Chapter 42

CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

LUNA

" G ive the word, and I'll get in my car and hunt her down." Kate passes me a strong coffee. "I still think wine would be better."

I wince at her. "I've kind of gone off that."

"Yeah." She laughs. "I can only imagine."

Kate's phone buzzes, and Zach's contact flashes onto the screen. She snatches it up and smiles. "Mr. Boy Obsessed is on his way."

"Did he say anything else?"

"Not to let you go anywhere. Tell me, did you and Felicity drug your men or something?"

A laugh bursts out of me. "No. Why, are you looking for a boy to be obsessed with you?"

"Nope." She kicks her feet up onto the couch next to me. Kate's place is quirky but serene and covered in house plants, a far cry from the contemporary and modern look I was expecting.

"You don't think he did it then?" She changes the subject, deflecting away from herself as always.

"The messages seemed legit, but Amie isn't. I know that much." Truth is, I'm fighting with every ounce of strength to drown out the voice of self-doubt and insecurity that's been eating away at me over our relationship for months. I'm pushing away everything Mom said about him getting bored or moving on. I need to hear him out. We've come too far not to hear him out.

"I'm proud of you, you know that?" Kate leans forward and gently rubs my thigh with her hand. "In the totally no patronizing sense. I'm proud of you."

"For what?" I say, taking a sip of coffee.

"For doing what you've done. Moving your life, taking the leap. Doing what's right for you. For telling your mom to stick it, for not believing Amie…I can go on if you'd like?"

"Yeah, I guess it's been a ride, but I know in my heart, he hasn't cheated. I just feel it, you know?"

"No, I can't say I do know, but I can see it in you. He's your endgame."

My breath catches in my throat. Hearing that from someone like Kate, it makes it feel more real, like the validation my mom never gave us. "Yeah. He is."

"I think I'm the biggest winner out of all of this though."

"Yeah? How'd you figure that one out."

She puts down her drink and shifts over to me on the couch, wrapping her arms around my shoulders. "It takes a lot to break down these walls of mine. But you and Felicity, you are my girls, and you're everything to me. Because once I'm in with someone, I'm in. No getting away from me now."

She buries her face in the top of my head. "Damn girl, Zach was right. I'm going to need that vanilla thing you've got going on."

I laugh just as there's a knock on her apartment door.

She smiles at me and gets up from the couch, making herself scarce. "I've got a few more gifts to wrap."

Reaching Kate's door, I pull the bolt across and inhale deeply. I'm nervous, and I don't know why, but I am.

Zach smiles down at me, his hands in the pockets of his jeans. His backward cap matches his gray Scorpions zip-up jacket, number sixty-six stitched across his chest.

"You ran out on me, Rocket."

"I panicked." I wince. "I'm sorry."

Stepping inside, he softly kicks the door shut with his foot, his hands flying up to cup my face as he looks intensely into my eyes. "The fuck are you sorry for? I should be the one apologizing."

My stomach drops. "For w—what?"

He strokes under my eyes with his calloused thumbs and then softly kisses the corner of my lip. "For not seeing you sooner, for wasting so many fucking years without you fully in my life. For focusing on the wrong people. For not annihilating our friendship way before we did. Amie is talking bullshit. The only person I see is you. Forever."

My knees wobble under the weighted meaning of his words. "She shook me up, but I know. I love you."

"I orbit around you, Luna."

I lean into his touch, to where I belong. "Take me home."

"That was seriously the best Christmas dinner ever," I say, pulling back the sheets from our bed and climbing in.

"My boy has mad cooking skills," Zach replies from the other side of the bed as he takes off his watch and shakes out his wrist.

"And Felicity? That Eton mess thing she made? I've died and gone to heaven."

He smiles and climbs in the other side, wrapping me up in his arms. "They're perfect together. But..." He reaches under my old college T-shirt and palms one of my breasts, rubbing my nipple between his thumb and forefinger. "...I think we top that."

I gasp at the sensation. "You two are so competitive, like kids."

"Oh, is that so? I can be mature and serious when I need to be." Fire burns in his eyes as he hovers over me in bed.

Placing my hands on his shoulders, I pull him down to me and whisper in his ear. "Show me."

Zach sits up on his heels and pulls me with him. He's already naked and his hard length presses against my stomach, the piercings cold but delicious against my burning skin. "I can fuck you like you deserve. Or make love to you like the man who can't wait to spend a lifetime together. You choose, Rocket."

"I want to go slow. I want to feel everything."

Lifting me up, he slowly lowers me back down on his cock, and the way I stretch to accommodate him will never get old. It's like each time we have sex my body responds like it's the first time, but my mind knows this is the only man who has or will ever love me this way.

Keeping his large hands on my hips, he rocks me over him. He's so deep, I know I won't last long. "I'm going to come any second."

He buries his face in my neck and nips at my collarbone. "I love it when all I can hear is you coming all over my cock."

The orgasm building breaks free and rocks through my body as I squeeze him. "Jesus, baby, that greedy pussy is hungry tonight."

Laying me down, I'm still coming when he hovers over me, propping one of my legs over his shoulder. "Can you give me another, Luna?"

"I don't think so. I'm too—" I squeeze my eyes shut, so sensitive from my last high.

"Give me another. Eyes on me as you come all over my dick."

Zach drives into me, his mousey hair falling over darkened blue eyes. He never takes them from mine, pinning me with a look that brands my memory.

"There will never be anyone else. Only you. Only you and me, here in this bed with you wrapped around my cock."

Slowing his pace slightly, he leans up and rubs his thumb over my clit. "I love that you're bare for me. I can see every part of your perfect pussy when I play with it."

Between his cock and his fingers, I come undone for a second time. Stars dance in my vision, my climax that strong, that overpowering.

He chuckles as I pant and gasp through the greatest sex of my life. "I can't wait for the day we're doing this without birth control. When I'm inside you to give you everything we want."

I cup his cheek as he comes inside me on a roar. "Neither can I."

"Was that your stomach growling?"

Tucked under his arm in bed, watching a horror movie, because Amie can go to hell, I nod gently and yawn. "Yep."

"You're kidding, right? We just had three courses, and now you want more?"

I look over at my phone on the nightstand, which reads eleven-thirty p.m. "I can wait; it's late."

My stomach goes off again, and Zach sits up. "I can grab you something. You can't go hungry."

"I'm fine, honestly."

But he ignores me and stands from the bed, his naked rippling body on full display, making me grow even hungrier. Picking up some gray sweatpants, he throws them on and then leans over to kiss me. "You can have anything you want; we have everything in since it's Christmas."

"Can I have Zach Evans on toast, please?"

"That's always on the menu, but what can I get you—French toast, waffles, pancakes." He laughs against my mouth. "A frittata…"

"No because that means I have to come help, and I don't want to get out of this bed because I'm a lazy bitch."

"Well, you don't have to. You can stay right here with Freddy Krueger."

"Lovely. But seriously, I need to come and help."

He shakes his head. "Nah. I can get you whatever you want, and tomorrow, I'm in charge of cooking too."

He leans up, a proud smile on his face. I place a gentle palm on his chest. "Baby, I appreciate that and all, but don't you remember last time in the kitchen?"

He shrugs. "Yeah. So, I learned."

I cock my head at him in question. "What?"

"I might've been taking some lessons."

"From whom?"

"Jon. It was hazardous, for sure. At one point, I think he wanted to knock me out with the frying pan, but yeah, we got there."

"How long have you been learning?"

"Since I got back to Seattle." He stands from the bed again. "Just in case I ever convinced you to be with me, there was no way I wasn't taking care of you." He pulls the door open, and light from the hallway fills the room. "So, what'll it be?"

My racing heart must distract my mind from making a choice. "Surprise me."

He throws me the sexiest wink I've ever seen. "And here you were thinking we're always juvenile."

"French toast and fruits, ma'am." Zach sets a tray complete with the best-looking French toast and berry mix I've ever seen on my lap as I sit up in bed. "It's past midnight, so I figured you wouldn't want regular coffee; I made decaf."

"This is just what I need," I croon, the first piece of toast already to my lips. I pause and look over at him, a proud grin spread across his face. "I mean, I know it's only French toast, but damn, what is this sorcery?"

He laughs deeply and reaches into the pocket of his sweatpants, retrieving a small, flat, wrapped box. The wrapping is bright pink with a gold bow attached to the top, which is almost as big as the gift itself. "Technically, it's Christmas Day, and I thought, why not do presents now?"

Taking it from him, I put the tray to one side as he comes to sit next to me on the bed. "If you don't like it, then I can return it."

"I'm going to like it, Zach. Because it's from you."

Peeling back the paper, I pluck the bow off, but when the box comes into view, I'm still none the wiser. It's black with a gold star in the top right-hand corner.

I pop the lid and move the black tissue paper to reveal a stunning bangle bracelet. "It's platinum and um?—"

"Zach, is this?"

"The moon."

Hanging delicately from the bracelet is a small but incredibly well-detailed charm of the moon. Flipping it over, it simply reads, "Luna."

My breath catches in my throat as he reaches into the box and unclasps it. Holding out my wrist he fastens it and blows out a relieved breath. "You don't know how many times I changed the measurements with the jeweler. I don't think they ever want to see my ass again."

I look up at him. "You had this made specially?"

"I think you're pretty special Rocket."

I shake my head in disbelief as I hold my wrist up and watch as the charm sparkles against the backdrop of the muted TV. "Thank you. It's stunning."

"Yeah, she is," he whispers.

As I lean forward and kiss him, I notice his eyes are slightly glassy. "My turn," I say, bouncing through to the living room and retrieving his gift from under the tree.

Looking down at the poorly wrapped gift in cheap blue paper, I know this is a fraction of the cost of mine and embarrassment overtakes me. I should've spent more, saved up for longer.

"This is actually really good," he says, pointing to the plate of half-finished toast.

"Told you it was."

Kneeling on the bed, I tentatively hand him the gift. "All I'm saying is it's not in the same league as yours."

"What were you just saying to me?"

"About it being from you?"

"Yeah," he says, tearing it open in one motion. "Anything from you will always be my favorite possession."

Flipping the frame over in his hands, he stares down at the picture. "Fuck, oh my…baby where did you find this?"

I feel the warmth spread across my cheeks. "Um, well, I've had it for a long time."

His finger traces over the image of us both lying on Cocoa Beach. His youthful face wears a warm glow from the campfire only a few feet away. "We must be what, sixteen here."

I shake my head. "Seventeen. It was the summer before we went to college. One of the last barbecues we had as friends."

Zach held the camera up in the air, hovering it above us both. He's laughing in the photo and smiling up at the lens, but I'm not. I'm staring off to the side. I remember it like yesterday. He took the photo before I realized, and when he asked me back then what I was looking at, I lied and said a shooting star above his head. Truth is, I was looking at him. I was always looking at him.

I open my mouth to tell him exactly that, that there was no shooting star that night, but I quickly close it. I've held onto this memory and picture for years, this little secret I've shared only with a teenage, and now adult, Luna.

Maybe one day I'll tell him, but maybe I won't.

Sometimes a woman likes to keep certain moments just to herself.

I lean across and kiss the underside of his jaw. "Merry Christmas, baby."