34. Taylor

"The hearts of people in love are actually in sync." ~ Tim Rhodes

Relief washedover me as Carson pulled up to my house. This date had been a bad idea—it was a Hail Mary that failed. I felt bad that I'd agreed to go; it hadn't been fair to Carson. "Thanks again for tonight."

"I'm just sorry it had to come to an end." He turned to me and grinned. "I'm guessing that the complication had something to do with it."

I didn't want to lie. Remi was the reason. "Yeah."

"He's the guy from your first day, right? The one whose mom came in unconscious."

My brows knitted. "How did you know?"

"I saw him follow you when you went to the bathroom and recognized him. He looked like a man on a mission."

"Right." Even though I knew technically, I hadn't done anything wrong. I still felt like shit. "I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize. But, if things ever get uncomplicated, I would love to do this again. Deal?"

"Deal." I nodded, grateful that Carson was taking this so well. He really was a catch; he just wasn't my catch.

"Thanks again." I smiled and got out of the SUV.

He waited until I opened my front door before pulling away. I waved and then walked inside. As soon as the latch clicked in place, I leaned my head on the cold wooden surface as thoughts whipped through my brain.

Remi was staying in town. He said he was going to pursue me. He said that I was in denial.

This was my fault. I knew that. I'd had two "one-night stands" in my life. The first was with my best friend, and I ended up pregnant. The second was with a man, who I believed was a total stranger, who I never thought I'd see again, who ended up being my aforementioned baby daddy's childhood best friend and the brother to his new wife.

Messy didn't even begin to cover it, and I hated messy.

With a sigh, I lifted my head, and the second I did, there was a knock on the door.

"Did you forget some—" I started to ask as I opened it, assuming it was Carson. It wasn't.

"Remi," I breathed.

His eyes looked both wild and determined as he gazed down at me. A man on a mission—that's how Carson had put it.

"Can I come in?" he asked.

I nodded and opened the door further.

When he walked inside, all the anxiety I'd been feeling about what a mess this was totally disappeared. It was like that with him. Whenever he was near, all of my problems just sort of drifted into the background of my life. Almost like white noise. It's not that I didn't know they were there; they just didn't matter. When I was with him, I felt like we were floating in a private bubble. Or, maybe on cloud nine…

Nerves were pinging around in me like marbles in the Labyrinth Maze game as I asked, "Do you want something to drink?"

Remi shook his head and lowered himself onto my couch. He leaned forward and rested his forearms on his thighs the same way he had when he'd shown up after his mom was in the E.R. His head was cast down, and I could see he was trying to figure out how to articulate what he wanted to say.

Normally, I'd be impatient and demand that he just spit it out; whatever he was thinking, just tell me. Even though that was my first instinct, something was stopping me. His energy was different. Idon't know how, but I knew he needed time to collect his thoughts. So, in a very uncharacteristic move, I waited patiently. Silently.

After a few minutes, he took a deep breath. "The past year, my life has been… nothing makes sense. My mom dating and then marrying a guy half her age, only to get divorced a few months later. My sister and that viral video, her coming back here and falling in love with my best friend. My fiancée getting pregnant with another man's child and breaking up with me. My mom being sick and not asking for help. I just…none of it makes sense…" He lifted his head and looked into my eyes. The potency of his stare rushed through me like the white waters of rapids. I felt the magnitude and gravity of his emotions in my DNA. It was a part of me. "Only you. You are the only thing that makes sense. You are the only thing I know is real."

As flattering as all of that was to hear, I knew all the reasons he was saying this. He'd actually just outlined them perfectly himself. We'd met at a crucial time in his life. I was the first, and only person he'd told about what really happened to Misty.Then, for a few weeks, I was the only person who knew his mom's secret health struggle. We'd shared not one, but two secrets. He was trauma-bonded to me.

"Stop," he curtly snapped. "Do not do that. Do not try to analyze and diagnose what I'm telling you. And do not compartmentalize this. This is real. What we have is real. It's not because of circumstance."

"I wasn't…" I shook my head and almost denied that's exactly what I thought, but I stopped myself. There was no point, since apparently Remi could read my mind as clearly as if my thoughts were scrolling across my forehead like the ticker tape of the NYSE. "How do you do that?"

"I know you. I knew you before I even knew your name."

His explanation was not scientific; it's not as if that evidence would stand up in a court of law, but I found his argument extremely compelling.

His dreamy brown eyes held an intensity that stole my breath as he continued, "After I found out about Misty, I wasn't upset. I know I should have been. But I wasn't. I didn't understand why until I saw you sitting at the bar. When I did, I felt alive, awake for the first time that I could remember. I'd been sleepwalking through my life until I met you." Remi stood and took a large stride toward me, closing the distance between us. "Tell me you don't feel it, too, and I'll leave you alone. Tell me I don't make sense. Tell me I'm not the first thing you think about when you wake up and the last thing you think about when you go to bed. Tell me you don't pick up the phone to call me or text me before you talk yourself out of it. Tell me you don't love me."

"It doesn't matter?—"

"Yes. It does." He grabbed my hand and pressed it to his chest, just like he had when he came over after the wedding. His heart was beating just as strong and fast as it had been the first time. The heavy rhythm thudded beneath my palm. "This is for you. My heart is beating for you." He pressed his hand to my chest, and I knew he could feel my heart, which was beating in perfect sync with his. "And I know, even if you don't want to admit it, that this is for me. If this doesn't matter, what the fuck does?"

I wanted to argue, but I couldn't. I'd done everything I could to ignore, deny, and avoid how I felt about the man whose heartbeat was in sync with my own. My feelings were not based on logic. They weren't based on any of my rules. They defied everything.

"Nothing," I breathed out as I stared up at him. "Nothing else matters."

His jaw flinched a moment before he lowered his head, and his lips crushed mine. My hands began to rip at his shirt frantically, pulling it off his body. I got the material up over his torso as he unzipped my dress.

"This dress," he growled against my lips. His hand moved as he began to kiss my neck and slide the straps off my shoulders. "This fucking dress."

"I wore it for you. When I put it on, you were the one I wanted to see me in it," I confessed.

A moan rumbled from his chest as he shoved the dress down my body, and I pulled harder on his shirt. Within seconds, we were both naked. One hand cupped my breast as the other dipped between my legs. His fingers slid along my already wet folds, then pushed inside of me while the heel of his palm ground against the top of my sex, stimulating my clit. His mouth moved to my neck, and he nipped just below my ear, in the area that made me crazy.

At his touch, my release began to coil in my core. As the pressure built between my legs, I licked my palm, coating it with my saliva before reaching between us. My fingers wrapped tightly around his girth, and I began to stroke him up and down. His cock grew more engorged with each pass. Knowing that I had that effect on him caused my own pleasure to surge. Feeling the evidence of his arousal was a huge turn-on.

His lips moved from my neck back to my mouth as he claimed me in a passionate, spine-tingling kiss before resting his forehead against mine. Our labored breaths mingled as our eyes cast down, and we watched ourselves pleasuring one another. I lost myself in the rhythm of stroking him, loving the feel of his skin sliding against my palm as he grew larger and larger.

When I saw a bead of pre-come appear on his crown, I knew he was close. I doubled my efforts, trying to get him off, but before I could, the tip of his finger curled up and began to flick my G spot. A second later, my world exploded in shimmering pleasure. Tingles of bliss overwhelmed me as my inner muscles contracted around his digits.

As the climax tapered off, my knees buckled beneath me. I grabbed onto Remi's shoulders as he scooped me up and stalked toward the bedroom. My arms wrapped around him, and I buried my face in the crook of his neck, inhaling his masculine musky scent. If I could bathe in his aroma, I would. I wanted to absorb his essence on a cellular level.

Something shifted between us tonight. We'd passed the point of no return. There was no way I could go back to pretending there was nothing between us, which, looking back at my behavior, seemed silly now. I was his, and he was mine. We belonged together. I think part of me knew that the first time I saw him, which was why I got so scared. I needed control, and there was no controlling what we shared. It was untamable, undeniable, unexplainable love. It didn't make sense, but we did. We made sense. And that's all that mattered.