Page 121 of Rush

The feel of his hands on my skin is like fire…like the fire blazing in his eyes.

“I’m sorry I let you down. I’m sorry I let my past shit blind me. I was just so…scared you’d hurt me…like he used to, that I ignored everything I already knew about you and jumped to the worst conclusion. I hate myself for what happened to you. I hate that I wasn’t there to protect you from that motherfucker. But I never, not once in all that time, didn’t trust you. I let my old habits of expecting the worst take over, and seeing the video confirmed my worst fears. And I was wrong. So fucking wrong, and I will be forever sorry.

“But I’m human, Ari. I made a mistake. A colossal mistake. But it wasn’t because I didn’t love you. It’s because I love you so fucking much. I can’t breathe without you. I always knew what it was like to be needed by my kid brother and sister, even my fucking dad, but I didn’t know what it was like to need someone, and I fucking need you, Ari…so much.”

“I…” I don’t know what to say. I know what my heart wants me to say.

I know he messed up and hurt me badly, but he knows this. He’s apologized for this. He’s hurting for his actions.

And I’m only hurting us both by not giving him a second chance.

Because I miss him so fucking much.

“One chance, Ares. You screw up again, and we’re done—”

I don’t get to finish that sentence because his mouth slams down on mine, kissing me like a man starved. And I’m equally as hungry for him.

It’s been too long since he kissed me.

“I won’t screw up again,” he breathes against my lips. “I swear.”

And I believe him.

He kisses me again. Rougher this time and with more desperation. Teeth nipping at my lips.

My hands slide into his hair, tugging him even closer, and he comes willingly.

I’m on fire. My whole body burning with need for him.

Big hands slide down my back and over my ass, gripping hold of my dress. He lifts it up.

We part, so he can pull it off over my head. Then, our lips fuse back together.

“You’re so fucking beautiful,” he says, a hand cupping my cheek, angling my head so that he can kiss me deeper. Tongue plunging into my mouth.

I give his towel a quick pull, and it drops to the floor.

I’m quickly divested of my bra and panties.

Then, he lifts me off the floor, my ass in his big hands, my legs around his waist, my arms looped around his shoulders. He moves us over to the wall. My back is pressed up against the cold wall, but I can barely feel it.

All I can feel is him.

Ares lines his cock up with my entrance, and slowly, he pushes inside.

When he’s buried deep inside me, he softly kisses me. “I love you,” he tells me.

“I love you, too,” I whisper, my eyes staring into his. “But don’t ever hurt me like that again.”

He presses his forehead to mine, eyes staring straight into mine. “Never. The only thing I plan on doing from now on is loving you.”

And he does.

He loves me against that wall in the locker room until both of us are coming fiercely.

After Ares and I made up, he put me and his new painting in his truck and drove me to my dad’s.

He came inside with me but left the painting in his truck, as we’d agreed that wasn’t a painting my dad needed to see.