Page 37

Chapter nineteen

Hazel

I let out a sigh as I snap another picture, enjoying the sound of the waves crashing on the rocks below me.

Watching the sunset from this view will never grow old.

“Oh good. You’re alive.”

“Jesus Christ!” I spin around, placing a hand over my chest, willing my heart to calm down, but staring into the piercing green eyes of my husband is not helping. “What the hell, Gage? You scared the shit out of me.”

“You’re one to talk.” He crosses his arms. “I came home to an empty apartment and tried calling you three times with no answer.”

I glance over at my phone on the desk my dad put up here for me all those years ago. “I must have had my phone on silent.”

“Nice. Well, thankfully your mom suggested checking here. Hell, I wouldn’t have even known about this spot if your brothers hadn’t mentioned it this weekend.”

“You called my mom?” I ask, setting down my camera and giving him a once-over. And damn, he looks good wearing his signature black on black outfit, the crinkles at his eyes hinting at the sliver of amusement he’s finding in our reunion.

“I did. And I know I shouldn’t have.”

Taking a few steps toward him, I inhale his scent, immediately comforted. The past three days have been so long and lonely without him in our apartment. I missed sleeping next to him, I missed arguing with him, and I can’t deny that I missed his mouth and cock as well.

He’s fucking ruined me.

“Then why did you?” I ask, standing just a few inches away from him now.

He reaches to cup my face. “Because I needed to talk to you, to see you.” Leaning down, he presses his lips to mine softly. “I realized something out there in the mountains this weekend.”

Smiling, I say, “What was that?”

He pauses before continuing, his eyes bouncing all over my face as the corner of his mouth curls up. “I really fucking missed you.”

I stifle the snort that wants to escape my mouth, but inside, my heart melts. “You sound pained to say that.”

He huffs out a laugh and rests his forehead on mine. “Don’t make this harder than it already is for me, Spitfire.”

My heart rate climbs again. “So what are you saying, Gage?”

“I’m saying that I’m falling for you and I’m tired of not letting myself.” He leans in and kisses me again, this time deeper, swirling his tongue against mine and making me soften in his arms, letting his entire body and presence overwhelm me.

When he releases me, I’m breathless. “It’s about time you finally admit it.”

“What can I say? I’m a little slow to come to grips with my feelings.”

I laugh. “Yeah, you can say that again.”

He lifts me int o his arms, and I wrap my legs around his waist as he carries me back over to the window, setting me on the cushioned seat, kneeling between my legs. “You’ve fucking marked me, Hazel.” His fingers trace the line of my jaw. “Like ink.”

I swallow hard because hearing those words is the validation that I needed, especially after this weekend.

I was so afraid that while he was gone, he’d realize what we’d done, how we’d broken the rules we set out three months ago when we agreed to this.

I was afraid that I’d be back up here, in this lighthouse, crying yet again over lost love and feeling alone for the thousandth time.

But he’s not saying those things. He’s saying the opposite. And as I study the pure and honest look in his eyes, I finally know in my heart what my head has been resisting for so long— I’m in love with this man .

“Well, if it makes you feel any better…” I pause for dramatic effect. “I really fucking missed you too.”

The smile on his face makes my knees weak, so it’s a good thing I’m already sitting. But when he launches himself at me, smashing his lips to mine and burying his hands in my hair, I pray that the risk I’m taking with my heart this time is worth it.

That this was all meant to be and Diane was right.

“Fuck, I need you,” Gage mumbles against my mouth between kisses.

“There’s no bed here.”

“I don’t need a fucking bed.” He yanks my head back by my hair, kissing a path up my neck. “But let me at least taste you before I take you home and fuck you properly.”

“If you insist.”

Gage pushes my dress up around my waist, releasing his hold on my hair to pull my underwear down. He props my legs up on the ledge, guides me to lean back against the window, and then drags his tongue all the way through my slit as I let out an embarrassing moan.

“Fuck, I missed this pussy,” he mumbles against me, circling my clit with his tongue, using his piercing with precision, and running his fingers through my wetness before pushing two inside of me.

I bury one hand in his hair, bracing the other behind me for support. “God, don’t stop, Gage.”

He continues to slide his fingers in and out of me, curling them expertly to hit that spot that will make me come undone.

No other man has touched me like he has, no other man has made me feel so out of control, and no other man has forced me to admit how wrong I’ve been about everything I thought I knew.

Gage makes me want to trust, to stop guarding my heart, and to give in to everything I feel for him.

“You’re fucking dripping, Hazel,” he mumbles against me, bringing me back to the present. His touch escalates and then subsides, building me higher before bringing me back down, teasing me relentlessly until my body is primed to release.

“I’m close.”

“I can tell. Your pussy keeps tightening around my fingers. I can’t wait to feel you around my cock again, baby.”

His tongue keeps moving over my clit with just the right amount of pressure and his fingers rubbing me deep inside where I need him to as the first flash of white heat sparks behind my eyes. “God, yes! I’m coming!”

And then I break, screaming and gasping through my release, holding his face to my pussy as he draws every last tremor of pleasure from my body.

When I come down, he’s there to catch me, holding me to his chest. “I need to get you home, now.”

“ Gage…” I press a kiss to his neck and then one to his lips, tasting myself on his mouth. “I really missed you,” I murmur, spent as my body relaxes.

“Me too, Spitfire. I fucking missed you too.”

***

“Feels like this pussy missed me too.” Gage stares down into my eyes, his hand wrapped gently around my neck, my knees up by my ears as he fucks me deep and hard, picking up where we left off at the lighthouse, making up for lost time. “So hot, so wet, dripping all over my balls.”

“You’re so deep,” I cry out as he picks up his pace, relentlessly pounding into me.

“Doesn’t feel deep enough.” Our eyes remain locked as Gage’s breathing grows shallower. “Come with me, baby.”

“I’m there,” I gasp, clenching around him just as he groans, burying himself deep as we both come undone.

Gage rolls off me, pulling me onto his chest. He kisses the top of my head, his chest still heaving beneath me. “You okay? I wasn’t too rough with you, was I?”

“Not at all.”

He grows quiet for a few moments before surprising me. “It sounds like your dad was an amazing man.”

I lift my head to find his eyes. “Weird time to bring up my dad, but okay…”

Laughing, he urges me to lie back down. “Your brothers were talking about him a lot on the way out to Blossom Peak. That’s when they told me he used to take you up to the lighthouse.”

Smiling at the memory, I sigh. “Yeah. That was our place.”

“ You must really miss him.”

I swallow past the lump in my throat. “Every day.”

Gage kisses the top of my head. “I’m sorry.”

“Thank you.”

“But there’s something that I need to tell you.”

“Okay...”

He grows quiet again, the sound of crickets outside providing background noise. “My aunt wanted the proceeds from her house to be donated to the Veteran’s Center.”

I launch up from the bed. “What?”

He nods. “In honor of your dad.”

“Really? Why would she do that?” My heart is hammering in my chest.

“Because she knew how much your dad meant to you, and you meant a lot to her.”

“Wow…”

He cuts me off. “Either way, I’m taking the money to the Veteran’s Center this week, and I want you to come with me.” He lifts my hand, kissing it softly.

My eyes well with tears. “Gage…”

He leans up, presses his lips to mine, and pulls me back down to the bed with him, situating me across his chest. “This whole thing is crazy, Hazel. But at this point, what choice do we have but to embrace it?”

Sighing, I close my eyes and try not to overanalyze the bomb he just dropped, focusing instead on the progress we are making in our relationship.

“It is crazy, but it feels right.”

He hums in agreement before stretching and releasing an exaggerated yawn. “God, you wear me out.”

I g iggle. “Well, get ready for round two. You’ve been gone for three days and it’s hardly fair not to make up for lost time.”

He pulls me into him, dusting his lips across mine. “Nothing about this is fair, Spitfire, but I’m beginning to understand why.”