My back pressed against the door, and he stared at me as if I were the most important person in the world. His lips hovered over mine, but he didn’t kiss me.

“Why did you stop?” I frowned.

He smirked, cupping the side of my face softly. “Because I’m waiting for you to tell me what you want.”

He’d never once asked me that question. I just followed his lead. I didn’t mind. If people thought of me as a doormat, I didn’t care, because at the end of the day, I was still right by him. He kissed my head and then my nose before stopping again at my lips.

“What do you want, Amelia? Say it.”

“Make love to me,” I whispered, taking off my shirt and throwing it to the side. “That’s what I want.”

When he kissed me this time, it felt like just like the one in the kitchen. Passionate. My whole body leaned into him, and when it did, he lifted me up off my feet. Placing me in the center of his bed, he kissed down the side of my neck.

“Ah…” I shivered when he cupped my breast, his thumb rubbing over my nipple before kissing both of them. His lips then made their way down my stomach. Slowly, he peeled off my skirt, letting it fall to my ankles. He sat up above me, his hands slipping two fingers between my thighs already.

“You are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen,” he whispered in my ear as I clenched his arm, rocking against the pleasure of his hands.

All too soon, he left me, his tongue tracing around my nipples once more on his way down between my legs. He spread them gently and kissed my clit. Pulling his hands out, his tongue took their place, and my legs wrapped around his head. My hands grabbed the sides of the bed, holding dearly as his tongue explored every inch of me until I couldn’t take it, grabbing a fistful of hair. His grip on my thighs tightened, but he never once stopped as I rocked against his mouth.

“Oh!” I cried out, my eyes rolling, and I licked my lips. It felt too good. He was too good. It felt like he kept pulling me to him. As he licked and sucked, my toes curled. My back arched to him.

“Oh God, yes!” I gasped, my chest rising and falling from the high I had just experienced from his mouth alone. I sat up on my knees. When he rose, he pulled off his shirt, casting it aside before hugging me to his chest and kissing me. The fact that I could taste myself on his tongue drove me insane with lust.

“I want you,” I whispered, kissing his hard, bare chest softly, my hand running down each one of his abs.

“You have me,” he replied, his hands going to my hair.

I smiled, my hands pulling at the waist of his pants. “Then I want you inside of me.”

He pushed me onto my back. Taking off his pants, he crawled on top of me, my heart racing as he brushed up against me. His hands slipped to mine, holding them to my sides.

“I want you to have what you want,” he said above me, and with one thrust, my mouth dropped open as he entered me.

“Amelia,” he moaned, burying himself deeper in me. One of his hands moved down to hold my waist. Not once did he look away from me, and it felt like my heart was going to burst. Wrapping my arms around his neck, I held him closer to me. I never wanted to let go.

Slow.

Sensual.

Passionate.

Beautiful.

In this moment, it felt like we shared everything. Even our breathing was in sync. He hugged me and I him. I moved against every thrust, my body crying out for him in the best ways imaginable.

“Noah,” I moaned, biting my lips.

He kissed the side of my jaw. “Again…my name. Say it again.”

“Noah.” That did it. He smiled, grabbing both of my thighs, and thrust deeper than I thought possible.

I was in heaven: the feel of him in me, on top of me, his lips all over me. I was sure this was heaven. And I never wanted it to end.

Noah

God, she was so fucking beautiful.

“Noah!” she screamed, her nails clawing at my back as she came.

I want to hear her cry out for me more. She drove me insane, she felt like—

“Fuck,” I hissed at just how tight she was. I couldn’t hold back anymore. Speeding up, her legs wrapped around me and—

“Amelia!” I kissed her as I came.

Resting on top of her as she held me, never once breaking apart, we kissed, rolling around in my bed for a moment before we had to break away in need of oxygen.

“Wow,” she said, taking deep breaths now on top of me.

“Wow,” I repeated, my hands on her back as I reclined against the pillows.

She laid against me as my hands ran down the length of her back and sides. I felt amazing, and most of all, I wanted to be with her again.

“What do you want, Noah?” she whispered, sitting up to look at me.

“What?”

She repeated herself, this time more slowly. “What. Do. You. Want?”

I wanted to fuck her. I wanted to make love to her. I wanted to dance in my kitchen with her again. I wanted her.

“You,” I whispered, brushing her hair back.

“Then take me.” She said it like it was so damn easy. But it wasn’t. “We can try us…this. If it doesn’t work—”

“We’ll end up doing another movie together in ten years?” I joked, and she smacked my chest.

“I’m serious.”

I knew she was.

“It’s 3:00 a.m., Amelia. Can we save this for tomorrow?”

“Will you still be here tomorrow? And I don’t mean the movie set or the same hotel. Will you still be in bed with me tomorrow?”

I wanted to be. So I said what I wanted and hoped that was enough.

“I’ll be here,” I assured her.

5:19am

It had only been two hours since I promised Amelia I would be with her when she woke up. But looking at the text on my phone, I already knew I was going to have to break it. I wrote her a note, hoping that would be enough until I got back. But it wouldn’t be. I already knew that, but I still had to tell her anyway. I wanted to wake her up, but if I couldn’t tell her the truth, what was the point?

One day I was going to wake up, look at myself in the mirror and see a decent guy…just not today.

I had been telling myself this almost for ten years now. It was the only thing keeping me sane, the hope that one day I’d be better.

I glanced back at her, curled up in the middle of my bed, snoring lightly, rubbing her nose as she rolled to the other side. She had never been a graceful sleeper. God only knows how many times she’d kicked me when we were younger. But I would just smile and wrap my arm around her.

When I shut the door behind me, Austin stood in the living room already, newly dressed as if he had never gone to bed to begin with and had merely changed clothes. Knowing him, that was a possibility. In all of my life, there were two people I ever truly trusted: him and Amelia.

“She’s only going to piss you off if you go.”

“Since you’re here, if Amelia wakes up, let her know I’ll be back soon.” I ignored him and grabbed my jacket off the chair as I moved toward the door.

“Noah, it’s been ten years. She can’t keep holding this over your head.”

“It’s not me I’m worried about.” It had never been me I was worried about.

Closing the door behind me, I stared at the door ivory doors across the red-carpeted floors from me. How she had gotten this room, I wasn’t sure, but then again, I shouldn’t be surprised. Everyone thought she was some idiot, a dried-up old woman who no longer knew what to do with herself—but that was far from the truth.

“I’m glad you could make it, Noah.” She smiled when I walked in, the door left open for me. She was dressed in a dark red nightgown with her hair in curlers. She sat in her chair as if she were some type of queen.

“Did I have a choice, Esther?” I questioned. How Amelia could be the daughter of this woman was beyond me. But considering who my parents were, I didn’t have room to talk.