Free Calling Me Home by Louise Bay Page A

our bodies slammed together, hard and fast. Would I ever get enough of him surrounding me like this? Sometimes he’d torture me for what seemed like days before he slid into me. He’d make me come with his fingers and his mouth before I’d finally get his cock. Other times, like this one, it was as if he had no choice but to get inside me and take his own pleasure, as if doing anything else would make him insane.
    “I need you so much,” he whispered, his softly spoken words in juxtaposition with the hard, sharp movements of his hips and the press of his fingers.

 
    Luke
    I passed the jewelry store again on my Saturday morning run. Pausing a couple of stores down, I braced my hands on my knees and drew in a few long breaths that filled my lungs and had a near instant effect on my pulse. I’d not found myself in this part of the city by fluke; I’d planned my route deliberately. When I went anywhere close to this street, that ring was all I could think about. Was it still there? Would Ashleigh like it? How would she react when I showed it to her? I’d done a bit of research, and what the jeweler had said about its value and rarity seemed to stack up. Another reason not to buy it disappeared.
    Living together, waking up every morning in each other’s arms, was just as great as I’d known it would be¸ and I was becoming impatient again. She seemed to have settled more quickly than I’d expected. I didn’t want to miss out on buying her the perfect ring for when the time was right to propose.
    Before this visit, I’d transferred some of my savings, so I was prepared just in case.
    I stood and looked toward the store. I couldn’t make out the individual items in the window, but I knew where Ashleigh’s ring should be. I took small steps toward my prize, not taking my eyes from the spot where I expected to find it. My heart thundered in my chest as the gems came into focus. Her ring wasn’t where I was used to seeing it. There wasn’t even a space for it. Shit, had I left it too long? That ring had been perfect—as if it were made for Ashleigh. It couldn’t belong to anyone else. I needed it for her. I scanned the rest of the section, hoping to see it, but nothing. I rubbed my sweaty palms down my shorts and pressed my hands against the glass, trying to find what I was looking for. The elderly owner appeared beside me again as if from nowhere.
    “Hello, son, good to see you again,” she said, forcing me to look away from the window. My chest squeezed at her term of endearment. It was almost certainly a meaningless phrase for her, but to me it was a reminder of how no one referred to me as their son anymore. I wished my parents were here to see me about to buy a ring for the love of my life, for the woman I hoped would one day have our children. It gave me some comfort that they’d known her and loved her.
    “Are you looking for your ring?” she asked, patting my arm. “Follow me. It’s inside.”
    Had I heard her correctly? Did she say she still had it? My body tensed in anticipation.
    I focused on the tinkling of the bell over the door as I followed her into the shop. “You have it?”
    “Yes, I kept it back here for you. Figured you’d be back again. I’ve seen that look before. It’s the same one my husband had for me. He wanted to give me the world from the moment he met me. And he succeeded. If that’s how you feel about your girl, then you should have this ring.”
    My muscles loosened. I was going home with the ring in my pocket.
    “You want to give her the world?” the woman asked.
    I nodded. “She always seems to give me more than I could ever give her.”
    “I bet she says the same about you. That’s when you know it’s right. When it feels like a privilege to know them.”
    Ashleigh made me feel like I’d been let into a secret club. A love club. It wasn’t that I hadn’t been in love before—at least, I thought I had. It was just that it hadn’t been close to what I felt for