His mouth catches mine again, softer this time but no less intense. When he pulls back, his smile could light up the whole town. "Then I'm not going anywhere."
The moonlight filters throughIvy's curtains, catching on the midnight blue silk of her slip dress. She's stretched out beside me, and my breath catches at how the delicate fabric embraces her curves. The neckline dips just low enough to make my fingertips itch with the need to trace it.
We've shared a bed before, back at the wedding, but this feels worlds apart. The air hums with everything we confessed downstairs. With the lingering taste of her lips by the fire. With all the promises we're hovering on the edge of making.
Her room smells like her, that gentle vanilla candle she favors mingling with the subtle lavender from her pillow spray. It's quintessentiallyIvyin a way that tightens something in my chest.
"Stop overthinking." Her voice floats through the darkness. When I turn, she's already watching me, those cobalt eyes luminous in the dim light.
"Can't help it. You're kind of distracting."
The corner of her mouth lifts as she shifts closer, her palm sliding up my thigh. The touch is innocent enough, but it sends a jolt straight to my cock. Her fingers trace higher, and my pulse hammers so hard I swear she can hear it.
"Babe." It comes out rough, meant as a warning, but she merely hums, her fingertips creating maddening patterns that leave me breathless.
"Yes?" She props herself up, hair cascading over one shoulder, the other hand continuing its torturous path.
The silver light catches the midnight blue of her hair, makes her skin gleam like marble. I never thought I'd be here with her. Never imagined she'd want me like this. Not after how badly I fucked things up before.
I catch her wrist. "We should—fuck—we should slow down."
"Why?" Her thumb finds my pulse point where I'm still holding her, and my grip involuntarily loosens.
"Because last time—" The words jam in my throat.
"This isn't last time." She slips free and glides her palm up my abdomen. The cool touch makes my muscles contract. "And I'm done waiting."
The confidence in her voice hits somewhere deep as her hand drifts lower, teasing along my waistband, and making my hips jerk upward. The sheets smell like fabric softener and her—that sweet, clean scent that always makes me think of lazy mornings in bed even though I've never had one with her.
Until now, maybe.
"Shit, Ivy—"
"I need you." She breathes the words against my neck, her lips following the confession. "Need to feel you. Need to taste you."
Her mouth trails down, hitting every spot that makes me shudder. Her nails rake lightly across my skin, pullinga sound from me I barely recognize. She's taking me apart piece by agonizing piece, and the pressure building in my body is fucking unbearable.
The cottage is so quiet I can distinguish the ancient radiator's clicks, and the whisper of wind through the trees beyond her window. But all of that fades when she looks up at me through her lashes, hair tumbling over her face, and the reality hits me.
This is happening.
She wantsme.
"You're killing me," I manage, as she flicks her tongue over the ridge of my hip bone.
She peers up, the sight of her poised above my cock making my vision blur. "Good."
When her fingers hook into the waistband of my boxers, the last of my restraint snaps. But not in the reckless, greedy way it did before.
"Wait—"
She freezes immediately, eyes searching mine. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing." My voice is rough. "God, nothing's wrong." I run my hands up her arms, coaxing her higher until we're face to face. Her hair tumbles in a messy halo around her shoulders, and I brush it back with a trembling hand. "I just . . . I want this to be about you. Let me take care of you first."
Her breath stutters, like the words catch her off guard. As if no one has ever bothered to put her pleasure first. Something fierce and possessive surges through me.
I kiss her hard, pouring everything into it. All the regret I've carried since that disastrous night, when I rushed through what should have been amazing, and broke the only thing that mattered.Us.
