I felt his whole chest collapse with a silent, gut-deep exhale.
When he kissed me again, it was slower and deeper. “I love you.” He breathed against my lips, and everything felt right.
“Even after everything I’ve done?”
He laughed softly against my skin. “Everything you’ve done? What about what I’ve done? You had to protect yourself. I was doing it for a job.”
“You were protecting me, even if you didn’t know it.” I pulled the envelope out of my pocket and smoothed it out on the coffee table in front of us. “All of the proof is here. Everything my father was planning for Jane and me… Even Jade was involved, but it was just to save her own skin.”
He brushed his fingertips over mycheek and leaned forward to press another kiss to my lips. “I missed you. I can’t believe he’s gone. I can’t believe you’refree. I just can’t believe it.”
I grabbed him on either side of his collar and tugged him to me. It didn’t take much convincing on his part, and before I knew it, we were both tearing at each other’s clothes.
My fingers tangled in his shirt, tugging, clawing, desperate to feel skin. His breath hitched as he tore at the hem of my sweater, his palms sliding under the fabric like he couldn’t get close enough fast enough.
His breath hitched when I pulled him on top of me, both of us half-laughing, half-breaking as we kissed like we were trying to make up for every second we’d been apart.
“I thought I’d lost you,” he murmured against my jaw, voice torn open and raw.
“You didn’t,” I whispered back, hooking my fingers beneath the hem of his shirt and tearing it upward. “I came back for you.”
His body shuddered when my hands met his skin. Hot. Solid. Scarred. Mine.
“Poppy…” he groaned, almost like it hurt to say my name. “Tell me this is real.”
I arched up into him, hips meeting his in a way that stole both our breath.
“It’s real,” I whispered. “I’m here. I want you.”
That was all it took.
Ivan’s restraint snapped like a frayed wire.
His mouth trailed down my throat, slow at first,then deeper, his breath dragging over my pulse as if tasting the proof that I was still alive. One of his hands slid beneath my sweater, skimming my stomach, tracing the line of my waist like he was memorizing me again from scratch.
“I dreamed about this,” he rasped, voice hoarse with hunger.
“You,” a kiss just below my ear.
“In my arms,” another kiss at the base of my throat.
“Wanting me,” his lips brushed the edge of my collarbone. “Just like this.”
He slipped his hands to my hips and pulled me flush against him, and the shock of how much he wanted me—how hard he was shaking with it—stole my breath. His forehead pressed to mine, both of us panting, both of us trembling.
“Tell me to stop,” he whispered, though his grip was already tight on my hips, already pulling me down into the couch cushions.
“Don’t you dare stop,” I whispered back.
Ivan’s answering sound was almost a groan, almost a curse, and then he was stripping me out of my clothes—slow enough to savor, fast enough to show how desperate he was. His hands mapped every inch of skin he uncovered, his mouth chasing the path his palms left behind.
He finally hooked his fingers in my jeans and tugged them down my legs. When his thumbs pulled my panties down, and the cold air hit me, I let out a little gasp; he smirked as he uncovered more of me.
Ever so slowly, he ran his thumb down the center of me,and I jerked against the couch. He watched me with dark eyes as he put his thumb into his mouth and sucked my wetness off of his skin. He closed his eyes before he gently spread me with his fingers and devoured me. He was a starved man as his lips found my clit and sucked hard.
I saw stars. A moan escaped me and I bucked against the couch. One of his hands snaked up and pushed my hips back down while his other hand teased my pussy.
The rough scrape of his stubble against my thighs, only added to the torture and before I knew it, I was gasping loudly. The sounds I made echoed around the bare cabin walls; any other time I would have been self-conscious, nervous even, but I couldn’t find it in myself to care.
