When he felt her already on the verge of collapse, he thrust his fingers into her, drawing out the waves of pleasure he could feel rocketing through her body. He wanted nothing more than to get down on his knees and eat her pussy, but considering the time constraints, he just worked her into a frenzy.

“Fuck me,” she pleaded. “Get inside me.”

He kissed her lips once, softly, tenderly. Met her dazed blue gaze and smiled. She smiled back, slightly lopsided and sated. He loved it.

He swiftly released himself from his suit pants and let them fall into a heap at his feet. Then, he grabbed her legs and brought them back around his waist before driving into her.

“Oh, fuck,” he groaned when he bottomed out inside her. “Fucking hell.”

“God, I have missed you,” she said.

“You have no idea.”

“I think I do.”

He brushed her platinum hair out of her face, placed another tender kiss on her lips, and then moved. Not slowly. He could hardly contain himself. The way she was looking at him. The complete adoration on her face. The mask dropping and the desire evident. The way she breathed in short sputters. The way her eyes glazed over. The way her acrylic nails dug into his back.

It was like coming home.

This was where he was meant to be and whom he was meant to be with.

He’d been an idiot for thinking he could ever get it from anyone else. Sex. Fucking. None of it was the same compared to how it felt to be inside the woman he loved.

His thrusts picked up tempo until they were both panting with exertion. He slammed into her body. Owning it. Their bodies came together over and over again. They both knew exactly what made the other tick, and with so much practice over the years, it was like playing a well-tuned guitar. He could pluck just the right string. Strum just the right melody. Play the perfect song of her body.

Harmony.

Perfect fucking harmony.

Andrea fiercely kissed him once before he felt her walls contract all around him. He saw stars as his orgasm rocked through him with the same ferocity.

He collapsed forward onto his forearms and rested his forehead against hers. Their breaths came out in gasps in the mingled air. The space felt very small. Like it was just the two of them and the rest of the world didn’t exist. Nothing could come between them in that moment.

Not after sharing that.

“Clay…”

“Andrea…”

“I love you.”

He breathed out heavily and looked down at her to see she was smiling. “I love you, too.”

After a few minutes of being wrapped together, they both straightened out their clothes. Andrea located an adjacent restroom and came back looking only slightly flushed with her hair tamed and her smile beaming. He didn’t even care about what he looked like, but she insisted he take a look in the mirror.

It was for the better that he straightened up some since…he still had a speech to give.

He took Andrea’s hand when he came back out. “You said that I couldn’t change…that you didn’t expect me to. I’d love to imagine that this right here could put all the past behind us, but I know that sex doesn’t heal all the old wounds. As much as I want it to. I’m just asking for a chance…a second chance. I’ve changed.”

“That’s wonderful to hear.”

He smirked. “I mean, honestly, I’m still the same asshole that you fell for, but I want to be with you. If I have to grovel…I can work on my groveling skills.”

She laughed, and it was a beautiful sound. God, everything about her was beautiful.

“We’ll see about groveling. That would seriously be a sight. Clay Maxwell…groveling.” She looked away from him, as if she were imagining him on his hands and knees, pleading.

He sank to his knees then and there, still holding her hand, and kissed it. “We both made mistakes. We both hurt the other. The only way we’ll know if this is real is to give it a real shot. If it’s not enough for you after that…then you can walk. I won’t keep coming back for you. I’ll let you go.”

“Clay,” she whispered. She bent down and brushed a kiss on his forehead. “I do like you on your knees, but get up. You don’t have to grovel to me. I messed up, too. I’d like another chance. I don’t know if it will work,” she admitted. “But I’d like it to.”

The pair returned to the reception to find that dinner was over. Champagne was being passed around to all the attendees. Brady and Liz were standing at a side table, cutting into the cake, while everyone snapped shots of them.

Chris appeared in front of Clay, looking frantic. “Where the hell did you go? Toasts were supposed to happen at the end of dinner, but we couldn’t do that without you. They just moved on to the cake.”

“No one seems to mind,” Clay pointed out.

Chris shook his head. “Well, we’re about to do that, so I hope you’re ready.”

Cake was passed out to the attendees, and then Chris and Victoria gave their speeches before the rapt crowd. Chris joked about Brady’s rise to fame at UNC and then into politics. He talked about the first time he had met Liz—when Brady had brought her over to his apartment—and how he had known that first day that she was the one for Brady. Victoria was a little more…colorful. She made several inside joke references that made Liz turn scarlet. But, by the end of it, Brady and Liz were laughing so hard that each had to clutch their sides.

Clay knew it was his turn then. He left Andrea with the cheesecake she had gotten from the dessert table and walked to the front of the room. He took the microphone from Victoria, who flashed him a grin.

“Beat that,” she said with a wink.

“Challenge accepted.”

He ran a hand back through his disheveled hair, not giving a single fuck about what he looked like after what had just happened with Andrea.

“Hey, everybody!” Clay said, straightening his tie as all eyes turned to him. He glanced over at Brady and Liz.

Brady looked a bit worried and Liz even more so. Did they think I’m going to throw them under the bus?

“Ever since I was told I was supposed to give a speech at Brady’s wedding, I’d been planning out something horribly embarrassing to say about Brady. I mean, really, it’s the first time where I’m behind the microphone and not him, so I should use this to my advantage right?”