Melted Together
Fitz practically floated out of the bedroom. He had not only just experienced mind-blowing sex but felt the unexplainable bond with Liv grow even stronger. It was the damndest thing. This power she already had over him, and his heart. And it wasn't just the sex. The things he had been feeling for her had grown exponentially over the past few days. It was powerful and always present.
He thought of little else but her, and it wasn't just because she was always around. He loved that. Drinking coffee in the morning together, enjoying a sunny day outside, or something mundane, like eating a meal at the table together was nothing short of heaven in his opinion. It made him want to spend even more time with her.
He was already in love with her.
That had him stopping in his tracks. How in the hell had she snuck into his heart and claimed it as her own? And how had she done it so quickly? Sneak attack, he wondered? That seemed like Liv's style. If he was honest with himself, she had been sneaking into his heart more and more every day they were together in the beach house.
But love?
Yes, his heart practically sang. You are in love with her.
A smile covered his handsome face as he began to hum a happy little tune while making his way to the kitchen to whip up a snack for her. He couldn't wait to tell her.
Liv's fake snoring stopped the second she heard him rifling through the cabinets.
She was experiencing that deliriously happy afterglow moment. Her body was the same as it had been before she had been intimate with Fitz, but it felt vastly different at the same time. It was hard to put into a fathomable thought.
His long lean muscular body had warmed her and then heated her past the boiling point. He had brought anxious sounds and frenzied feelings from her that she hadn't been moved to before. Always mindful of her comfort, and with a tender hand, he lovingly caressed, worshipped, and satisfied her completely.
Sitting up against the headboard of the bed, Liv pulled the sheet up over her breasts and continued to think about him. She was falling in love with him. It was insane, but she was just the same. He was everything she could ever want in a man and so much more. He didn't put her down or judge her ideas or her past. He made her feel seen and heard. He made her question herself less, and he made that guarded woman Liv truly felt like at times totally disappear.
"This is crazy" she whispered to herself, but she was grinning like mad as she said it.
A few minutes later, Fitz came back into the bedroom with a tray. Sitting on it were two mugs, two plates, and two forks. "Viola" he exclaimed proudly, setting the tray on the bed.
"Where did that tray come from?" she asked.
"Oh, it was downstairs in your living room. It had a few paperbacks in it. I needed it and snatched it up, but...I was very careful with your precious books and will return them to their home when we are done with the tray."
"Mmmkay. The more important question is what's on the tray?" She rubbed her hands together in gleeful anticipation.
"Don't be disappointed." He warned.
"After this afternoon's performance? I could never!"
"You joke, but I am not a pastry chef. I probably should have been..."
Cutting in quickly, she reassured him. "For the record, I'm glad you're not."
"Really? Why?"
"We can't live on cupcakes. It's not feasible!"
Fitz tried hard not to swoon at her saying we instead of I. He was turning into a bowl of mush. Clearing his throat, he said, "good point. The reason I say I should have been better at desserts, is because I have a bit of a sweet tooth."
"Me too!" Liv exclaimed giddily.
"Please!" He scoffed, as he sat down on the bed beside her. "I haven't seen you eat anything other than my cooking and coffee since I arrived."
"I've got one lonely row of Oreos left inside my bedside table."
"You've been holding out on me?!" he asked in mock horror.
She grinned at him. He was so damn cute. "How was I supposed to know you liked sweets?"
He stared longingly at her; the desire was evident on his face. In a quiet tone he told her, "After today, there should be no question about that."
His lips were beckoning her to him, and she almost gave in. She desperately wanted to. Instead, she closed her eyes and forced the conversation back to the topic at hand. "Ummm, what about this sweet tooth of yours?"
Damn, he'd almost had her. "I have a particular fondness for frozen Hershey's pie."
"Ooooh, those are really good. Especially with..."
"Coffee?" He asked with a proud smile, handing her a mug. He was getting pretty good at knowing what she liked.
"Yessssss." She eagerly took the mug from him. "Did you buy one while you were at the grocery store today?"
"Well, if I had known there were Oreos in the house, I wouldn't have had to, but yes, I did."
"And you're sharing it with me? Awww."
"You see how sharing works?" he teased, handing her a dessert plate.
"Anyway!" Liv began, quickly wanting to change the subject. She took a bite of her pie while wrapped up comfortably in the sheet. "What's your favorite color?"
"Blue. What's yours?"
"Red. Hello! It's the boldest color out there. Just like me." She gave a little determined nod of her head to enhance her point.
"Did you have pets growing up?"
"No. I wasn't really into having animals running around so it was fine. You?" She took another bite as she listened to his answer.
"Yea, we had this old mutt show up in our yard one day. We thought he probably belonged to someone in the area, but he slept on the front porch every night for a week. Finally, I asked if I could bring him into the house. At first, my parents said no because he might be somebody else's. So, I put up posters on almost every telephone pole in a two mile radius."
"Awww, how old were you?" Liv pictured a young boy with curly hair being followed around by a dog hoping to make him its human. It was beyond adorable.
"Eleven."
"Awww. Then what happened?"
"No one called about him, so after another week my parents agreed, saying it was my responsibility to take care of him. To feed and water and play with him." He shrugged. "We took him to the vet, found out he was healthy. He got a few shots, and we took him home."
She laid her head on his shoulder. "What was his name?"
Fitz never missed a beat. "Doctor Dukes."
She snorted and grabbed her coffee to help her pie go down. "Not the vet. The dog!"
"Oh!" He chuckled at her. "I named him Cooper."
"That's a cute name."
"Yea. He stuck around until I was in high school. Then he just disappeared. I like to think he went to live with a family with another little kid who needed someone to tell their secrets to at night and give him lots of time and attention."
"I think that's exactly what he did too." It was a better thought than what had probably really happened to the dog.
"What does your mom do for a living? Assuming she still works?"
"Oh yea. She keeps busy. She retired from teaching several years ago and now she works for me." He squinted over at her full of curiosity.
"This sounds like something out of Charlie's Angels."
Looking at him, she took another bite while pondering her answer. "Something like that. I buy and rent out properties. My mom helps me keep them clean and functioning as best we can. When something big happens that we can't take care of ourselves, we call a professional for help."
The gears in his mind were working overtime now. He recalled the bits and pieces of their conversations over the past few days. The moment he had it all together, it was like a "ding" noise sounded and he snapped his head at her. "You own this house, don't you?"
Smiling innocently, she said, "I do. How did you come up with that though?"
"Because when I first got here you knew where everything was, you knew the layout of the top floor, you mentioned that your mom had helped you clean this floor before I arrived, and..." He took a deep breath. "You're staying here all summer. It's a free vacation and it's genius!"
She giggled and clapped at him before giving him a proud smacking kiss. "You are more observant than I gave you credit for."
"That's amazing, Liv! How many houses do you own? If that's not being too nosey?"
She waved a hand dismissively in the air. "It's not too nosey. Right now, I own seven. Three are on different beaches, two are in the mountains, and the other two are in cities."
"Liv? That's so great! I love that you and your mom work together too. It's nice that you are still close to her."
"I'm very close to my mom. Not only in business, but she was with me every step of the way when I had cancer. She's my rock. My best friend, really." She gave a little smile, feeling happy to talk about her mom with him. "You've said that you're close to your mom. What about your dad?"
"I am incredibly close to my mom, but we lost dad a few years back to a heart attack."
She held onto his arm. "I'm sorry to hear that Fitz. I bet he was a good man."
"He was. Together we used to drive my mother crazy."
"Why am I having no problem imagining that?"
A grin flashed across his face. "My dad was a mechanic. There was always an old car parked in the driveway that we were working on together. The mess made my mom nuts. And we were a couple of pranksters. Always hiding somewhere in the house shooting nerf guns or throwing water balloons at each other. That created an even bigger mess. Mom was not a fan of that at all!"
Liv covered her mouth with her hand. "Water is so bad for flooring! I wouldn't be a fan of it either. You guys cleaned up your messes though, right?"
"Ummm..."
"Fitz!" She exclaimed.
"We did most of the time." He said laughing as he thought about their great indoor battles.
"Most of the time?!"
"Some of the time." His laughter filled the room at her shocked expression.
"When I meet your mom, I'm going to have to apologize on you and your dad's behalf."
That caught his attention. He tried to picture Liv and his mother together talking like old friends. Knowing both women fairly well, he imagined they would become close quickly. His mother would be friendly with any woman he introduced her to, but he had a feeling Liv would charm her quickly without even trying. In a serious tone, he asked, "you want to meet my mom?"
She looked up into his eyes and studied them. He seemed open to the idea of her meeting the woman who raised him. There might be a bit of a protective nature towards his mother hiding under the surface, one that she felt towards her own mother too, but for the most part, Fitz seemed touched by her interest. "Yea, I think that would be nice."
Smiling down at her for a long moment, heart swelling with happiness he hadn't felt in a long time, he slowly moved his head towards hers and kissed her softly. "If I show you mine, you gotta show me yours."
"I've already showed you mine." She reminded him with a playful grin, pulling him closer.
"Mmmm," he groaned lightly in frustration, and pulled away from her eager lips. "As much as I would love to have some more storm time, as you call it..."
She giggled again.
"I am genuinely enjoying this getting to know you more time."
She shrugged lightly. "I guess I could give you ten more minutes of communication."
"See! Sharing! I knew you could do it." He beamed proudly.
"You are amazing." She admitted in a serious tone.
"Compliments will get you everywhere." he chuckled.
"No, I'm serious. I don't think I've ever met a man quite like you before."
Setting his empty plate on the bedside table without taking his eyes off her, he replied, "thank you...but where is this coming from?"
Bobbing her head back and forth slightly, she said, "my heart."
"Well, while we're on the subject and being honest about how we feel, you should know that I feel exactly the same way about you."
Liv gave him a soft smile. She loved it when he opened up to her.
"You have opened my heart to..." He gestured wildly with his hands. "I dunno! Feel things again. Things I didn't think I would ever be able to feel again. You have crept into my heart and changed it from the closed off, concrete, protective shell it was into the softer more open thing that it was always meant to be. That it used to be."
He got to his feet and began to pace as he chose his words. "I never thought that it could change. That I could change. I had adapted to keeping myself guarded so I wouldn't get hurt again. But then you came along and changed everything so fast."
Liv pulled the sheet with her and went to stand in front of him. "It didn't feel fast though, did it?"
"Surprisingly, it didn't." He cupped her cheek. She was so beautiful with the natural light coming in from the cloudy day, wrapped up in his sheet, smiling up at him with all the understanding of what he was saying. She was the amazing one. "It felt natural, and easy. Effortless might be a better word."
"It might be the perfect word." She agreed in a soft voice. Getting up on her tiptoes and putting an arm around his neck, he pulled his forehead down to hers, letting it linger there for a moment before giving him a gentle kiss.
Bringing their foreheads back to resting against each other, Fitz quietly said, "I have to tell you something, Liv. It's something I never imagined myself saying to another woman, but it's important, and I want to say it to you now."
Giving Fitz an innocent look while still on her tiptoes, she said, "you love me."
All of the air in his lungs whooshed out and he jerked his head back. "How did you know that?"
"Well, I'm pretty good at reading people." She began cockily.
He chuckled at her.
"I mean, I had you under my spell from day one, mister."
He scooped her up, sheet and all while she let out a shocked shriek, and carried her to the thoroughly messed up bed, plopping her down and quickly covering her body with his. Pushing her stray hair away from her face with a tender hand, Fitz smiled down at her. "Did you read that correctly?"
She giggled and held onto him while shaking her head back and forth. The fact that he could surprise her at any given moment was one of the things she loved about him.
"I am, you know."
"What?" She was playing coy, but she didn't want to take away his moment. Besides, she wanted to hear him say it.
"I am in love with you, Liv. You are the most phenomenal person I have ever met. You challenge me, consume my every thought, and make my days better in every possible way. Is that...too weird to hear right now?"
Her face was serene, but her heart was doing excited backflips. He had said the words she never thought a man would ever say and her be reciprocal of. There was no fear inside her. Instead, she felt bold. "It's not weird at all. The thing is, I'm falling in love with you, Fitz."
Pulling his head back from her slightly, he asked, "falling? Or already fell? Cause there's a difference."
She laughed at him, causing his upper body to move slightly. "Only you could make a joke at a time like this, and it actually be funny."
He brought a hand up between them, palm up and said, "I'm gonna need an answer here."
"So needy" she teased.
"I already know the answer, but I do enjoy putting you on the spot." His grin was met with one from her. It was that deliriously happy moment the two of them shared that felt like there was nothing else on Earth but the two of them.
"I have several sarcastic comments for that, but I will answer the gentleman's question instead."
"Thank you for sparing me." He dipped his head and pecked her lips, grinning as he lifted it again to look her in the eye.
"I was serious when I told you that I felt guarded most of the time. It might be under different circumstances, but I have built a wall around my heart too. I didn't want anyone inside. Not romantically, I mean. But then you showed up and...I melted."
That was a big admission from a woman like her, Fitz thought to himself. "You melted?"
"Yea."
"I have found myself thinking of the word melted several times over the course of my stay here."
"Was one of those times when you found out I had Oreos?" she asked playfully.
He gently poked a finger into her side, causing her to shriek with laughter. She was ticklish! Good to know. "Don't you think it's odd that we both thought of the same word when being around each other?"
"Not really. You're easy to talk to, easy to laugh with, really easy to look at." She wiggled her eyebrows at him until he laughed at her. "But you never made me feel anything other than myself."
"Who else would I make you feel like? Carrottop?"
"Shut up." she snorted. "You listen when I talk, you cook amazing foods for me, you can handle your liquor, pretty good."
"Pretty good?" he asked defensively.
"Yea, pretty good. I basically carried you home the other night."
He laughed loudly at the mental image of anything even remotely like that happening. "Oh kayyy, Liv. Whatever you say!"
She reached up and touched his stubbled cheek. "The thing is, you broke through my walls too. At first I felt exposed and vulnerable."
"And now?" he asked, full of curiosity.
"Now, I feel the most content and confident than I have in a really long time. And it's because of you. So, yea, I am in love with you too."
Fitz thought his head would explode from happiness. The smile on his face was instantaneous. He held her tightly, and felt her arms come around him, holding him just as tight. Rolling with her in his arms until she was lying on his chest, he said, "I love you, Liv and I'm going to do everything in my power to make you happier than you've ever been."
"You already have. I couldn't be happier than I am right now." she admitted. The moment called for another kiss, and she happily leaned down until their hungry lips were reconnected in a heated kiss.
Being very careful with his hold on her little body, Fitz scooted to the side of the bed and started walking. "Why are we going into the bathroom?" Liv asked with a knowing grin.
"We need a shower to get clean, so I can do dirty things to the woman I love." He stated proudly and turned on the water.
When she was put back on her feet, Liv locked eyes with him and let the thin sheet fall to the floor. "I'm glad you came to stay at my house this summer. I'll be expecting a five star review after you check out."
"You're at a solid four right now. Let's see what happens in the shower to bump it up a star."
Liv shot him a wicked grin.
His lips were on hers the moment he stopped speaking, as were his hands. Once inside the shower, all thoughts of stars, cookies, and storms were long forgotten. This new found love was the most important thing for both of them. It was rare and precious and it could stand the test of time. Steam quickly filled the small room and as well as giggles, sighs, and the constantly repeated heartfelt words of I love you.
A/N- I'm so sorry it took me much longer to wrap this thing up than I had hoped. I'm happy to have it finally finished though. And before summer officially starts! Small victories lol As I've shared before, I'm not a deep thinker, but I did something a little different with this story that I've never done before. If you read the first word of each chapter, it gives it's own synopsis of this story. It was challenging at times, to start a chapter with one of those particular words, but a fun little secret to finally share. Thank you to anyone who continued to read this. I always appreciate your reviews of encouragement. I am looking at a summer free from work & I want to continue writing Olitz. One shots for sure, but possibly a chaptered story too. Here's hoping.
