Page 193 of Lost Lyrebird

“That’s too bad.Honestly, it was one of the top reasons I was so keen to come back here.”I steal another kiss from him, and for a second or two, we lose ourselves in it.

“I didn’t say I wasn’t going to try like hell to make it even better.”

“You think you have it in you, old man?”I smirk.

“The way I see it, I’ve got some time to make up for, seeing as I could have spent the last ten years loving you, making you happy, starting a family… getting you pregnant and fat with my babies.”I swat at him, and he laughs, catching my hand.

He takes a moment and eyes the tattoo on my hand, the pink hummingbird.His lips tenderly kiss my skin there.When his gaze meets mine again, he says, “You’re the reason, though.The reason I’m still here.This unfinished business between us—this story we haven’t finished—is now ours to write.It’s why I kept fighting.Because I somehow knew this was waiting for me, if I could find you.Deep down, I think I always knew.And we’ll have our story, Lil’.It might’ve started early, and come a little late, but it’s finally our time to live it.I’m not going anywhere.And this sap is so fucking in love with you that he can’t see straight.Honestly, my life makes no damn sense without you.”

I’m a complete mess for him.But that’s not what I say.What I say is a little mean.“You are a sap.”

He laughs and nods.“I am.But just for you.”

I tap his chest three times over his heart.“Just for me.And I fucking love you too.”

He lays his hand over mine.

“Now, can we move this along?”I ask softly and with total sincerity.“Because I think I’ve waited long enough to be yours.”

“Ditto, woman.”

His mouth claims mine, fierce and possessive.There’s little need for oxygen when my desire to be as close to him as possible overrides everything else.It’s a carnality I’ve never experienced before.A high that both devastates me and sets my world right.

But yes, breathing is essential, and we finally break the kiss.Only, Finn’s not done.His mouth slides along my jaw, runs up and down my neck, branding his way across my skin there, and then down to my collarbone.They’re rough kisses, meant to mark and leave an impression.The coarse brush of his goatee, too, has my skin tingling in its wake.

He attempts to lower the top of my dress for better access.It doesn’t have much give, but it’s enough for him to find the tattoo in a copy of his handwriting.His words.Etched into me.

There is beauty in her movements,

pain in her eyes,

and a storm in her soul.

~ My dreamweaver and little bird.

It was a note he’d made in his journal.I saw it one day while visiting him in rehab.To say I was touched is an understatement.I burst into tears.I also sat on the floor by his bed until I could pull myself together.Because how can one goddamn man have this kind of power over me?He slayed me with those words, broke my heart, and mended it fully at the same time.

After snapping a photo of it, I made an appointment with Taz so he could permanently ink them into my skin.I didn’t just want those words with me always; I wanted to see them every day when I looked in the mirror, so I could maybe start to see myself the way he saw me.

He pauses and pulls back.Those dark irises of his flick up to mine.“This is new.”

“I got it a few days ago.”

He huffs under his breath, “Somebody was snooping.”

“No secrets, right?”

He nods.“No secrets.”

His thumb traces the ink.A second later, his mouth replaces it.His lips tickle, and I fucking giggle because, wow, I didn’t think I had a tickle spot on my entire body.I was so very wrong.

Just like he did when he explored my body without the makeup for the first time, he pays homage to each tattoo as if they’re a map to my soul.Spends a torturous amount of time lovingly touching and kissing each one.He starts on my torso, moves to my arms, then my legs.Especially the ones I painstakingly hid from him and sometimes the world before he went to rehab.

His mouth on my inner thigh has me groaning his name.The next kiss is higher up, and he adds more pressure from his hands as he grips my thighs so I can’t shy away from him.

“You have no idea how maddening it’s been to wait.There’s drug withdrawals, and there’s you.Getting another taste of you is all that’s been on my damn mind since the last time I had my mouth on you.”His fingers dance over the garter belt, playing with it.Moving inward, he strums my clit above my panties.It’s deliberately slow, ratcheting up my need for more.

“Finn,” I moan, more out of desperation than anything else.