Page 70 of At the Heart of It
The pressure built faster than he wanted, and he fought to keep his head in the game.
“Sex is the most natural expression of our humanness.”
He hated his ex-wife’s words in his brain, but couldn’t stop hearing them.
“When two people join together as?—”
“Shut up,” Jonah growled.
“Sorry.”
“No! Not you. I swear, I just?—”
“I know,” she murmured, smiling up at him.
And he thought maybe she did.
He moved again, and Kate arched tight against him gasping with pleasure. He wondered if she really did know, if the voices in his head and the voices in hers sometimes whispered the same words, hinting at the same old ghosts.
“Jonah, I’m—oh, God?—”
He felt her break open beneath him, clenching and clawing and making the sweetest, most joyful cries he’d ever heard in his life. That’s all it took to undo him. He let go with a soft groan of his own, driving into her again and again until they both lay breathless in a shocked and sweaty pile of wonder.
When he finally rolled away, he pulled her with him. They lay facing each other for a few moments, breathing fast, with Kate’s eyes closed and her lashes fanned out on her cheeks.
“That was unbelievable,” he said.
Her eyes fluttered open, and she laughed softly as she reached up to brush hair from his eyes.
“I can’t say this is how I expected to end my day.”
“Me neither. But I’m glad it happened.”
“So am I.”
Neither of them said anything for a long while. They lay there wrapped in each other’s arms, legs twisted together and the sheets kicked somewhere near the foot of the bed. She shivered once, and Jonah reached down to pull the covers up. He arranged them over the top of their bodies, then pulled her close, nestling her snug against his chest. They were still facing each other, but so close a bookmark wouldn’t fit between their bodies.
“Kate.” He planted a kiss along her hairline, then another on her earlobe. “No matter what happens, this was never a mistake. Things like this don’t happen by accident.”
She opened her eyes and looked up at him. Something wary shimmered in them, something startled. She started to pull back, but he held her against him.
“I didn’t mean that to sound ominous,” he continued. “I just meant—shit, that came out wrong.”
“No, I get it,” she whispered. “I think I know what you mean.”
Jonah tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and breathed in the grassy scent of her shampoo. “This might make things complicated,” he said. “Or maybe not. But no matter what, I don’t regret it. We were pulled into each other’s orbit for a reason.”
She stared at him for a few moments, then nodded. “I agree.”
Jonah stroked her hair again, needing to touch her. He lowered his mouth to hers, kissing her more gently than he had before. The urgency had ebbed, leaving them here in this big white bed wrapped in a feather duvet. They were just two people craving each other’s touch, exploring each other’s bodies, warming each other’s souls.
As Kate slid her palm over his shoulder blade, Jonah could almost pretend it was as simple as that.
Kate slipped into the bathroom sometime around five the next morning. She’d always been an early riser, and having Jonah spend the night in her bed had left her too flustered to sleep well. She kept opening her eyes to look at him, hardly believing this was real.
“No matter what, I don’t regret it. We were pulled into each other’s orbit for a reason.”
Okay, so he’d quoted his ex-wife in bed. Not a verbatim quote, exactly, but the part about being pulled into each other’s orbit was something Viv had written in But Not Broken.
