An overwhelming wave of relief crashes over me, and I collapse against his chest as fresh tears begin to fall. I’ve shed more tears in one night than I have since the moment I left home and never looked back.
One hand cradles my head, still running his fingers through my hair, while the other holds me tight to his body. “Are you ok? Do you want me to stop?”
“No. Don’t stop. Don’t ever stop.”
He dots a line of kisses across my forehead and temple with a tenderness that leaves me feeling both cherished and wholly undeserving of his devotion. Still, I can’t help but bask in it.
“I’ve got you, Bluebird.”
Chapter 28
Fine-ally
? Nervous - Maren Morris
Callie
Minutes pass—maybehours, I can’t be sure. With each brush of his fingers, another piece of my soul connects to his, like an old skeleton key finding the perfect lock after years of being lost at the back of an antique store. Time has broken us both, but together we can be whole again.
“Jax?” His name is both a promise and a plea.
“Yeah, baby?”
I reach back and unhook my bra, letting it drop to the floor at our feet. “I want to forget now.”
His eyes rake over me with unmasked hunger. “Are you sure?”
I skate my hand down his beard, and his throat constricts ever so slightly.
“Yes,” I say. “I’ve never wanted anyone or anything the way I want you.”
His lips tease my chest and collarbone, peppering delicatekisses on every bit of exposed flesh within reach. “Do you know how beautiful you are?”
His mouth lowers between my breasts, kissing down until he’s pulling my taut nipple between his lips, his tongue lathing over the hardened peak.
I draw in a shallow breath as goose bumps skitter across my skin. “I need you.”
He licks a long stripe up my chest and neck, and then he kisses me. His mouth moves with ardent, deliberate movements, bending me to his will.
I tug at his belt buckle.
Before I can get it all the way undone, he stops me. “Not here. The first time I have you is going to be in my bed, just the way I imagined you every goddamn night since the first time you called me your cowboy.”
He wraps his arms around me and stands with my ankles locked around his waist as he carries me down the hallway to his room. I’m placed at the edge of the bed, and he drops to his knees, hands skating up my legs to pull off my thigh-high stockings. One at a time, he rolls them down, his mouth following the path his fingers have laid. My skirt goes next, then my panties, until I’m completely bared to him for the first time.
My instinct is to cover myself—to hide my rolls, scars, and stretch marks, the evidence of my past and everything that led me here—but with Jaxon, I don’t feel the need to hide anymore.
He’s looking at me with such reverence, like I’m some mythical creature, disbelief etched into the subtle lines around his eyes.
“More beautiful than I ever imagined,” he whispers. “Lie back for me.”
I shift farther up the bed and rest my head on the pillows while Jaxon removes his jeans and boxer briefs. I’ve seen himnaked enough; it shouldn’t still leave me speechless, but there’s something so disarming about the way he’s crawling toward me, exposed and vulnerable. All pretense is gone.
He spreads my thighs, and cool air dances across my wet, heated flesh. “Is this all for me?”
“Yes.”
“That’s my girl.” He drapes my legs over his shoulders and back, settling between my spread thighs. His hot breath ghosts across my skin seconds before his mouth descends to my pussy. Just like in the library, Jaxon devours me like I’m the best thing he’s ever tasted.
