Page 25

Chili had tasted great, but it was nothing compared to the taste of Amara.

Her eyes were a warm blue; all the ice that had lived for years inside had melted.

I’d been giving it all I had to melt the little bit that had remained after our kiss earlier today—and I’d succeeded.

Amara was in my t-shirt in the bed we were sharing, and I was hovering above her, kissing her, grinding into her, and tasting her.

I felt like a teenager again, in the thralls of exploring a girl.

My hands didn’t fumble and my kisses weren’t hesitant, but the layers of clothing that remained between our bodies had me reminiscing.

So I couldn’t say if it was her purity or the gentle innocence in our exploration, but there was something undeniably sweet about our make-out session.

I had enough experience to know how to touch her to make her moan, but I didn’t want to pull out all the stops tonight.

I didn’t want to flood her first time with me, with everything all at once.

Amara hadn’t admitted to being a virgin, and sometimes when she said things, I found myself questioning my suspicion, but it was when she was beneath me, or in my arms that I found that suspicion obliterated.

I wanted to give her everything, and everything included a build-up to the act.

Everything included the hot and heavy that every girl deserved to experience before the act of sex ensued.

I was all for wild, unplanned sex. I’d had my fair share of one-nighters, but with Amara, I felt it was important to give her this. So hot and heavy was what I was giving.

It was also what she was loving.

Her pink lips were swollen and red, and her blue eyes were warm and hazy.

Her little body writhed beneath me, and I could feel my length, hard and hot, pulsing against her core.

My body was between her legs and I’d moved from kissing her mouth, to her jaw, to her throat—and now I was giving attention to that sensitive place behind her ear.

I couldn’t believe that this was where we were when before she’d been mortified to find she’d agreed to spend a week sharing my bed. Now she was sharing her body and trust with me.

“Beckett,” my name sounded deep in her throat, and I thought that was the most beautiful sound in the world. No wonder I’d fallen for the girl so fast and hard. I’d known, subconsciously, that there was something amazing living beneath all her ice. I must have.

“Beautiful.” I murmured, kissing up the length of her throat. “So beautiful.”

I ached to touch her. I wanted to slide my hand beneath the t-shirt to cup her breast. Hell, I wanted to pull the t-shirt over her head and take her into my mouth. I wanted to hear her moan as I dipped my fingers into her panties . . .

Not tonight, man. Not. Tonight.

“I need, Beck . . .” she moaned. “I need.”

Oh, I knew she needed. But I wanted her to need. I wanted her to ache and desire and know. I wanted her to know that when she took all that she needed from me—it was because she not only needed, but also wanted, and craved, and ached. I wanted her to know.

So I didn’t ask her to elaborate. I didn’t ask her to tell me what she needed so that I could give it to her, no questions or hesitations. I didn’t say a thing. I just put my lips on hers and kissed her harder.

That was when she lifted her hips, rocking herself against me. If I thought there was a moment I might be in risk of losing my mind, this right here, was it.

I wanted her like I’d wanted no other in my life. The need was an ache so desperate it was nearly painful.

Still, I didn’t lose control. And I reveled in all that we had together in this moment. The beauty. The rawness. Everything.

My hand found her hip and I stilled her movement, smiling against her soft lips. Her breaths were panted. Her chest rose and fell against mine. Her beauty was messy and perfect in this moment.

“Wow,” she said, and then perfection really did happen.

Because her eyes softened on mine, and her lips started to curl.

She smiled. She wasn’t laughing or giggling.

She was just smiling up at me, like I was the knight she’d always been waiting for.

And it might be corny as fuck, but I vowed right then and there that I would always be that to her.

Until the end of my days, I’d work to be this woman’s knight.

I’d be her protector and her friend. I’d be her lover and her confidant.

I’d be everything that I could be to her, because this girl was it for me.

I knew it in my bones. My soul. My heart.

She was my one. She was my laughter and my dream come true.

She made life worth it all—good times and bad included.

“Yeah baby,” I whispered. “Wow.”

I couldn’t take my eyes off the little woman who was laughing with the others at the kitchen table.

My woman. They each had glasses of wine, and they were fawning, no joke, fawning over Raina’s engagement ring.

It was a nice ring. Kai definitely chose well.

But it was the look on Amara’s face—the wet joy in her eyes as she watched the moment between Kai and Raina, a moment I’d missed because I hadn’t been able to take my eyes from Amara, which I couldn’t get out of my head.

I’d always known that one day I’d want to put a ring on a woman’s finger, get married, buy a house, and have babies. I just hadn’t expected the feeling to hit me so hard and so quickly.

Watching Amara watch the happy couple had me itching to make us the next happy couple.

Still, we’d only officially been together for a couple days and moving that fast would have her running for the hills just to escape me.

It didn’t seem to matter, though. I still wanted what I wanted.

I could hide it from her, but I couldn’t deny the truth of it to myself.

In the last few months I’d been living with Amara, getting to know the extraordinary ins and outs of her beautiful mind and lashing tongue, I’d fallen in love with her.

Raina said something under her breath and Amara’s eyes slid to me.

Her cheeks flushed and she shook her head at Raina, looking down into the red of her wine.

But I didn’t miss what she clearly tried to hide.

The slow soft smile that formed on her lips took my breath away, and if my heart hadn’t already been lost to her, that smile would have stolen it.

Kaiden clapped a hand on my back. “Looks like I’m not the only one who deserves a congratulations.”

I raised a brow, “What?”

“You got through to her.” He lifted his chin in the direction of the table where Amara sat.

“Pretty sure I just saw her smile. I was watching Raina, and when her eyes got so wide I thought the moon fell into her lap, I looked to where she was looking. Mar might have been trying to hide it, but we all saw it.”

“I think I’m getting through to her.” That wasn’t necessarily true. I didn’t think—I knew I was getting through.

“Yeah, I think so too.” Kaiden said, calling my bluff with his matter of fact reply. “Glad for you guys. You deserve it.”

“So do you, man.”

He nodded, his eyes finding his new fiancée. “I can’t wait to marry her. I already know she wants a summer wedding, but I’d marry her tomorrow if I could.”

“Tomorrow’s Christmas,” I said, laughing.

“I just want her to be mine.”

“She’s already yours.” I announced, but as soon as I said the words, I knew what Kai was talking about. He wanted her to be his in the way that she shared his last name. Shared a concrete future together. Shared dreams and hopes and everything. I got it.

“Think Mar’s yours now, Beck.” He replied after a beat. “You sure you’re up to it?”

I didn’t even have to think. “Yeah, I’m sure.”

Later in the room when everyone had said their goodnights, an early evening after the celebrations of Kaiden’s and Raina’s engagement, I was waiting on the loveseat for Amara to return from the bathroom where she was readying herself for bed.

I had the gift I’d bought for her on the cushion next to me.

My hands were twisting as I tried to calm the nerves inside.

I’d built her a small fire, knowing she loved falling asleep to the warmth. I didn’t mind staying awake to watch the embers burn low. I didn’t mind, because I liked giving her something that made her eyes happy. And I loved giving her something that made her lips curl.

The door opened and I heard the light flick off. A creak of the floor alerted me to her nearness and I twisted to glance back at her. She was in my t-shirt again, looking uncertain as she stopped by the couch.

“You’re not in bed?”

“Come sit?”

“Um,” she shifted, her fingers tugging on the hem of the shirt.

I pulled the blanket from the back of the couch, “You can cover your legs with this.” She didn’t have to tell me that was the problem. In my time with Amara, I’d come to know her well. Reading the woman wasn’t hard. After melting her wall of ice, she was like an open book.

“You’re not tired?” She asked, rounding the couch to drop to the cushion. It was when she was snuggled into the blanket, her legs tucked up on the couch, that she noticed the purple wrapped box with the purple satin ribbon. Her breath caught, an audible thing between us. “What’s this?”

“For you.” The words sounded on a breathless whisper. The woman did these things to me—stealing my air.

“For me?” Her eyes moved from the gift up to my face. They were filled with disbelieving question that had me vowing to be the man who, for the rest of her years, gave her gifts that were just for her. Just because.

“For you, Amara.”

“Oh, Beckett . . .” she shook her head. “I—um I . . .”

“Open it,” I lifted the box, placing it into her lap.

I didn’t take my eyes off her face as her hands moved to the bow.

Delicate fingers tugged on the satin, unraveling the ornate ribbon and dropping it to the blanket.

Then she tore at the wrap around the box to uncover another purple box.

This one had white swirly designs that emanated a delicate lace.

Even the box had reminded me of Amara—but it was the gift inside that made me stop and walk into the shop.

My breath stilled in my lungs as I watched her slender fingers pull the lid from the box to reveal a shimmering snow globe. It was when she sucked in a deep breath, lifted watery eyes to mine, and whispered, “Beckett,” that I knew I’d fallen in love with Amara Bloom.