“Okay.”
Louis pushes off of my car and I watch as he makes his way over to his pickup truck. It doesn’t take me long to throw my bag in my passenger seat before I slide inside of the car and start the engine.
Moving through town, I make my way over to the apartment complex, one of the only ones in town and find my normal parking spot.
Looking up at my building, I cringe at the sight. What Louis must be thinking. He’s never been to my place, the one night that we spent together was at his fancy home out in the country.
He’s going to see the real me now. I hate that. He’s going to see exactly why I don’t belong with someone like him. He’s going to see it all. With a heavy sigh, I open my door and slip from the car.
Reaching inside, I grab ahold of my bag and tug it out. Standing at the bottom of the staircase, I wait for Louis to park and make his way toward me.
Once he’s at my side, he looks up at the building, then down to me. I expect to see a grimace on his face, maybe his lip curling in disgust, but neither happens. Instead he reaches out, placing his palm at the small of my back and gives me a small nudge forward.
Looking at him from over my shoulder, I give him a small smile before I face forward and begin to climb the staircase toward my apartment door.
This building is old and tattered. The paint is peeling, most of the lights on the second story walkway are burnt out. The floor has a hollow feeling every few steps and I am waiting for the day when I step down and fall through.
Reaching toward my door, I shove my key inside, jiggle a little, then turn it until I hear it unlock. Pushing the door open, I walk inside and cringe at the state of my living room. There is a huge empty space where the sofa once was and while it’s clean, it just looks dingy and old.
Spinning around, I open my mouth to apologize for my shitty housing situation when Louis reaches out for me, he wraps his arms around my waist and without hesitation, his lips crash against my own in a hard, all-consuming chaste kiss.
LOUIS
I can’t stop myself from tasting her. I don’t deepen the kiss, but fuck, I can’t control myself around her, especially since we’re locked inside of her apartment, alone. When I’m forced to break the kiss so that I can breathe, instead of pulling away from her, I rest my forehead against hers.
“Tullie,” I breathe.
She pulls away from me almost instantly and I allow it. Watching her, I wait as she turns her back to me for a moment, then she spins back around, lifting her face up and her gaze meets mine. I become almost lost in her gaze immediately.
“We need to talk,” I murmur.
She inhales, nodding once, then licks her delicious lips before she speaks. “What Louis? You stood me up, then showed up tonight, at the club. What do you want?”
She sounds irritated, but underneath that, she sounds hurt. Lifting my hand, I’m unable to keep from touching her as I reach out and tuck her hair behind her ear. Even with all the shit in her hair, it’s still the softest I’ve ever felt.
“Stood you up because I went on a run and accidentally ended up at that club. I saw your car and I knew that if I met up with you that I would ask you a million questions, that I would possibly say or do something that I couldn’t take back.”
“What would you do?” she breathes.
Dipping my chin, I grin. “Throw you over my shoulder and carry you home. Fuck you until you forget your own name. Tie you up and keep you hostage so that you couldn’t go anywhere, especially back to that fucking club,” I growl.
I watch as she licks her lips again, then sinks her teeth into her bottom lip with a small nod. “It’s just a job. I understand though if you never want to see me again because of it.”
“Why are you doing it?” I demand.
She lifts her eyes to meet mine, tilting her head to the side she gives me the saddest fucking look on this earth. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her look so beaten down, so fucking sad, ever.
“At first it was to make ends meet while Joey was living here. See, he didn’t work and everything has been on my shoulders for years,” she explains.
“But now?”
“Now it’s so I can save some money and go to a trade school or something, one day when I figure out what I want to do for the rest of my life.”
“Do you know what you want to do?”
She shakes her head and something inside of me breaks for her. Fuck. Refusing to allow the distance between us, I reach out and wrap my hand around her small waist before I tug her against my body.
Her palms land against my chest as her head tilts all the way back so that she can look up into my eyes.
“Do you want to strip?”
“Doesn’t matter.”
Nodding, I inhale a sharp breath, letting it out before I speak. “It does. It really fucking matters.”
“What did you want to talk to me about? It wasn’t about this,” she says, changing the subject.
I allow the subject change, because I don’t think that she’s going to quit just because I want her to. I’m going to have to give her more of me, more of us, to see that she doesn’t want to do that, that she doesn’t need to.
Clearing my throat, I don’t look away from her eyes, in fact, I allow them to consume me in a way that only hers can.
“I know you said that you can’t be with someone like me, but I want to prove you wrong. You can be with someone like me and I’m going to show you that I’m better than anyone else. I fucking miss you, Tullie.”
Her lips part and her eyes widen at my words, then she snaps her mouth closed and nods once. “I can’t be with someone like you, Louis. It’s so painfully obvious and one day you’ll thank me.”
Grunting, I lower my face, my mouth just hovering above hers. “Kiss me and then repeat that fucked up shit.”
She opens her mouth to speak, but I don’t want to hear it. Slanting my head, I press my mouth to hers, filling her with my tongue and finally tasting all of her. She resists for a second, maybe two, before she melts against me. Her hands slide up my chest and around my neck as she presses her chest against my own.
Without a word, I glide my hands down her small ass and wrap my fingers around the backs of her thighs before I pick her light body up. I don’t break the kiss as I walk toward her bedroom. I know it’s hers because there is only one in this small apartment.
I don’t have time to look around the room, my only goal is to find the bed. Laying Tulip down on the soft mattress, I nibble her bottom lip. Breaking the kiss with her mouth, but not allowing my lips to leave her body, I kiss the underside of her jaw.
Kissing down the column of her neck, I sink down to my knees as my hands travel up her thighs and find the waistband of her stretchy pants. Tugging them off, along with whatever the fuck she’s calling panties that don’t cover shit, I throw them somewhere in the room.
Placing my hands at the inside of her knees, I spread her legs wide.
“Louie,” she moans.
I smirk. “Shh, I’m still kissing you,” I murmur.
She giggles above me, but it dies in her throat as soon as my mouth touches her center. She’s warm, wet and so fucking perfect. One night with her certainly was not enough. The taste that I had of her, that didn’t quench my thirst. I’m fucking thirsty for her.