Page 14 of The Forever (When the World Fell #3)

Cruz

L iv made a soft huffing sound as she shifted underneath me, more bothered than I’d seen her. She’d called herself gross, but I inhaled the tang of sweat clinging to her skin like she was wearing expensive perfume.

She was beautiful.

Real.

Mine.

I kissed her harder, thrusting my tongue into her mouth. When I clasped her breast and squeezed, she rewarded me with a sultry moan and an arched back.

Her reactions made each minute we shared more intimate and memorable. Every part of her tempted me, each patch of skin my lips touched leaving me wanting more. The pulse point below her ear, the curve of her jaw.

I couldn’t get enough.

“Sure you can you be quiet?” I asked in a low voice.

“I think so,” she said. “This is the best and worst kind of torture.”

Her impatience made me smile. Her heat drove me crazy. I took her at her word and pulled her nipple into my mouth, giving her one long, deep suck. A harsh breath left her, but she kept the volume low enough that no one else could hear.

I pulled back to take in the pink bud glistening in the lantern light, then sucked her nipple again, squeezing her breast and drawing as much as I could into my mouth. She whimpered a little louder and moved restlessly beneath me, her legs separating as if inviting me in.

The internal and external pressure grew, the need to take this further clashing with the desire to draw it out and make it last for as long as possible.

“I should probably mention there’s nothing stopping me from getting pregnant,” she said, her voice a rushed whisper.

I lifted my head, reminding myself not to get so wrapped up in her I stopped thinking about what happened beyond tonight. “Don’t worry about a thing. It’s under control.” I touched my lips to hers.

As I kissed her again, she wedged a hand between our bodies and gripped me, sending my heart into a thudding gallop. Her tongue swept across mine, her fingers encasing my length. When her thumb slid over the wet tip, my stomach clenched and recklessness tore through me. I yanked my mouth from hers to kiss her neck, her jaw, the lobe of her ear. I’d never been this turned on from a simple touch.

While muffled sounds drifted through the walls, her stormy eyes held me captive, and she guided me inside her.

As the overwhelming heat of her surrounded me, conflicting emotions rolled through me. Love and lust, relief and uncertainty. Her mouth dropped open as she accommodated me, and I had to hide my face against her neck to focus on my breathing. When my chest came to rest against hers, the softness of her breasts, the sensation of her stomach tensing beneath mine, had those emotions growing until they were too big, too much.

She was ready for me—but I wasn’t ready for her. For this.

Liv was everything I’d ever wanted, and the two of us were only ever going to have each other. No family or shared friends, nothing but the love we were building together.

My throat hurt with the effort of suppressing it, and I dragged in a ragged breath.

I couldn’t move, couldn’t speak.

If I’d had the power to form a coherent thought, I might have even been embarrassed.

Her body stilled beneath mine as if she sensed the need to tread carefully. “Are you okay?” she asked, stroking my hair.

Her perceptiveness helped in some ways, made it worse in others.

I nodded against her neck, turning my head to kiss her there. In every other aspect of my life, I could control myself—my actions, my words—but with her the rules were different. “I just need a minute.”

“It’s all right,” she said, urging me to lift my head and look at her. Her gaze connected with mine, and she let me see everything she was feeling. “It’s just you and me, Cruz. It’s always just you and me. No matter who else is with us, no matter where we go.”

Her eyes were soft, her expression open and understanding. Liv accepted every part of me without question, her patience beyond anything I’d experienced. I took in her flushed cheeks, and her lips, soft and puffy from our kisses. I hadn’t been in love until now, and the realisation hit me like a truck.

“ Te amo,” I said again, feeling it with my entire body.

With the hint of a smile, she traced her fingertips from my temple to my jaw, her touch mesmerising. I was still buried deep inside her—I’d almost forgotten that part, which was crazy in itself—and my hips began moving with a mind of their own, the slick warmth of her the most addictive kind of torment.

She didn’t ask me to translate for her this time around, instead putting the pieces together with her usual perceptiveness. Her eyes were deep pools of emotion, and she stared up at me with so much feeling, I almost wanted to look away.

“I love you, too,” she said.

Her words set off an explosion of light inside me, and my heart felt too big for my chest, like it might burst from me any minute. “How did you know?” I asked, holding back a groan when her inner muscles squeezed me,

“The look on your face when you said it outside.” She ran her fingernails so gently up my spine, I shivered. “And you’ve been telling me a million different ways for a while now.”

She’d brought the softness into my life that had been missing for too long, and I had no clue how I’d made it this far without her. “You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me . ”

We were both smiling as I dipped my head and kissed her, and my hips moved against hers in a lazy, grinding thrust.

Her tongue played with mine, the kiss going on and on, teasing and arousing as she alternated between trailing her fingertips and nails up and down my back. Every place she touched seemed to come to life, my entire body desperate to know her.

“I don’t want this to stop,” I told her, hearing the roughness in my voice.

“Go slow,” she said. “Nice and slow, Cruz. Let me feel every inch of you.”

Jesus . I blew out a hard breath and continued my easy, steady rhythm, losing myself in her, revelling in every surprised gasp she made when I bottomed out inside her. “You’re everything to me,” I said beside her mouth.

We fit each other perfectly, her curves moulding to my body like she was made specifically for me. I gripped her hip and experimented with more force, taking her harder, driving deeper, again and again, until I could barely hang on.

When she cried out and clutched my back, I leaned in close and said beside her ear, “Press your face into my shoulder. Make all the noise you need.”

“Cruz… God .”

She tucked her face against my neck and rocked her hips to keep up with my pace, her entire body seeming to scream for release. The tension built, and her inner muscles tightened around me as she reached the precipice.

When she dragged in a breath and shuddered with her climax, I plunged inside her, giving her everything. All of me. My body clenched, the feeling building deep in my groin until I hit the tipping point.

Seconds later, I pulled out and made a guttural sound as I came, marking the pale skin of her stomach.

Heat flooded me, and as my body jerked for the last time, my fingers dug into her hip for the beat it took me to come back down to Earth.

A long minute ticked by while we both recovered, and our laboured breaths were the only sound in the room.

I lifted myself off her and sank back on my heels, dragging in air.

The storms in her eyes cleared, and she ran her hands over her breasts as she gazed up at me. “I’m even more annoyed at you now for making me wait as long as you did.”

With an amused breath, I leaned down to kiss her again. “Don’t move.”

I left the bed and rustled through the nightstand, finding a bundle of folded handkerchiefs in the second drawer.

Liv watched me in silence as I leaned over her and cleaned her lower belly. When my gaze locked with hers again, a tender look passed between us, and I smiled a bit. We’d opened a door that would never shut again, and I didn’t know how I’d keep my hands off her when we left the room in the morning.

I turned the lantern off and found my way back to her in the dark, climbing into bed and pulling the covers over us. She rolled onto her side and hooked her calf over mine. Then her hand sank into my hair, and she raked her nails over my scalp.

“You’ve got ten minutes,” she said, her voice a seductive murmur, “fifteen max, then I’m going to need you to rally and get ready for round two. I plan on making up for lost time.”

I planted a smacking kiss on her mouth, more content than I’d felt in a long time. “Give me five. That’s all I need.”