“I love ya, Tiff,” he says, pulling me to his chest and kissing my head. “I love ya. I want to be in your life and I’m not going anywhere unless you kick me out.”

I check my watch, and then have an idea. “We have twenty minutes before the show starts. Can I show you something?”

“Show away, princess. I’m your captive audience tonight.”

I pull him along by the hand, since he’s still holding mine, and go out the door into the lobby. “It’s upstairs.”

He waggles his eyebrows at me. “Sure it is.”

We get into the elevator and I lean back against the mirrored wall, fanning myself with my free hand. “I’m nervous.”

He just smiles. We get off on my old penthouse floor and he chuckles as I lead him down the hallway. “I like where this is going.” I bite my lip as I look over my shoulder at him. “Hey,” he says. “No using my tips and tricks against me tonight.”

But then he does that little tongue thing where he touches it to the tip of his front teeth, and I laugh. “I like your tips, so feel free to use them on me all you want.”

He shakes his head as he smiles. I walk past my old penthouse door and keep going, straight to the one at the end of the hallway.

“The roof?” he asks, his eyebrows up.

“Just wait, Fletcher.” We go through the door and walk up the flight of stairs that leads outside.

I stop and look at him for a second, my hand on the knob, ready to show him what I’ve done. Somehow the fight is over. It’s like we needed to say all that stuff back on the beach in order to move forward and now that it’s out in the open, everything feels… right.

I open the door and step aside, letting him get a good look at what’s beyond.

“Holy shit, princess. You turned my rooftop into the royal gardens.”

“Do you like it?” I ask, looking at my recently completed project with his eyes for a moment. The raised beds are filled with flowers and shrubs. The ground has been paved with stones, and little bits of grass and moss peek through the edges, like it’s been growing this way for a hundred years. White lights are strung around the perimeter, and the glow is just enough to give it a special ambiance that mixes with the fading sunset.

“I love it,” he says, taking it in as his gaze wanders from garden bed to garden bed.

“I just had the trees planted last week. In fact, I just moved up here from my old room a few days ago. And look what I did to the garden shed, Fletch.”

I realize when I say his name that we are true friends now. These last few minutes are new and old in all the right ways. He feels like a part of me. He feels like he’s been with me this whole time. He feels… real.

Chapter Thirty-Seven

 

The wonder and happiness in her face settles my nerves and calms me down. I have never been so filled with apprehension going to meet a girl as I was tonight. Everything raced through my mind as I pulled up to the valet. All the possibilities left hanging between us. All the ways I could fuck it up. Just how easy it would be to lose this girl and how I’d feel if that happened.

It wasn’t going to happen, I decided. I wouldn’t let it.

So when she came up to me downstairs and let me take her hand, it felt right. Like every decision that led to this moment was right.

She pulls me along towards what used to be the shed. But now it’s bigger. The dingy old cinderblock bricks have been painted white. The windows have shutters and flower boxes spilling over with color.

She opens the door to the new and improved garden shed and steps back to let me walk in first. It’s not big. Just a room, really. With a small kitchen where the old potting bench used to be and a king-size bed where I laid her down on the floor and ate her pussy until she came.

I shoot her a sidelong look. “How many men have you fucked in this bed?”

She laughs, getting my joke. “None, you sicko. I make them stand.”

I walk forward, hungry for her, and take her face in my hands so I can kiss her on the lips and whisper in her mouth. “You get me?”

“I get you, Fletcher,” she whispers back. “I do. Everything about you is sexy. But not the way you think. You’re sexy on the inside. Your heart is big, and your brain is smart.”

“I’m sorry, Tiffy,” I say, pulling back a little. “I was guilty of everything I accused you of.”

“We always wanted the same things, Fletcher. We were just trying to get them the wrong way.”

It makes sense, I realize. She thought she needed Cole to provide for her because her mother taught her to want that. And I wanted to take care of Sam and Shelly to prove I was a better man than my brother. “It’s strange how that happens.”

“We’re gonna miss the show,” Tiffy says, still kissing me.

“This is the show, sexy. The only one that matters.” I pull back and start unbuttoning my shirt.

Her eyes are trained on these small movements immediately. Her fingertips flutter down to the hem of her dress and begin to lift it up. She shows me a bit of leg as I continue to ease the buttons of my shirt free. When I get to the last one and shrug it off, she turns around and swipes her long dark hair off the nape of her neck.

I reach for the zipper and slide it down as she peeks at me over her shoulder. “Keep going,” I whisper. “Please don’t stop now.”

Tiffy grins as she looks down at my pants, and then my fingertips are on my belt buckle. It jingles as I free the leather strap, and I unbutton my jeans.

She sucks in a little air through her teeth and turns back to face me, allowing one strap of her pretty dress to fall over her shoulder. She chews on her lip a little and I’m about to lose my mind as her tease overtakes me.

I drag my own zipper down and fist my cock for a moment. Her breasts rise and fall underneath the thin fabric as her breathing hitches. She slips one arm out of her dress, then the other, so that it falls to the curve of her hip. Just the way it did last summer when she was driving me mad with desire.

My dick is already hard. Almost throbbing from the anticipation of seeing her body again.

But she’s slow and deliberate as she wiggles just enough to make the dress fall to the floor with a whoosh of air that wafts up, bringing the scent of her desire with it.

I drag my cock from the confines of my boxer briefs just as she lowers herself to the floor on her knees.

“Fuck, Tiffy. I think you’ve been practicing.”

“No need to practice, Fletch.” She grabs my hard length and gives me a squeeze. “I learned from the best.” And then she wraps her mouth around me and I moan.

Her sucking starts slow, but increases in intensity as my head falls back and I fist her hair, pushing her towards me. Urging her on. Wanting more with each passing second. I pull away to stop myself from coming down her throat in a rush.

“I want more,” I whisper. “I want to make this last all fucking night.” So I take her hand and guide her up off her knees so I can kiss her mouth. “Finish what you started,” I say in a gruff voice.

She places both palms on my chest and pushes me back until I bump into the bed and sit down. She straddles my lap, our eyes locked together. “You want me to tease it out of you?” she laughs.

“More than anything else in this world, Tiffy.”

She smiles knowingly. The shy girl from last summer has found her stride. She reaches behind her back and unclasps her bra, letting it fall forward just a little bit, just enough to give me a peek at her full breasts as they drape against her ribs.

I moan again. “Fuck.”

She slides the straps down her arms until I have a full view, and lets the bra fall into my lap. I reach for her, cupping her soft breasts, and this time she moans. I ease my face down to her nipple and take one in my mouth, sucking on her gently.