Homecoming

Laura

The fatigue associated with International plane travel and the time change was beginning to take its toll on me already and it was only 4:30 in the afternoon. Tracy and I had arrived home on the Quartermaine private jet at 9 a.m. this morning. It had been a busy day between my strange and unsettling conversation with Anna and my confrontation with Valentin on the docks. I had hoped to see my daughter but after hearing how well her visit had gone with Charlotte, I decided that we could wait and connect in person for dinner tomorrow night. She insisted she still owed me a home cooked meal and asked me to invite Kevin to dinner as well.

All I really wanted to do was see Kevin and go to bed. I had stopped at the hospital to check on some business for the Board but he was in the middle of his Friday afternoon staff meeting so I had to leave without even saying a quick hello. I had managed to leave him a note and about an hour after I had left the hospital I was rewarded with his text telling me he was leaving early and I should meet him for an early dinner at the Metro Court. I had offered to cook at his apartment but he seemed to know I was tired and said we needed to celebrate anyway.

Now as I sipped my ice tea, opting for caffeine over alcohol, my curiosity was piqued as to what he felt we needed to celebrate. Maybe it was something as simple as Tracy and I surviving our trip to Turkey without killing each other.

I didn't have to wait long as Kevin exited the elevator carrying a small bouquet of flowers and looking absolutely gorgeous. It felt like forever since I had seen him. I stood to greet him and he paused as he looked at me, from head to toe, taking me in as if I was a sight he too had been missing.

Without words, he set the flowers on the table and stepped towards me. Then his arms were around me and I felt the comfort and familiarity of his embrace and I couldn't think of anywhere else I would rather be in that moment. I'm sure other patrons were staring at us as I drank him in and we just held on to each other for several minutes. When we finally parted, I knew what was coming next, and stares or not, I couldn't wait any longer to kiss him.

While not intense enough to make the couple at the table closest to us mutter, "get a room," it was still delicious and I honestly couldn't wait to be alone with him. I calculated in my mind that since I had finally allowed myself to be with him again in December, in the boldest and most overtly sexual thing I had ever done, we had not gone for more than a week without being intimate. Usually we made love several times a week or more often. Until the last fourteen days. I felt a surge of excitement all the way down to my toes and felt him reaching for my chair as we moved to sit down at our table. Only then did we communicate with our words.

"I missed you." Our laughs echoed as we had said the exact same thing to each other at the exact same time. Now, I did begin to wonder what other patrons were thinking. Suddenly my tiredness was lifted and I picked up the flowers and held them to my nose.

"Kevin, you didn't need to bring me any flowers."

"Oh, but I did. I know that spring is your favorite time of year and I know how much you enjoy all the colors and smells."

Kevin took a minute to motion for our waitress who obliged us with water and took the flowers only to bring them back in a small vase for our table.

"You said we were celebrating but you didn't say why?"

"Well, when I was talking to Mac the other night I realized that you and I met at the Metro Court exactly a year ago to talk about the key Helena left you in her Will."

"It was? A year ago?" My surprise was evident and even more so than finding it hard to believe it had been a whole year ago, I couldn't believe that Kevin remembered.

"I had received your email, after we had talked in the cryptographer's chat room, and we agreed to meet here for breakfast on Thursday, April 14, 2016. I remember it very well as I was looking forward to having something other than work to focus on and had even rescheduled my first client of the morning so that we would have more time to talk. Of course, I had no idea that I would be meeting you. That was such a pleasant surprise."

"For me too. I was nervous to meet some stranger, named Dr. K., and I really did think he was going to be some old professor with glasses, a beard, and one of those handlebar mustaches."

Kevin's laughter was infectious and I reached for his hand across the table.

"I'm so glad it was you, Kevin, and that you were willing to help me. I'm still amazed that it took Helena's mind games to bring us together as friends...and now, lovers."

I could feel the sexual tension between us like static electricity and purposely rubbed my thumb gently across his palm. I could tell that he felt it too. We both needed to eat and call it a night.

"How was your evening with Mac?"

Kevin related his evening at the Floating Rib with Mac over beer and ribs and talked about how much he missed spending time with his old friend. He seemed guarded when I asked what they talked about, which only made me more curious. But as always, Kevin was clever and found a way to turn the discussion back around to my trip with Tracy.

Before I knew it, we were almost done with our dinner and I realized yet again just how much I loved spending time with Kevin. We had a great discussion about the languages I have learned over the years and the places that Luke and I lived, even if only for a few months. I realized at times I missed that sense of adventure but I was so glad to no longer be on the run or having to worry about what might happen next.

We hadn't purposely avoided the topic of the house, there was just so much else to discuss and so many other things to laugh at—like Mac's hurt feelings that I had never mentioned to Kevin our brief period of dating years ago.

Finally, I sensed my chance to be the one to bring it up, hoping Kevin would be on the same page with me.

"Kevin, I think we should call the realtor and go look at that house this weekend."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure."

Kevin

"Don't move, Kevin."

Laura's voice was raspy and laden with desire. I felt her slowly inhale and then release her breath and I tried to slow my breathing to match her own. I was desperate to move, to thrust inside her again, but she was winning this game of wills currently and I succumbed to her wish to be still…for now.

I could barely stand the way she was looking at me as we finished our desert in the restaurant earlier. I was not looking forward to us separating long enough for the drive to my apartment. Sensing and matching my eagerness, Laura surprised me by taking the elevator to the lobby instead of the parking garage. Alone in the elevator, she pressed herself up against my overly aroused body and whispered, "I owe you a night in this hotel with a better ending than last time."

It didn't take much to convince me after she said the words "room service" and "late check-out" as we both had nowhere to be until dinner with Dante, Lulu, and Rocco tomorrow night. Neither one of us would be going out for coffee in the morning.

This time, we had every intention of making love as we crossed the threshold to the room. By the time Laura had set the vase of flowers on the table by her bed, I had removed my jacket and tie and moved back to pull her into my arms.

Now, after a flurry of clothes being removed, deep kisses, and the feel of bare skin touching bare skin, I was nestled behind her, cupping her breasts, as she lay on her side away from me. I couldn't wait any longer to join our bodies, having missed this connection over the last two weeks.

I missed so many things about this amazing woman and laughed to myself about my luck over the last year. Laura had come to me for help but I was the one who found new life in both her friendship and in our love for each other.

"Laura?"

"Just a little longer. I want to savor this feeling…this tension. You feel so good inside of me."

I tried to think of something else…codes…symbols…numbers…anything to distract me from my innate desire to thrust and seek release. I leaned closer and captured her ear lobe and warmed her ear with my breath.

"Now you are just not playing fair," Laura muttered as she turned her head, giving me more access to her soft neck and shoulder. I traced my finger around first one nipple and then the other and felt her start to shudder. I was determined to make her find her own rhythm and trailed kisses down her arm. I reached for her wetness, hoping that our time for stillness was finally over.

"I missed you. I missed this. You are an amazing lover, Kevin, and each time with you feels more intense than the last time. Now. You can move now."

The End