“For leaving you at the cottage.” Nelle’s voice shakes, on the verge of tears. “I basically forced you to follow me around the world, to spend all your savings, and now it’s all gone, and I’m so, so sorry.”
He can tell by the tremor in her throat, the shiny film over her eyes, that her apology is genuine. But the idea that she unknowingly hurt him is so far from the truth. Having his heart carved out was never her fault. His chest cracks, and he can’t help the tears that spring up. He dares to sit on the couch beside her, placing a wary hand on her leg. She doesn’t move away.
He wants to be angry, but his resolve melts when they touch. He wraps his arms around her, and she curls into him, folding her head under his chin.
“Nelle, listen to me.” All uncertainty vanishes. “I am not mad at you. I understand why you left that day, I know why what I did hurt you, andI’msorry for not telling you sooner about New York. I didn’t know how to approach it, and I was scared of how you’d react.”
“It’s okay.” Tears squeeze her voice.
James shakes his head. “I’m not done. I love you, Nelle, and I will always forgive you. You never have to ask.”
Sunlight cuts in through the balcony window, the winter chill permeating through. He wraps a quilt around his shoulders, tucking them both in.
“I chose to leave Lincoln with you. Going to Charleston, to DC, to New York, to Paris, those wereourideas. Scotland, too. I regret none of the time I spent with you, none of the money I spent. Those memories are invaluable to me, and I loved every single one of them,becauseI was with you. I’m not the same James you met last summer. I’ve changed, grown. I live in New York now, can you even believe it? You don’t know how grateful I am for you.”
She opens her mouth, but he cuts her off.
“And one more thing.” He reaches for the familiar grooves of her fingers. “I miss you.”
Nelle’s bottom lip quivers. “I’ve done some stuff, James.”
“It’s okay,” he says. The past doesn’t matter now. With nimble fingers, he tucks a blond strand behind her ear, exposing her cheekbone. “I love you. I forgive you. Always.”
They are the easiest words he has ever said.
She tilts into his hand. “It’s not that simple.”
“It is.” James leans in to kiss Nelle’s neck, and the crook of her shoulder feels like home.
Her fingers find purchase in his short curls. “It’s not ...”
“It can be,” he murmurs, trailing kisses to her jaw. To the corner of her mouth. Hesitating, though every molecule of his body and his growing erection all yell at him to keep going.
“Kiss me,” she says. “Kiss me, James.”
One kiss, and months of progress disappear. He is done for. And he will never recover.
But he wants her so bad ithurts.
“James,” she says softly.
God, he can’t resist it. A magnet tugs his lips to hers, her hands on his waist, then hot under his sweatshirt.
No holding back.
Their kiss is almost violent. Nelle twists to straddle him on the couch, and James rakes his fingers through her hair. His hands splay across her back, under her sweater. He trails one up the curve of her lower abdomen, the plane of her stomach. Gooseflesh bubbles across her skin wherever his fingertips whisper. He cups her breast while their tongues war. She bows into his touch, the pad of his thumb whispering around her swollen nipple.
“Nelle,” he groans. Their tongues slip against each other, lips hungry, fingers tangled. He needs their clothes offnow.
He lifts her from the couch, and Nelle locks her legs around him. He takes her into his room, shuts the door with his foot, and they land on the bed in a ball of giggles.
“Take my pants off,” she breathes.
James kneels at the foot of the bed. His fingers find the button, and slowly, lapping up every second, he slides her zipper down. Each inch of her skin appears like jewels in a trove. Her stomach sapphire, her pink panties amethyst, her inner thighs diamonds. He tugs the denim down to her calves, her ankles, and they crumple on the floor. He finds the hem of her sweater and inches it up, revealing her breasts, her collarbones, her lightly freckled shoulders.
Sitting naked on his bed, Nelle is nearly enough to make him fall to pieces.
His removes his sweatshirt and briefs and drops onto the bed beside her, head propped on his hand. He plants a kiss on her forehead, trailing his fingers in circles around her navel, desperate to drift down. But he wants to take his time with this.
