I melted into the circle of his arms, tilting my head back and kissing him with every ounce of the regret, gratitude, and love that exploded deep inside. Because that was the thing. I’d never stopped loving him. Not even for a minute. Even when I should’ve.
I’d given everything to my marriage with Louis, but the reality had been that I was deeply in love with Zach when the bomb of that arrangement had been dropped between us and I’d never really gotten any closure. Despite all that, I’d tried with Louis. A part of me had definitely even developed feelings for him eventually, for a brief period of time, but those feelings had never held a candle to what I felt for Zach.
He was and always had been, in every sense of the word, my soulmate. There was nothing like the way he made me feel safe, loved, seen, appreciated, and so many other things that I couldn’t even find the words for them all as I kissed him back.
I trusted this man with my life, and although I desperately hated the extremely emotional way I’d reacted to Lu’s disappearance, I suddenly knew that he wasn’t holding a grudge. Zach understood me better than most, and while I would keep apologizing, I already knew that he knew I had let the fear and overwhelm win that night.
His arm banded around my hips and he pressed me tight against him. Desire spun through me. He was so damn hard, the length of him flush against my lower belly. A quiet moan slipped out of me and he swallowed it, a needy, rough sound of his own rumbling through his chest in response, but he started slowing the kiss, obviously preparing to pull away.
I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him closer instead, taking a step back toward the hall. He didn’t move with me. A soft slightly tortured groan slid out of him before he spoke against my lips.
“We don’t have to, Adeline,” he murmured breathlessly. “I didn’t come here just to fuck you.”
“I know.” I kept a tight hold on him and tried moving again. A thrill raced down my spine when he followed this time, letting me kiss him as I tugged him down the hall. “We don’t have to, but I want to.”
“Do you?” he asked, sounding for the first time in his life like he genuinely didn’t know the answer.
I smiled against his lips, pushing my fingers into the hair at the back of his head. “I always want you, Zach. That’s never a question.”
Another groan came out of him. He kissed me again with renewed fervor and his hands dropped to the hem of my sweater. He lifted it over my head so fast, it was almost like he was practicing a disappearing act. I was so surprised that I laughed, but then that hand came back to my hip, his fingers flexing around it, and the laugh turned into a moan instead.
He shed his own shirt in one smooth, easy movement, and then we were skin to skin and I could feel the way his heart was pounding. My own was going completely nuts too, galloping and skipping between my ribs.
When he finally laid me down on my bed, he didn’t bother pausing to look around. His attention was fully, completely focused on me. He broke away from our kisses for a moment to look into my eyes, his eyelids heavy and his chest rising and falling fast. Then he lowered his head again and dragged his mouth along the column of my throat to my chest.
His tongue circled my nipples through the fabric of my bra, one hand traveling around my back to unhook it. As soon as he slid it off, his mouth was back on my chest. The heat of his mouth contrasted deliciously with the cool air of the room against my skin.
I ran my fingernails lightly across the strong bands of muscle in his back, writhing underneath him. He kept kissing me. His tongue, lips, and teeth teased my nipples into hardened peaks.
“Zach!”
As soon as I gasped his name, he released my nipples and kissed a path across my stomach, my hips, and unless I was very much imagining things, a few of those kisses were even strategically placed over my stretch marks. I’d tried every cream and trick on the market back when I’d been pregnant and after, but the silvery lines remained, which was one of the reasons I’d been so self-conscious about him seeing me naked again.
Instead of putting him off, however, he seemed to be trying to let me know that he accepted me exactly as I was. I relaxed into his touches. The slight tension that had vibrated through me as soon as I’d started thinking about the stretch marks eased and Zach moaned like he’d physically felt my relief.
He pulled my leggings off without his lips leaving my skin, trailing fiery kisses across my pelvis, my inner thighs, and thenfinally planting his head between my legs. I looked down at him, finding him already looking back up at me.
His features were slack, his hands firmly wrapped around my thighs. “I’m never going to get enough of you.”
“That works for me,” I murmured, stroking my fingers through his hair. “It means I never have to get enough of you either. Come here.”
“No.” He smirked. “I’m very happy exactly where I am.”
“I didn’t mean with your face, Zach.” I held his gaze, strangely exhilarated to discover that the bold vixen he’d unlocked deep inside me so many years ago apparently still existed. I’d thought she died, but it looked like she’d merely been in hiding. “Just turn around and come here.”
I saw the moment he realized what I was asking, his pupils growing huge and the tops of his cheeks flushing in excitement, but he didn’t move just yet. “You’re sure?”
“Yes.”
He slid backward off the bed and kicked off his shoes and jeans.
I arched an eyebrow when I realized he’d been going commando. “Were you planning this?”
“No, but it does make things easier.”
“Why were you naked, then?”
He shrugged, those lips spreading into another devilish smirk. He climbed back onto the bed and lay down on his back. “Are you going to keep asking questions, or are you going to come sit on my face?”
