Warm fingers smoothed up my arm, my shoulder, my neck, until Benny was gently cupping the side of my face. “Then rest.”
I shook my head. “Not like that. I’m the kind of tired sleep can’t fix.”
He pulled back just enough to place a soft kiss on my forehead. “Thenrest. I have you now. I’ll take care of you. I’ll protect you. You’ve been dealin’ with too much on your own. Let me carry some of it for you, and rest.”
I wasn’t strong enough to hold back the warmth from spilling out of my eyes anymore. I didn’t want to. I was so tired of being strong. I wanted to break, and I wanted to let him hold me together.
“Let me touch you,” he whispered. Even his words touched me like an embrace. “Let me hold you very close and very soft, and everythin’ will be alright. I promise.”
It might have been foolish, knowing all that I knew, but I believed him. I claimed his lips again. Nothing else mattered but here and now.
When our lips parted once again, I didn’t want to separate them. Mine trailed over his as I spoke in a whisper. “Touch me like you love me.”
twenty-eight
Benny
WARM HANDS.
“I love you,” I confessed. “There’s no ‘like’ about it.”
Harper was so beautiful. My prince. With captivating blue eyes that sparkled like diamonds. Tears fell and were caught. Because I was here now, I finally had him, and I’d never let them fall without catching them again.
“I love you too,” he whispered. And all the pain we’d both been through the last few months was worth it just to hear those words from his perfect lips. I claimed them with mine again. Again. Until there was no beginning or ending to each kiss, and they all melded together into something that made my heart and body ache with relief and longing.
“Take me to bed,” he ordered.
My hands cupped under his perfect thighs as I stood, easily lifting us both. I carried him to the bed and gently spread him out on the covers.
His body draped over its surface like a vision. Like an idol on an altar, ready for me to worship. I’d do just that.
Taking one of his hands, I made my way with tender kisses from each fingertip to his palm, then turned his hand to kiss overhis knuckles. His wrist. Over the silky fabric of his shirt, until my lips met skin again at his neck.
I kissed over his face, his jaw, to his beautiful ears. He shivered, the area a sensitive spot for him that I planned on touching as much as possible. My tongue traced the shell of one, then the other.
Then I was kissing his cheeks. His eyelids. His nose. His lips again. Back down to his neck.
My nose nuzzled the warm area where his skin met the fabric of his shirt.
“Take it off,” he breathed.
My fingers and mouth worked in tandem, kissing over each new inch of flesh as my hands revealed it. Harper sat up just enough for me to slide the shirt all the way off and drop it to the floor beside me.
He was thinner than he’d been the last time I’d seen him, but just as beautiful.
“More,” he demanded. “Your hands are so warm.”
I unfastened his pants and he lifted his hips for me to drag those off him along with his underwear. Then he was naked.
I wasted no time in kissing over the newly exposed skin of his legs, until I’d kissed the entire front side of him andneededto move on to the back. “Turn over?”
He did, rolling onto his stomach and giving me the absolute privilege of accessing the rest of him.
I started at his shoulders, making my way down over his back. His thighs. Calves. Then moving back up to the perfect mounds of his firm ass. My lips showed their appreciation, until it wasn’t enough and my teeth had to get involved. Harper moaned as they sank in. I did it again, and again he made such a lovely sound.
I switched cheeks, and my hand massaged the one I’d abandoned. He pushed into my touch, wordlessly seeking more, and I was all too happy to give it to him.
I pulled back to watch his reaction as my thumbs spread his cheeks, revealing his pretty pink hole. Harper didn’t pull away, so I continued. One thumb gently rubbed over his entrance. The soft moan he responded with was enough to encourage a firmer touch as I did it again.
