He laughed against my mouth. “I love you.”
“I love you too.”
Derek’s lips slammed into mine with need and slight desperation and, instantly, I knew I was home.
“Say it again,” I whispered between kisses.
“I love you.”
“Again.”
“I love you.”
I held his face, my forehead pressed to his as the rain trickled between us, sliding over our lips. “One more time.”
“Evangelina Cruz, I fucking love you, and I’ll say it every day for the rest of my life.”
I lifted my eyes to meet his, blinking away the water, and smiled.
“That sounds like a long time.”
“That’s what I’m hoping for.”
He leaned forward and kissed me slowly, both of us taking our time to explore and taste this new depth of our connection, to rekindle the embers of what had been lost and left to simmer in the dark.
“Angel,” he said, pushing back the wet hair sticking to my face. “I’m a flawed man. I’ve done things I’m not proud of. And I can’t promise I won’t slip. Or that there won’t be obligations you won’t agree with. But I’m doing my damndest to sever my ties. Just know it will take time and spilled blood. But I don’t want any more lies between us.”
I let my head fall onto his shoulder, gripping the wet fabric of his hoodie as I turned over his words in my mind. This was it. There was no going back. I had to accept Derek for who and what he was, with his past and the ghosts that would forever haunt him. He promised to find a way out, to sever his binds to that ring and all it encompasses.
And I had faith he would.
“I know your heart, Derek,” I said, interlacing my fingers with his. “And I want to fill the parts of it that were left empty long ago. Just like I want you to fill mine.”
He smiled against my lips and kissed me, the taste of our tears mixing with the rain.
“That’s not the only thing I want to fill,” he growled, tracing kisses along the curve of my neck. “I’ve missed you so damn much. The way you feel and the way you taste.” Derek slowly set me on the ground. “I need you, Eva.”
He pulled the wet hoodie up and over his head and tossed it to the side. I took a moment to admire his muscled chest, the ink canvassed on his skin. I’d memorized every stroke, every curve—every trace of his past painted on the planes of his flesh like a roadmap and timeline of his life.
Leaning forward, I pressed my lips to his chest. “I’m yours,” I whispered.
Derek grabbed my nape and crushed his mouth to mine again. There was nothing gentle or sweet about how he was devouring my lips. It was primal, frantic—sexy as hell.
I wasn’t sure how I ended up lying on the lawn as he peeled off the wet clothes from my body.
“Baby, I have neighbors.”
He chuckled into my neck. “Well, then, we better make sure to give them a damn good show.”
The playful rebuttal I planned died on my lips as he took them between his teeth, nipping and suckling until they were almost numb.
Having sex on my front lawn in the rain was never a check on my life’s bucket list, but right now, there was nothing I desired more than to be taken and worshiped by this man in ways that would leave me walking with a limp in the morning.
My fingers slid through his wet hair as he licked across my breasts, lapping up the water as he made every nerve ending in my body sing and come alive. His mouth covered one of my nipples as his hand kneaded and squeezed the other. Gentle teeth grazed across the sensitive peak, and he looked up at me as he bit down with a little more pressure.
A hiss fluttered from my lips at the sensation, and I arched my back, offering all of me.
“You’re so goddamn beautiful.”
