“You make me smile.”
“I wasn’t doing anything. I was asleep,” she countered.
I paused as I studied her eyes, her lips, and the freckle that dotted the left side of her nose. “You make me think about things I’ve never thought about before,” I said as I carefully set Amelia on her feet, pulled the sheet off the bed, and dropped it on the floor. The sheet covering the couch was next. I balled it up and added it to the pile. We’d have to go down into the cellar for actual bedding, but that could wait.
“Like what?” she yawned.
“Like white dresses and tuxedos.”
Her eyes widened.
“A big buttercream cake and champagne toasts.” I took a step toward her. Amelia stumbled backward, toward the bed.
“I think about rings and vows and his-and-hers hand towels.” I cupped her cheeks. “I think about a getaway car with cans tied to the bumper and ‘just married’ scrawled on the window. I think about what a fucking privilege it is to grow old. I obsess over the idea of aging. Of doing it with someone I’m madly in love with.” Our noses brushed. “I think about the way our hands will weather. The way our skin will wrinkle and thin. The way those rings will get scratched up, but they’ll still be there after our bones turn to dust. I think about what that promise means.” I licked my lips as I slanted my mouth over hers. “And every time I think about those things I think about you.”
“Judah . . .”
The corners of my mouth turned up. “You said my full name that day . . . the day you were taken.”
“You ran to me.” Her throat bobbed. “And you hate running.”
I rested my forehead on hers and nodded. “I will spend the rest of my life chasing you.”
“I’d like that.” The word was warped as it slipped from her lips.
“Yeah?”
“I’d . . . love that.”
I had a hunch at what she was summoning the courage to say, so I egged her on, slowly walking her backward until her legs hit the side of the bed. “Why’s that, baby?”
A gasp slipped free as Amelia’s back hit the bare mattress. “Because . . . because I love you.”
I had wanted her to say it. But more than that, I wanted her to feel it. Still, I couldn’t help but worry that she was still caught up in the height of all that had happened. “Are you sure?”
Amelia nodded. “I was sure before you said it to me.” She reached up and cupped my jaw, trailing her thumb across mybeard. It had finally grown back and started to thicken up. “Because I loved you when I wasn’t supposed to. When I was supposed to run from you. But you were the person I always wanted to run to. When you were taken from me, it felt like losing part of myself. It felt like having my lungs ripped out of my chest. I’ve been gasping ever since. I’ve never been in love before, but if this is what it feels like, the pain is worth it.”
My knees dug into the mattress as I straddled her hips and slipped her shirt over her head. I tossed it onto the couch and splayed my hand between her breasts. “Breathe.”
Her eyes slowly lowered as her lips parted on an inhale. My heart was steadied at the slow rise and fall of her chest. I reached behind her and unfastened her bra, pulling it off and tossing it to the side with her shirt. Her shorts and panties were next. Everything came off until she was naked beneath me.
“You still breathing, little fox?” I asked as I dropped my jeans and pulled my shirt over my head.
Her smile was soft. “You’re here, aren’t you?”
“Right here.” My cock rested on her belly as I kissed my way up her sternum and throat. Delicate fingers danced over my shoulders and arms. Her touch was the perfect balm after a torrent of bad days. I sucked on the side of her neck, right where her pulse raced. The feeling of her heart beating soothed the ache that still lingered at what she had been through.
At what we hadbothbeen through.
Amelia snaked her arms around my neck, nails scratching at my skin as I moved lower, kissing across her collarbone to her breasts. I smiled to myself as she began to rock her hips beneath me. “What do you need, little fox?”
“I think you know,” she said with a hum of delight as I pulled her nipple between my teeth and sucked. That hum turned to a whimper, then a whine. I switched, palming that breast while I sucked on the other. I kissed my way down herstomach as I teased her clit with my fingers until she trembled in incomparable delight.
“Judah, please?—”
I dragged my teeth over her nipple as I eased over her. “I love hearing you say my name.”
A lazy smile painted her lips. “I like your name.”
