Operation Meet Cute by K.M. Neuhold
Chapter 18
HARLOW
I’m full of delicious food and happy feelings as we stumble into our motel room in a lip-lock. We only spent half a day apart, but I have the deep, guttural feeling that if I don’t get my hands on Teddy right this second, I might die. Dramatic, I know.
“Low,” he murmurs against my mouth as I kick the door closed behind me.
“Mm?” I hum, sucking his bottom lip between my teeth and nibbling it while I walk him backward toward the bed.
His hands slide down to my ass, squeezing my cheeks and nearly lifting me off my feet. I laugh into his mouth, the happy buzz inside me growing even bigger, feeding on the warmth of Teddy’s skin and the rumble of his answering laughter against my lips, until it’s so big I’m not sure how I’m even able to contain it inside me.
I tug at his shirt, breaking the kiss just long enough to pull it over his head and toss it aside and then do the same with mine.
“Low, let’s talk a minute.”
“Kiss now, talk later,” I counter, pushing him down on the bed and climbing on top of him.
Teddy doesn’t argue, instead joining me in getting us both fully naked. When I started the kiss on our way into the room, I had it in my mind that I might ask him if he ever bottoms, see if he’d be interested in switching things up tonight. But now that we’re skin to skin, tangling ourselves in the sheets of the unmade bed as we tussle playfully, kissing and nipping and moaning into each other’s mouths, I’m not sure I can be bothered to do anything but just fucking breathe him in. Well, that and rub against him like an animal in heat until we make a mess of each other. If that doesn’t sound like heaven on Earth, I don’t know what does.
“Teddy,” I pant his name, arching up against him as he pins me down with the heavy weight of his body.
He kisses his way down my throat, abrading my skin with his beard while he sucks on my skin. I always thought hickies were tacky and juvenile, but right now, I’m pretty sure I could be talked into letting him spell out his name in love bites right across my chest or any other damn place he wants to put his mouth.
Maybe Marnie was right. Maybe this is everything I’ve been so afraid of. It’s Teddy after all. He would never leave me.
The feeling inside me gets so big that it bubbles up into my throat, forcing its way out in a sob as I cling harder to Teddy, like he’s an anchor and I’m lost at sea. I laugh at my own cheesy analogy, the sound coming out rusty and strained.
Teddy stops his trek down my belly and looks up at me. “Should I be concerned that you’re laughing at me, or is this another ticklish issue?”
“No, I was just thinking…you’re my anchor.” Hell, if I’m going to be cheesy, I might as well let him have a good laugh about it too. Except, he’s not laughing. He looks up at me with awe in his eyes, like maybe he really was going to say that thing I was afraid to hear the other night.
We stare at each other for what feels like a million thundering heartbeats before he presses another kiss to my stomach, right above my belly button, gentle and sweet and fucking perfect.
“Come here.” I crook my finger at him, and he crawls back up my body, blanketing me again with his massive frame. I swear I could get off on just the feeling of his body against mine, the heat of his skin, the scratch of his body hair, the rise and fall of his chest against mine.
How am I ever going to have sex with anyone else when all Teddy has to do is exist and he’s more than everything already. My talk with Marnie earlier really did shake something loose inside me, and I’m not sure yet that I know what to do with it. But Teddy will give me time to figure it out.
And then we’re kissing again: lips, tongues, hot shared breaths. I roll my hips, finding his hard, scorching erection with my own and grinding against him. There’s nothing particularly elegant about the way we thrust and pant and kiss. It’s desperate and wild and as necessary as oxygen.
I drag my hands over his arms, down his back, touching everywhere I can reach. Our legs tangle, and our skin grows slick with sweat and precum.
My orgasm hits me unexpectedly, my balls tightening and my cock pulsing before I have time to do anything but gasp around Teddy’s tongue. He grunts, no doubt feeling the wetness of my release running down both our cocks and clinging to his skin. He thrusts faster, gasping and growling into my mouth until he shudders, and his cum joins mine in making a mess out of both of us.
We continue to grind lazily, our kisses slowing as we chase the last few seconds of pleasure before our cocks start to soften. Even then, Teddy stays on top of me, the curve of his smile against my mouth, his forehead resting against mine while we catch our breath.
When he finally does roll off, I don’t let him get far. I scoot close and rest my head on his chest. We can get cleaned up in a minute. I just want to be near him a few more moments.
The steady thump, thump, thump of his heart is so familiar it almost feels like my favorite song, one I memorized the lyrics too ages ago, one I could sing at a moment’s notice. Fuck, I really am getting sappy tonight. I blame Marnie’s wedding…and maybe the stupidly perfect man in my bed.
Everything about this moment is just…perfect.
TEDDY
I’m not sure if having this conversation while we’re still covered in each other’s cum is brilliant or pure stupidity, but if I don’t blurt out the words right this second, I’m afraid I’ll lose my nerve.
“My boss called earlier.”
“Oh yeah?” Harlow tilts his head, leaving it resting on my chest but doing his best to look up at me. “They can’t even get by without you for a week while you’re on vacation?”
“Actually, there’s a promotion opening up.”
He smiles and pokes me in the stomach playfully. “Look at you kicking ass. Are they going to make you the CEO of all those hedgehogs or what?”
I snort a laugh and shake my head. I’m almost positive Harlow is wrong about Keanu Reeves being god, but just in case…please, please, please, Keanu, I need this to go right.
“Not exactly. I’d be in charge of a hell of a lot of major accounts though, and there’s a huge pay raise, but the thing is, it’s in New York.”
Harlow stiffens. “New York?” he repeats, scooting away and sitting up.
Fuck, I’m doing this wrong. I sit up too, running my hands through my messy hair and leaning against the headboard.
“Nothing is final. I’d still have to interview,” I go on. “In fact, I have to tell him if I’m even interested in doing the interview.”
Harlow isn’t looking at me, but at least he’s still in the bed. I’ll take that as a somewhat positive sign.
“Why wouldn’t you do the interview?” he asks. “It sounds like an amazing opportunity. You’d be out of your mind not to take it.”
“Low, look at me for a second.” I reach for him, wrapping my fingers around his wrist. He sits stiff. If I know Harlow, he’s trying to decide between being vulnerable, even for a short amount of time, or getting up and shutting himself in the bathroom until he can figure out a way to make this conversation stop, or better yet, make it so it never happened.
I know it takes him a long time to process things, to deal with his emotions, and I’ve never minded before. But I don’t have time to coddle him right now. I need to know if this is going anywhere, if it could go anywhere, or if I’m wasting my time.
He turns his head slowly, his expression carefully blank when he finally meets my eyes. Every trace of the happy, passionate Harlow I was in bed with a few minutes ago is carefully tucked away behind the brick wall of indifference he managed to build in record time.
“You’ve worked really hard for a promotion. You should go to the interview.”
I drag my tongue along my bottom lip, my heart hammering wildly as I work up the courage to say what I need to say next. “Tell me to stay.”
I know it’s only four words, but the way he looks at me, I know he can hear all of the things those words contain. All of the longing, the future we could build, the love I’ve been hiding away from him for too many years. All of it is his. I’m his. I just need one single word in return. Stay.
The air hangs heavy and charged between us, the only sound our labored breathing and the whir of the air conditioner. My skin is starting to itch from the drying sweat and cum, but I can’t move. I can’t do anything but stare at him and wait to find out my fate.
“I…can’t.”
The word hits me like a ton of bricks, the weight of four years of love crashing into me so hard I’m surprised I survive it. As soon as the second word leaves his mouth, Harlow is out of bed and across the room, the bathroom door clicking shut softly behind him, and I’m left stunned, trying to figure out how all the pieces of my shattered heart are ever going to fit back together.
I’m not sure how long I sit there in a daze before grabbing my phone off the nightstand and typing out a quick text to Ezra.
TEDDY: Do me a favor and book me on the next flight home. And then tell Rick I’ll take the interview on Tuesday.
I get dressed in a fog, still dirty and sticky, but unable to summon the emotional energy to care. Once all of my things are shoved into my suitcase, I pause with my hand on the doorknob of the motel room, looking back over the messy bed and the quiet room. Harlow hasn’t made a peep, and I don’t expect him to. He’s dealing with this the only way he knows how: avoidance.
Maybe he’ll come around, maybe he won’t. But I don’t have time to wait anymore, at least not without some sign that I’m not spinning my wheels.
I step out of the room to meet the Uber I ordered to take me to the airport, and when I close the door behind me, I have the sickening feeling I’m closing an entire chapter of my life that I’m nowhere near ready to be finished with.
It’s hitting me now that no matter how hard I love Low, I can only keep loving him if he lets me.
