Page 67 of Good Girl’s Guide to Love (Guide to Love #4)

ainsley

We weren’t even two steps inside Linc’s apartment before we were stripping each other. It was a matter of seconds until he was kissing every inch of my body, his hands touching every part of me his mouth wasn’t. Within minutes he was inside of me, thrusting into me like a man possessed.

And I loved every second of it. It mirrored what I felt in the moment as I was telling that horrible woman how it was.

Linc’s body was saying, “She’s mine.”

And when I was facing her, that’s the only thing that was going through my head. He’s mine.

This shouldn’t surprise me. Linc has always known what I’ve needed. Even before we began the physical part of our relationship, the man somehow has always had a sense about me.

He knew when I needed help that night at the bar.

He knew how to navigate the first meeting with my siblings.

He knew how I needed to be touched when I didn’t have a clue.

And now, as we lay in his bed—his fingers gently stroking my back as I aimlessly trace the ink on his chest—we both know that we needed this. The silence after the passion. To process everything that’s happened in a matter of hours.

“Am I stupid?”

His question surprises me, and I turn to look at him, needing to know where that came from. “The initial answer is no. But now I need to know why you asked that?”

I roll off his chest, propping my head up with my hand, but Linc makes sure I’m not far away, pulling my body into him. “Katie. I trusted her. But the way she started acting recently? I don’t know…something was off, and I ignored it. I feel like I’ve been played.”

I bring his hand up to my lips, gently kissing his palm in hopes of some comfort.

“My answer stands that you’re not stupid.

We put our trust into people, and she was no different.

She probably did have your best interests at heart at some point, but something happened along the way. We just don’t know what.”

“You happened,” he says. “The second you came into my life, things shifted.”

I had that thought, but didn’t want to say anything and sound conceited. “I knew she never liked me. That was evident from the first day we met. But, being me, I assumed I was reading into things that weren’t there. That changed when she showed up in the suite that first game I went to.”

“What did happen that day? You never filled me in.”

Oh, shoot. Now I feel guilty. “I meant to, I promise, Linc. But after we had that little exchange in the tunnel, we got in the car and then we came here and…”

“Then you sucked my dick wearing my jersey,” he says with a wink. “I guess I can forgive you for that. In my defense, I forgot everything that happened before that as well.”

I relax, and of course, blush a little, because that day was pretty hot. “I really didn’t mean to hold out on you. But then after that, I didn’t really see her again. I’m assuming she saw you, but she avoided me. I honestly didn’t think about it until today.”

“It’s okay,” he says, kissing my forehead for good measure. “It’s just…something’s not adding up.”

“I have theories, but they don’t make sense.”

“What are they?” he asks. “Because I’m clueless.”

“My first one is that she has feelings for you.”

“Really?” he asks, clearly not thinking on the same path as me. “Besides being a little touchy-feely, she’s never come across that way.”

“I know,” I say. “It was my first thought. But then, why would she set us up? If she truly had feelings for you, getting you a fake girlfriend is the worst idea in the world.”

Linc lets out a breath. “What’s always bothered me was the game she showed up to wearing a Rockwell T-shirt. She knows he hates me, and my feelings are mutual. I’m not saying she has to ride at dawn with me, but that always rubbed me the wrong way.”

“And was she dismissive? That’s what it always felt like to me when I overheard your conversations, and even today from what little I heard as I was walking up. It’s like she didn’t care.”

“She didn’t. But do you think…did she have something to do with all the negative stuff?”

I shrug because I honestly don’t know. “I hope not. The glass-half-full Ainsley wants to say that those are separate and she’s just really bad at her job. But now? Now I don’t know what to believe.”

Linc pulls me back into his embrace, rolling me over with ease as he balances his weight on top of me. “No matter her intentions, I do feel like I need to thank her. Because her suggestion of you and me dating? Best thing to ever happen to me.”

His lips descend on mine, and while I have a gut feeling that this Katie thing isn’t over, I’m done thinking about her tonight.

“Do you think we really would’ve never seen each other again?” I don’t want to give Katie any more brain space, but now that he’s put that out there, the overthinker in me is taking over.

Linc’s smile says it all. “Like I could’ve stayed away.”

He sits up, bringing me with him. My hands immediately circle his neck as he looks at me like I’ve never been looked at before, making my heart swell so much it might burst.

“I love you, Ainsley.”

Holy crap. Did he just say…

“Oh, the shocked face. I missed that look,” he says as he comes in for a quick kiss. “That’s the look you first gave me from the floor of the hospital, and I remember thinking that you were the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”

“You did not.” The man is going to make me blush as I fight back happy tears.

“Oh, but I did,” he says as he pulls me in tighter. “I looked for you after you left. I knew you were…what did you say?—‘Leave, car, go’…but I looked. I needed to see you again.”

Yup. Crying. Tears. Happy tears. And I’m not even ashamed.

“When I saw you that night at karaoke, I couldn’t believe my luck. I didn’t even know your name, but there you were.”

“And then you were my boyfriend.”

“Damn right I was,” he says with a quick kiss.

“All that is to say I don’t think I could’ve stayed away from you if I tried.

I looked for you that first day, and I know I would’ve looked for you again.

You were in my bones from second I met you, Ainsley Banks.

Even if we had said our goodbyes that day at my kitchen island, I know that I’d have made as many hospitals visits as I needed to see you again. ”

He pauses to gather his words. Which is good. I need a second to gather myself.

My entire life, I’ve dreamed of the moment. The moment when you realize that you’re in love and you’re loved back just as much. I prayed for this. Wondered when it was going to be my turn.

But now it’s here. This man who I literally didn’t see coming, yet changed my entire world.

And it’s all because I did the scary thing.

“I love you, Ainsley Mae,” he continues. “I don’t know much, but I know our story wasn’t supposed to end that day. And if I have my way, it’s not going to end for a very long time.”

“I love you, Linc,” I say before kissing the heck out of this man. I have so much more to say. But more than that, I want to show him how much I love him too. How much he saved me that night. How he showed me a side of myself that I didn’t know existed.

No more hiding. No more being scared.

Just being happy.

Being me.

Being loved.

Reading me like he always can, Linc gently lowers us back to the bed, our lips never leaving each other as I feel him growing hard on top of me. I open my legs, knowing that he doesn’t need to get me ready to take him. My body is always ready.

Plus, all that talk about love? That’s foreplay enough.

Linc lines himself up, slowly entering me, my back arching as I feel him filling me.

I still don’t understand the logistics of all of this— but what I do know is that when he’s inside me, slowly pumping in and out of me, I’ve never felt more complete in my life.

And so for that, I’m going to choose to not overthink it.

Instead I’m going to focus on Linc. On how he looks down at me like I’m his whole world. How his lips always need to be on my body in some way. How he moves in and out of me, his pace always in tune with what the night calls for.

Earlier was about heat. Raw emotion. We both felt it after our run-in with Katie, and we both needed the release.

Right now is just about us. About love. About each other.

Holy Moses…this isn’t sex. This is making love. What I’ve dreamed of, wanted, for years. This is what my sisters always talked about. Sure, they discussed some adventurous things, but underlying in all of it was how their partners made them feel whole. Beautiful. Wanted. Cherished. Loved.

And that’s what’s happening right now as Linc brings his hands under my back, holding me against him as he makes sure that I feel every inch of him inside me.

My arms and legs are wrapped around him, needing to feel him as close as possible.

He buries his lips into my neck, kissing and sucking as our movements start speeding up.

My nails dig into his back as I feel my orgasm start to build, and as much as I want the release, I want to feel more of him just like this. I want this moment to last longer.

I want it to last forever.

My body moves, signaling to him that I want on top.

I know we talked about this the night before, and I figured at some point it would happen tonight, but I never knew it would be like this.

The smile on Linc’s face is one I wish I could take a picture of.

It’s a little devilish. A little love drunk. And a whole lot satisfied.

I put my hands on his chest, bracing myself as he lines me up and helps me ease down onto him.

“Oh God,” I say in a moan. “This feels so good.”

“Take what you want, baby. I’m yours.”

And I do. I grip onto his chest as I move up and down on his length, loving how it feels the same, yet so much different. His hands reach up for me, playing with each of my breasts as I start riding him a little faster, wanting to feel more and more of him with every movement.

“I love you, Lincoln Kincaid,” I say as I change my pace, slowing it down to more methodical movements.

“I love how you make me feel. I love how I can be every part of myself around you. I love that you help me do the scary things, and if I fail at them, I know that you’ll be there to catch me.

I love that you know to get me eight sides of ranch with everything.

And I love how you love me. I…I just love you. ”

His hand is behind my neck in seconds as he pulls me down for a kiss that I actually feel in every cell of my body. He has me rolled over in seconds, our pace now furious as our mouths are taking everything we want.

Not that I’m complaining.

“Linc!” I scream as I hold onto him for dear life. I detonate the second his finger connects with my clit, flipping the switch that just sent me into a new orbit. He follows right behind me, letting out a grunt so loud that it’s possible Wyatt could hear him three floors away.

We both come down from our highs, but our embrace never breaks. His arms are around me, holding me close as I do the same. Neither of us say a word. We don’t need to.

We love each other. And that’s all we need for whatever is thrown at us.