Chapter 25
Callie
"Are the kids asleep?"Dylan asked as I walked into thekitchen.
"Yep, both of them are out cold," I answered, stopping in the doorway. I didn't remember where I left my purse, and my eyes scanned the room, searching for it. "Have you seen my bag? I could have sworn I left it right on thetable."
He ignored my question and took a careful step toward me. A few weeks had passed since the attack, yet he still moved around gingerly, refusing any pain medication or help. I came over every day to help with the kids, but mostly Dylan and I talked and laughed, cooked together and played with thechildren.
“Why don’t you stay here tonight?” he whispered in a huskyvoice.
My breath caught in my throat, almost choking me.What was he asking me?“Stay here?” My shoulders shuddered at the thought of it, staying with him for a whole night, but I shook the imagesaway.
His brows pulled together at my hesitation. “Withme.”
I leaned back against the wall, hitting my hip into the counter, my heart drumming wildly inside my chest. Half of me wanted to run to him and jump in his arms, the other half wanted to wait weeks, years,decades more and cherish this time we’ve spent getting to know one another.In all my life, I had never been wooed before, never spent nights talking until dawn with someone, laughing so much with someone, falling in love with someone. I didn’t know how to react—I was terrified to lose what we were building—terrified to take the nextstep.
His eyes locked on mine as he slowly closed the distance between us. Each step he took was an eternity, a lifetime of anticipation and desperate need. What would his lips feel like on mine? Would he kiss me slow and long, or would our mouths collide, exploding with tongues andteeth?
My heart thuddedfaster.
He was halfway across the room, and the air between us came alive with electricity and heat. Every part of me shivered as his eyes roamed my body as if I were already bared to him. My knees weakened, and I shifted on my feet with the deep, achy need that throbbed between mythighs.
I squeezed my legs together to ease thesensation.
Dylan pursed his lips and smiled knowingly. “You feelthat?”
God, yes, I did. I felt it like warm rain, washing over every inch of my skin. It was erotic and carnal, like he was touching me with something more real than his hands, touching something inside me that I kept hidden from other men for years. I nodded my head, unable to form words. If I opened my mouth, I knew the only thing we'd both hear was a moan. There was this heated awareness tickling across my flesh—it made my breasts heavy—my nipples hard and pulse with want. Even my fingertipstingled.
If he didn’t touch me, surely I’ddie.
And still, he advanced toward me with that deliberate, steadypace.
Closer and closer he came, and with each step he took, my breathing quickened, faster and faster, until I was almost breathless and not even an inch of space stood between ourbodies.
His eyes searched mine, our lips so close, I could feel his hot breath fan out along my throat and the warmth rising off his body mixing withmine.
"Stay with me," he whispered, inclining his head slowly until the heat of his lips brushed over the corner ofmine.
Everything in me lit up like fire. I wanted to stay. I never wanted to leave again. I wanted to wrap myself around him and feel his hands, his lips, his tongue on every inch of my body. I wanted him to taste me, watch me, need me, fuck me, and make me forget every other man’s name but his. He hadn’t even touched me, yet fluttering waves of pleasure rolled through me. I could barely keep from touching him, from climbing up his thick, hard body and taking all Iwanted.
His hand reached up and gently traced the bottom of my jaw. Goosebumps puckered up and out over my neck and shoulders. I lifted up onto my toes, needy for his lips andbreath.
He rumbled low in his throat as our lips touched, his fingers pressed into my skin as I opened my mouth and tasted him for the first time. Hesitant. Slow. Our lips moved, and breathy gasps moaned out. I wasn’t sure who the sounds were coming from; it could have been him, or me, or both of us, drawing the sighs and gasps from one another, tongues slipping in, touching, tasting. Realizing this kiss, this closeness would never be enough. We would need more and more, for lifetimes. I would never get enough of him, ofthis.
I felt instantly helpless. His hands were everywhere; my neck, sliding up my back, pushing down my pants, grasping at my shirt. I clung to him, my head spinning with desire so dizzying, I feared I would fall over. Fall off the Earth, into nothing but pleasure andsensation.
I pulled him closer, our soft moans lost against our lips. The taste of him surged through my bloodstream. One kiss, and I was ruined forever, wrecked for any other man afterhim.
“Please,” he whispered into the kiss, his hands slowly and gently cupping myface.
“Please what?” I murmured, reclining my head back.Wasn’t it clear I wanted this,too?
Our lips parted, and our eyes locked onto each other. "Please stay," he whispered hoarsely. "Don't leave. Don'teverleave.”
His words rooted into my brain and pierced right through my heart. I pressed my body against his chest, my inner thighs vibrating with the need to grind against him. “Ever?” Iwhispered.
“Ever.”
