to kiss the side of his neck, making my way slowly up its length until my mouth met the base of his jaw, the stubble there tickling my lips in a way that made my breath catch.

Ollie’s hands drifted apart, one moving up between my shoulder blades, the other sliding down my back to rest at the base of my spine. He pressed me to him, rolling his hips against me lightly, and I pulled back just enough to meet his waiting kiss, my lips parting with a soft sigh, inviting him in. His tongue caressed the inner curve of my top lip and I moaned against his mouth.

“What about your appointment?” he murmured, kissing his way along the curve of my jaw to nibble at the lobe of my ear. I sucked in a sharp breath, arching into him, as electricity shot straight to my core.

“I’ll reschedule,” I said, voice breathy, then wove my hand into the curls at his nape, guiding him down the column of my neck, breath growing shorter with each new touch of his lips to my skin, the heat of his breath sparking embers of desire that flickered through my body, tiny conflagrations that merged at the pit of my stomach in a blaze of hot need.

“Should we…mmm.” Ollie’s eyes closed as I slid my free hand around his hip to rub my palm roughly against his fly, the growing evidence of his desire sending a thrill through me, too. “Move to the bedroom?”

“No,” I said, smiling against his mouth. “If someone wants to watch, let them.”

Ollie growled deep in his throat, then pushed me back, reaching for the hem of the thin sweater I was wearing and pulling it over my head, leaning in to kiss me once more, his appetite for me palpable, before he stepped away to tug his own shirt off. The sight of his bare chest and stomach, curls of dark hair trailing down the center line of his abs to disappear beneath the waistband of his jeans, sent a fresh pulse of heat through me. When was the last time I reallylookedat this spectacular man? It was amazing how you stopped seeing the things that you lived with every day, or at least appreciating them.

I bit my lower lip, grinning slyly at him as I reached for the buckle of his belt, tugging him closer as I undid it, then popped the button on his jeans and pulled the zipper down with a rough jerk. Ollie grinned back at me, eyelids lowering in a way that turned his always dark gaze impossibly sultry. I slid my hand into the opening of his jeans, holding his gaze with my own, and lightly curled my fingers around his length, throbbing now with desire.

He groaned again, bending to take my mouth in his, drawing my lower lip between his teeth in a way he knew drove me wild. I closed my eyes, dissolving into the kiss, blindly pulling his pants down over his hips. He hooked his thumbs into either side of my waistband, tugging my leggings down over my ass, stopping only to squeeze its soft curves before he pulled them all the way to thefloor. We broke apart just long enough to pull our pants the rest of the way off, then he was on me again, pulling me against him, pressing my now throbbing core against the insistent erection straining against the front of his boxer briefs. His free hand traced the runnel of my spine, starting a shiver that spread out through me all the way to the roots of my hair. Bending to kiss me again, rougher now, his stubble scraping my chin, he deftly loosed my bra with one hand. His hips rolled against me again, in time with his tongue, which moved along the inside of my mouth, then he pulled away, exhaling heavily through his nose as his eyes drifted slowly down the length of my body.

“Fuck, Lo. You just keep getting more beautiful.” He shook his head slowly, a soft, almost pained smile on his face as he slowly pulled my bra down the length of my arms—the slender silk straps leaving goosebumps in their wake—then tossed it onto the coffee table. “Sometimes it’s hard to believe you’re really mine.”

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