Page 43 of A Bond Beyond Blood (The Butcher’s Daughter Trilogy #1)
“I’ve missed you so much,” I whispered. “So many times I’ve wanted to call...” I swallowed hard as emotion thickened in my throat. “I was so scared. Scared of hurting you, of losing you all over again...” I opened my eyes and met hers, wet with tears that mirrored my own. “I’m so fucking sorry.”
Her gaze dropped to my mouth as she brought her hand up to my face, swiping the wetness from my cheek, and... for a split second, I thought maybe, just maybe , she might be about to press her sweet mouth to mine—
And then she did.
Her lips were warm and soft against my own, moving gently until I began to move with her.
her tongue was a soft, tentative thing as it licked cautiously into my mouth, and I had to fight with all of the self-control I’d developed over the last six months not to grab her and haul her body against me, to kiss her with the desperation I felt in the very marrow of my bones.
The kiss deepened slowly, and I couldn’t say which one of us was in charge here, but as our tongues danced faster and harder, licking into one another hungrily. I wrapped my arms around her, pulling her closer, desperate to feel every bit of her warmth.
A sob slipped past her lips and I swallowed it down as she cupped my face with both hands and kissed me with the same amount of need that sang through my veins.
I pulled back to search her gaze, tears flowing like rivers down her cheeks, then I licked up one cheek to pull that salty sadness into my mouth—but that simple taste of her wasn’t enough.
It was nowhere near enough.
I wanted to sink my teeth into her neck, bury my cock into her sweet heat like I had a thousand times before. I wanted to claim her all over again because she was and always would be my Jackie.
Mine .
There was no world, no future, that didn’t end in me growing old beside this beautiful, stubborn, strong fucking woman.
My heart stuttered as I realized only one of us would ever grow old now, but I pushed that chilling realization aside. It didn’t matter . We were the long game. Forever. Whatever that meant.
My life always had been and always would be linked with hers.
We were initials carved into a tree in Central Park.
A love lock on the Brooklyn Bridge.
Matching tattoos on opposite ankles.
Time and distance had nothing on me and Jackie Fiorino.
The scent of her arousal made me dizzy with lust. I slid one hand up to grip the base of her skull and tilted her head away so I could kiss along the line of her jaw, then down her throat.
When I felt the thrum of her pulse beneath my lips, heart beating fast and firm, my tongue slipped out to taste that pulsation—
And she stilled in my arms. Her heart stuttered with fear, but I ignored the way that made my chest tighten with regret and kept moving downward.
With one hand still wrapped around the base of her head I tugged the scarf free, then yanked the zipper of her jacket down, exposing the deep V of her shirt and the soft skin beneath.
“Fuck, Jackie,” I groaned as I continued to kiss and lick my way down her chest. “I miss you.”
She sucked in a breath and her hands slammed against my shoulders, stopping my momentum.
When I looked up, her eyes were wide with alarm. “I don’t want to do this.”
My heart plummeted at those words, and the meaning behind them, because she didn’t say she can’t .
Or that we shouldn’t .
She said she doesn’t want to.
She doesn’t want me .
I closed my eyes and held my breath because I wouldn’t be able to control myself if I continued to breathe in the decadent aroma of that heaven between her thighs, the home I wanted so badly to bury myself inside of again, to feel that closeness with her that I’d missed for so fucking long.
But I hadn’t earned that right. Not yet.
After a moment, I nodded and opened my eyes again, hoping the redness that piggybacks desire had seeped from my eyes. “I haven’t earned your forgiveness yet,” I stated with a curt nod. “I understand. I have a long way to go, but I am going to get there. I promise you that.”
Jackie shivered as she nodded, pulling her arms around herself against the cold.
“I can’t promise that we’ll get there again, Gannon.
” She shook her head and the lamplight above glinted off the wetness in her eyes.
“I’m not...” She swallowed hard and stood.
“I’m not the same girl you knew.” With a deep breath that straightened her shoulders and sank mine, she looked around, taking in the deserted docks. “I think it’s time for me to go home.”
“I’ll walk you.”
She zipped her jacket back up and arranged her scarf against her neck. “I think I’m okay—”
I raised my hand to stop her. “Please let me walk you home so your boyfriend doesn’t kick my ass.
” Vinny might be cool about her seeing me and figuring out where we stand, but he would not be cool about me allowing Jackie to make her way through the city completely unprotected.
He was a possessive asshole, for sure, but being protective of this girl was something we had in common.
She smiled as she nodded, then turned away from me to begin the walk back.
With a deep breath, I followed her.
We were okay. We would be okay.
She just needed a little more time, and I could give her that. I owed her that much and more for the way I’d left her—and I would earn her love again.
Because I had every intention of becoming the kind of man who deserved such a gift.