“Never again.”
Her hands slide up my arms, fingertips curving around my muscles like she’s memorizing me. Or remembering me. There’s nothing tentative in her touch, nothing cautious. It’s like she’s reclaiming something that always belonged to her, and the realization hits me hard enough that I have to close my eyes to remember how to breathe.
My bed becomes the center of the universe. There is nothing else but her. Those cocoa waves, fanned out on my pillow. Her dark brown eyes, searching my face, as if she’s looking for the lie she’s been trained to expect. When she doesn’t find it, something in her expression softens, relief and longing tangling together.She kisses me like she knows I’m not going anywhere without her ever again.
The layers between us peel away, leaving only skin in every direction. When she left me on the balcony the first time, I was hard. I knew she wanted more, and I always have, so she left me with an ache that’s always around when she is. I fought that erection, letting the cool air slow me down when she had left.
The moment I heard the balcony door open again, my balls throbbed. Now, I’m harder than I’ve ever been, dying to feel her on me. I pulse against her soft, warm thigh.
But I want more than that, too. I want her. Need to drink her in.
The years have made Harper’s body a little softer, but her eyes are harder. Her breasts are fuller now, more inviting. Same with her belly and thighs. She is a feast made flesh, and I intend to enjoy every inch of her.
I kiss her one more dizzying time. “I promise I’m not running away.”
“What—oh!”
I lick my way down her body, sampling everything on display. Those nipples, the sweet skin around them. She writhes beneath me when I circle her navel with my tongue, her fingers diving into my hair. As I part her thighs, her breath catches. I pet her gently before spreading her apart and admiring how she glistens for me.
And then, I savor her. The taste of her… the feel is something beyond wet silk. I push into her, nip her there. My fingers slide into her to find that rough patch inside, and her breaths go choppy. I suck and nibble and lap until she’s shaking for me. I love making her thighs jiggle like this. Love watching her come apart. I crave the taste of her orgasm. Just a little more?—
Her keening wail slashes through me as she shatters. Those soft thighs close in around my skull, and her body rocks againstmy face and hand. Every inch of skin is wet, hers, mine, both. Every muscle pulsing alive.
She brings me to life. She has since we met. It’s her hands and her warmth and the way she makes everything else fall away. It’s the feeling of being seen and chosen without reservation.
Her fingers dig into my hair as she pulls me up without loosening those thighs. I let her lead me upward and crawl over her body, urgent to meet those lips again. But this time, she spreads her legs for me and belts them around my waist. Her wetness slicks against the underside of my cock until she angles herself to take me. She cups my cheek and stares into my eyes as I slide into her. We both gasp, both cry out, both shudder from the sheer joy of it.
Locked together, there are no more words. No more fears. This is everything.
We move together, slow at first until we build speed. She was made for me, and I for her. No one has ever felt this right, this perfect for me. There could never be anyone but Harper.
I thumb her clit between us. Need to feel her come on me. Need to feel it from the inside. Need to make her come.
Her back arches as she shudders beneath me and the sounds that pour from her full lips are the purest, filthiest music. The song I have had stuck in my head for six years.
I lick up her sternum, her throat, her mouth. I devour that song, breathe her breath. When I wrap my arms around her and roll us over, she blinks back to reality with the most enchanted look on her face. Until she leans down, her hair around us like a chocolate curtain, and kisses me hard enough to make me dizzy.
I grip her ass and grind her against me as I pump upward, knowing I’m stroking her G-spot with my cock every thrust. She shakes in my arms as I drink her chirps and sighs. Heat gathers in my balls, my spine. Can’t breathe. Don’t need to.
She throbs around me, and then, she ignites. I hold her tight as she goes wild in my arms, coming, rocking, twitching, gasping, and just as I try to roll us over, it’s too late. I’m over the edge, gushing inside of her, too far gone to stop.
Our heavy breaths move her hair. Sweat slicks us both. The moment I can speak again, truths slip out because there’s no reason to guard them anymore. “I love you.”
Her smile is everything. “I never stopped loving you.”
The words hit me straight in the chest. “I didn’t think I deserved it.”
She pulls back enough to look at me, eyes bright and unguarded. “That’s for me to decide.”
I can’t argue that.
After we both clean up, we end up tangled together, sheets half-displaced, her head resting against my shoulder. I trace the line of her cheek with my thumb, committing the shape of her face to memory. “I love you,” I say again. “I’ve loved you since that first night. I was too broken to admit it.”
Her breath catches, and when she answers, her voice shakes. “Not broken. It was too soon back then—we both knew it. Saying I love you after one night is crazy?—”
“But that’s how I felt.”
She smiles. “Same here. Even if it’s crazy. But I think… if we had said it to each other back then, we would have thought we were nuts. Every person we know would have thought so, too, so if we hadn’t sabotaged things, they might have.” Harper sighs, tracing the lines of my pecs. “I hate that we didn’t have the past six years together, Aiden. But I can’t regret everything it took to have Mason.”
