Falling for Fitz (18 page)

“
Okay. That’s
done.”

“
What? What’s done? Okay,
what?” He searched her eyes. A rush of panic made his thumb freeze
on her cheek. Was this the end? Did she want him to take her
home?

“
Okay. You loved me. I can
let go of that now. I’m ready for dinner.”

“
Just like that?” he asked,
relief making his hand tremble lightly against her skin.

She covered his hand lovingly with
hers, leaning her head to the side, smiling into his
eyes.

“
That’s how this works,
Fitz. We settle the past to clear a path to the future.”

***

Daisy sat on a stool at Fitz’s kitchen
counter, forcing herself not to help him prepare their dinner. And
she actually had to hand it to him… he wasn’t doing a half bad
job.

He’d had chicken breasts already
marinating when they got there, which he popped in the oven with
two baking potatoes. And now she was watching him make a salad as
they both sipped Yuengling out of long neck bottles.

Their conversation in the
car had released a lot of tension for her, answering the most
painful questions of their long separation. Hearing the
words—
I loved you
—meant a great deal to Daisy, and it was as though they were
healing and mending the patchwork of their past, sewing it back
together piece by piece to make it whole again. She was even
encouraged by him disagreeing with her a little bit; it made her
hope that he wouldn’t just “yes” her in opposition to his own quiet
feelings.

She looked at his bowed blond head,
thinking that as much as the English brothers looked alike, she’d
never mistake Fitz for one of his brothers. His body was long and
muscular and lean, and while he wasn’t the tallest of the English
brothers—that honor went to Stratton—he was well over six feet,
edging out Barrett and Weston for third place. His jaw was sharper,
his cheekbones higher, and he was altogether the handsomest of the
bunch. And anyway, he belonged to her and that made him totally
unique in her eyes.

“
Hey,” she said, watching
him cut up cucumbers. “Can you keep a secret?”

He looked up, offering a round piece
to her. “What do you think?”

“
I think so. But it’s about
one of your brothers.”

She saw the feelings pass fleetingly
over his slightly narrowed eyes—protectiveness and mild
suspicion—before he seemed to consider the source and soften
appreciably. “Let’s hear it.”

She grinned, popping the cucumber in
her mouth and crunching. “Emily’s ready to say yes.”

“
To Barrett?”

“
No, to Dr. M.. She felt so
bad about me breaking things off that she—”

He was around the corner in
a flash, his arms around her waist, yanking her off the stool—her
back against his chest—as he bit the side of her neck in
punishment. “You are
so
sassy. You were
always
so sassy.”

Emily had shrieked when he lunged at
her, but now she relaxed in his arms, leaning her head back against
his shoulder. He ran his hands slowly down her arms to her waist,
spinning her around in his arms, then bending his head to kiss
her.

The adrenaline from his sneak attack
had already made her breathless, but now she melted against him,
deliberately pressing her breasts flush to his chest and feeling
her nipples pucker. Fitz slipped his hands under her T-shirt,
sliding them slowly up the planes of her back as he deepened the
kiss. She reached for the belted waist of his jeans, pulling on his
crisp oxford shirt until she could press the skin of her hands to
the hot, hard skin of his hips beneath, moaning softly at how good
it felt and how much more she wanted from him.

“
How much time?” she
murmured. “Until dinner’s ready?”

“
Twenty minutes,” he said
breathlessly, letting his lips skate across her cheek to her ear
which he bit lightly, making her whimper and arch into him. She
felt the soft vibration of his laugh. “Oh, wow. I just remembered
how much you used to love that.”

“
Do it again.”

He chuckled lightly, the tremors from
his voice making goose bumps rise across her skin. He leaned
forward, tracing the pink shell of her ear with the tip of his
tongue, then flicked it across the lobe, making her whimper again.
He caught the soft pillow of skin between his lips, sucking gently
before slowly releasing it. Her breathing was ragged when he used
his teeth next time, biting her gently, exhaling lightly near the
damp shell of her ear, which made tingles rush down her back as her
knees weakened.

“
Are you wet, Daisy?” he
asked softly, amusement and arousal heavy in his voice.

“
God, you’re
cocky.”

But he knew her well. She was. She was
wet and soft, and if he slipped his hand under her skirt, between
her legs, he wouldn’t need to ask.

“
Tell me I’m wrong,” he
said, sliding his lips along the line of her jaw.

“
You’re not,” she admitted
in a low moan.

He growled as his lips crashed down on
hers, demanding, consuming, ravenous for her, his tongue exploring
every inch of her mouth as he cupped her ass and lifted her up
easily. She locked her ankles around his waist as he started for
the bedroom.

“
Dinner?” she panted,
kissing his neck over and over again, running her lips and tongue
and teeth over every exposed bit of his skin, breathing in his soap
and linen smell, knowing—with every fiber of her being—that this
was exactly where she was meant to be, with Fitz, in his arms,
loving him all over again.

“
I want you under me for
five minutes. That’s it. I’m not spoiling this for later, Daisy.
We’ve got all night. I just want to remember how it feels to have
your body under mine.”

He kicked open his bedroom door,
walking into the dim space purposefully, falling on top of her as
she landed on her back in his plush bed, keeping him locked between
her legs as he rocked into her. Her skirt had ridden up in transit,
and the friction of his jeans through her panties, arousing the
throbbing, swollen skin beneath, was almost too much to
bear.

She plunged her hands into his hair,
her fingernails curling against his skull. Her back arched off the
bed as she kissed him.

“
Jesus, Daisy,” he panted,
pulling back from her, staring at her with fully dilated eyes. “Was
it this hot?”

“
I don’t know. I don’t
remember,” she said breathlessly, as he thrust forward.
“Fitz…”

“
What do you need,
beautiful girl?”

“
I… I need… I
want…”

“
You want me to touch
you?”

“
Mm-hm,” she whimpered,
biting her bottom lip as he rolled partially off of her, just
enough to slide his hand up her bared thigh. Daisy spread her legs
just a little, her breathing shallow and ragged as his hand climbed
higher.

“
You’re soaked,” he
whispered when he reached her panties, nuzzling her neck as he
pulled her panties down to her knees and rested his palm over her
soft curls.

She wiggled her knees to get rid of
lacy thong and pushed against his hand lightly, feeling his smile
against her neck.

“
This
I remember,” he said softly.

With his fingers, he parted her lips
gently, slipping one digit into the hot, slick valley of flesh and
finding her clit immediately. Daisy bit down on her lip, exhaling
on an “ahhh” sound, ragged and rough, as he slid his finger up and
down before pressing the flat of his finger on the button of
nerves, making her flinch. Then he started rubbing faster and Daisy
felt the tightening, the gathering, the way her muscles bunched and
the pressure built, spinning her higher and higher and higher
until—

“
Fitz!” she cried, falling
apart against his hand, coming harder and stronger than she ever
had in her life. It made her teeth snap and clench, and her fingers
and toes curl. Her whole body shuddered and pulsed so fast it was
like one huge wave of pleasure. She had saved up nine years of
longing for that one moment: it was the first time she’d climaxed
with another human being since she was seventeen.

“
Whoa,” said Fitz, his
voice close to her ear as she felt herself being gathered into the
warm haven of his arms. “I definitely don’t remember
that.”

“
That was all you,” she
panted, her eyes still closed, her body like jelly as latent waves
of awesome still made her flinch and sigh in his arms. “All
you.”

He laughed softly and Daisy heard the
pleasure in the sound. It made her smile because he sounded
happy.

“
Are you okay?” he asked,
pressing his lips to her closed eyes, first one, then the
other.

Her eyes fluttered open and she looked
up at him, at the contours of his beloved face in the moonlight and
streetlamp-light and whatever light was filtering into his room
from the hallway.

There was no trace of
straight-laced, uptight Fitzpatrick English in the face of the man
looking back at her. No clenched jaw or furrowed brow. He laughed
quietly at the satisfied expression on her face, his blue eyes
crinkled at the edges, full of happiness, soft with tenderness.
Here in his bed, holding her in his arms, he was free and she was
safe. That’s what they had. That’s who they were now and always had
been. Except that now, as opposed to then, Daisy saw something more
in his eyes and it made her stare back at him with wonder. What
Daisy saw—what she was
sure
she was looking at on his beautiful face—was
love.

It wasn’t just that he had loved her
once.

He loved her now.

Right now.

She could see it. She could feel it.
She knew it was true.

She turned into him and leaned up on
one elbow to mirror him, her body languid and her eyes
heavy.

“
Fitz,” she said, because
it was—finally, finally—time. “I love you, too.”

***

It wasn’t possible for him to smile
wider. If he did, he’d strain something in his face, and it might
stay that way forever.

“
You do?” Not really a
question. Just seeking reassurance to be sure he wasn’t
dreaming.

She nodded, looking a little shy,
which was ridiculous after what had just happened between
them.

“
Have I told you that I
love you?” he asked.

“
No,” she said,
beaming.

“
Really? I didn’t mention
that yet?”

“
Fitz,” she warned him,
pushing him onto his back and straddling his chest.

He placed his hands firmly on her slim
hips, pinning her with his eyes, holding her in place.

“
Daisy Edwards,” he said in
a soft, low voice, overwhelmed by the strength of his feelings for
her, “I am
completely
in love with you.”

He watched the tears spring into her
eyes as she blinked down at him. “You are?”

“
I am, beautiful. I don’t
know how to be Fitz English without loving Daisy Edwards. I’ve
belonged to you since I was twenty, Daisy. You’ve owned me every
day since the last day I saw you.”

As she stared down at him, two tears
fell from her eyes to drip on his shirt. As gently as he could,
without another word, he scooted her down on his lap and sat up,
pressing his chest into hers, wrapping his arms around her and
holding her tightly until the oven beeped a warning for the fifth
time. Only then did he let her go.

“Tell me something about you that
nobody else knows,” said Daisy, smiling at him from across the
table.

Fitz shrugged, and his muscles flexed
under his white undershirt. He loved it that she got distracted and
stared at his chest for a second before reaching out with her bare
foot and rubbing it against his.

“
You won’t tell me?” she
teased.

“
I’m trying to think of a
good one.” He took a long swing from his beer, staring at her.
“Okay. Here goes… since the summer we were together, I’ve never had
a relationship last for longer than four dates.”

Her eyes widened “What? Get
out!”

“
I get to the month-mark
and lose interest. It’s a running joke with my brothers, and it
makes my mother nuts.”

“
So, you don’t…?” She
flicked her eyes to his lap and back up again.

“
What? Have I been
celibate?” He grinned at her, feeling a little sheepish, not
wanting her to imagine him with other women, but refusing to be
dishonest. “Most women don’t make you wait for the fifth date,
Daisy.”

To his relief, she didn’t look upset,
but she shook her head lightly in mock disapproval. “Boy, you must
have quite the reputation for loving and leaving.”

“
Not for loving. I’ve never
said that to anyone but you.” He shrugged again. “And frankly, I
don’t really care. I’m not going to keep hanging out with someone
if I don’t feel anything. Anyway, it’s hard to enjoy an endless
buffet of hamburger when you’ve experienced filet
mignon.”