Page 48

“You know, with everything that happened last night and so late, I doubt anyone will be awake any time soon,” she added quietly, her gaze unwavering from mine. “So, you know, it’s just us two for a while.”

I studied her as my stomach swirled with warmth and a fuzzy static. Was she suggesting what I think she was? But with all these secrets that still remained between the two of us, maybe she wasn’t. Besides, why would someone like her ever want someone like the man I’d grown up to be. A failure.

“You’re welcome to get some more rest if you want,” I cordially replied.

Her eyes narrowed, and she snapped to her feet. “Oh, fuck you, Ford,” she hissed.

I raised a brow and smirked, receiving my answer to my doubts. “Please do.”

Every mountain we still had to climb to somehow find some sort of equilibrium wasn’t a second thought at the back of my mind as her mouth fell open. For just a moment, all that mattered was her and me.

Then she quickly slammed her teeth together and sucked her lips into her mouth. “I—That was extremely forward.”

“That’s what you were implying, was it not?” I slowly rose from the couch and stepped into her body. Her heart hammered in her chest, palpable against my bare torso.

“I mean—It—Well—” She gingerly placed a hand against my abdomen and then tore it away. Electricity slithered between her touch and my skin.

“Say yes,” I whispered.

Her breathing quickened. Her fingers trembled as she danced them across my pec, tracing the ink of my tattoos.

I wrapped my hands around her waist. “Let me lose myself in you, please. Let me see you come undone. Say yes, please,” I begged.

“Fuck it,” she said and looped her fingers in the waistband of my pajama pants, jerking me toward her.

That was all the permission I needed as I grabbed her face and claimed her lips with mine.

I couldn’t fucking wait. To feel her against my body again. For a moment, my mind would be empty of everything that weighed down upon me. There was nothing but her and me. There was nothing but this moment where we’d get to share something that involved absolutely no one else.

The only thing in my head was her. This kiss.That was it.

She twisted the fabric in her hands, tugging me into her tighter. I deepened my lips against her mouth. She rocked onto her tiptoes, and I slid my hands down around her waist, pulling her as close to me as possible. There was still too much space between us, despite the fact that every inch of her body was flush with mine.

After all this time apart, after the broken hearts and shattered egos, we were here as nothing more than two souls that craved each other. With an easy scoop beneath her ass, I hoisted her legs off of the ground and quickly laid her down on the couch.

A gentle giggle escaped her lips as I crawled on top of her. “This couch felt bigger the last time,” she whispered against my lips.

I grinned and shook my head as I let myself trace the swells of her hips. “Be quiet or someone will hear,” I replied.

She nipped at my lips and then dove back in for a kiss with her arms snaked around my neck. It was innocent and intimate, as light as a feather but as deep as a pit left by a grenade to mortar. Nothing could stop this moment as her lips deepened against mine. The tenderness shifted into a neediness that had everything feeling as if it was the first time I was welcome to explore her.

My fingers danced across the top button of her pajama top, and she gave me a quick nod for permission. While working the clasps loose, I shoved my tongue between her teeth, reveling in the velvet and slightly minty taste left from her toothpaste. Fuck was she perfect. No matter how the world spun things, no matter where we ended up in time, I would crawl back to this woman.

Once the final button on her top was freed from the fabric, it fell free from her body, and she leaned forward, allowing it to billow to the cushion beneath her. My heart quickened in my chest as my lips hovered against hers. Every wave of her exhales brushed hot and warm against my skin. There she was. Inviting me, open to me. I’d never seen anything more beautiful than her with her hair in an unruly, frizzy mess, completely submitting to this moment. Snow-white skin with freckles as abundant as grains of sand hovered an inch away from me.

She gently laid back against the couch with a lazy hand draped around my neck. For a moment, the hell I was destined for slunk away to the darkest corners of my mind as I stared at the one good thing left that was mine. No matter how brief or temporary my sanctuary was, she was my oasis.

With a trembling hand, I placed my palm against her stomach where faint stretch marks disappeared beneath the waistband of her pajama shorts. What a fucking woman she was, and my desire to explore every inch of this goddess body of hers deepened. Roaring with a flame deep within my lower back, what little blood was left in my head rushed between my legs. I trailed my fingertips up her side and traced the creases beneath her bare breasts.

A quiet gasp escaped her throat, and I lifted my gaze away from her naked torso. Green eyes connected with mine, latching on and clasping hold with an unbreakable fortress. With every passing second, I knew we danced down a road there was no coming back from.

I slid my knee against her thigh as she tipped her chin backwards and whimpered. With a gentle push, I widened the spread of her legs and sankdeeper against her, awaiting the moment I could remove the final pieces of fabric still separating our bodies. Her desperation shifted to that of a moan.

She dug her fingers into the back of my neck, and I slammed my lips back against hers. As we panted, falling into each other’s touch, it was as if no time had passed between this moment and the last. Her touch was aggressive but softened to mine, giving into what I was asking. This wasn’t lust, this wasn’t just one last fuck, this was something else entirely. It was a tightening of the bond formed all those years ago, and I forgot every obstacle still in our way.

She was my Cherí. My treasure. She was the only woman I’d ever loved, and the only woman for me. She was my wicked storm on this desolate road that I’d been wandering. I’d never thought I’d make it this far in life. I’d been wild and had done everything in my power to find a way off this Earth for years. But here I was wrapped in the arms of a woman who’d been the only light in the painful mourning of a twisted path I still walked.

Desire and arousal rolled like hot coal through my body. A gentle smile lifted upon her lips as I studied her, ready to dive into her and cause her to writhe beneath my touch as she begged for her release. Such beautiful serenity.