Page 82 of Hearts on the Mend

I bracket my hands around his face, forcing myself not to take inventory of the small scars or the lines around his eyes. This won’t be over tonight. Can’t be. I never expected to fall in love again, but I’m not about to write it off like the heartbreak I know it’s going to end up being. Tonight, I’m choosing to believe we walked into each other’s lives for a reason. I’m choosing hope, and that’s just as scary.

I’m handing Nolan Murphy my heart.

“I see the freckles on your face that remind me of stars. My favorite smile. Green eyes that are burned into my memory.”

Of course. Of course he has to say things like that. It’s his quiet, tender heart that’s going to be my end, not that hard-earned laugh, that sly smile of his, or the way his fingers work over me and draw out the most pathetic sigh.

“And what do you hear?” I whisper.

He slips his hands under me, then bends forward with a wince and guides me down to my back against the duvet. Nolan leaves me there beneath him for a minute, studying me. I feel those dark-brown eyes of his, and my body burns, desperate. His hand runs a line down the curve of my hip, my thigh and knee, before he grabs a pillow from behind us and stuffs it under my hips.

I can’t look away, afraid one day, this man won’t share my bed, afraid that my heart will shatter and I’ll be ruined for the rest of my life.

I reach for him, my hand brushing against the scars on his lower back, but Nolan doesn’t pull away.

“Love you” is all I whisper. “You were such a surprise, Nolan. The best surprise, and Ruby and I are so lucky to have found you.”

That pulls him back from wherever he is in his head. I can see the switch, that quiet wonder that fills his eyes as he moves over me. He kisses my stomach, trails his lips up higher, drawing my nipple into his mouth and raking it between his teeth. I arch underneath him, the ache between my legs pulsing. It’s such a sweet, blissful pain. Then his mouth is higher, slowly climbing my neck as he moves over me, pressing his hard cock against my entrance.

I tilt my hips, eager to feel him move inside me.

“Greedy girl.”

I dig my fingers into the back of his shoulders, wiggling my hips, until his mouth claims mine in a slow kiss that makes me forget my name, before he finally thrusts inside me, stealing my breath. A cry rips from my lungs and our kiss breaks.

“That. I hear that fucking cry of yours when I’m inside of you, and I’m a dead man, Cassie.” I bite my lip, each stroke opening me wider, until he settles deep inside me fully. “It was over for me that night. You’re it for me.”

I try to speak, I do, but he hits this spot that makes it nearly impossible to form words as a deep pressure builds. Then it’s as if a fire rips through me, and my muscles clench before releasing in a sudden hot flood of wetness that spills over his thighs. Pleasure ricochets through me as my legs tremble from the bliss of it, overwhelmed. I gasp, opening my eyes to find his, heavy-lidded, pinned to my body.

I reach up, and he takes my fingers into his mouth, sucking as his pace increases, our bodies slick with the mess I just made.

Thirty-five years and I’ve never squirted. Holy hell…

He scrapes the inside of my palm with his teeth, adjusting my hips. I don’t think he can fill me up anymore, but somehow, I take more of him as he thrusts, his pace just as wild as I feel.

“Fucking hell, Cassie. You’re so fucking perfect. Look at you, look at the mess you made for me.”

Another strangled cry breaks free from me as tension inside again.

“That’s it. Come for me. That’s my girl.”

It’s a slow wave that crashes over me, my body shaking as another orgasm rips through my limbs. My inner walls clench around him until he whimpers.

“I’m going to come, honey.”

I meet his eyes, so hungry for more. “I want you to fill me up, Nolan. Please, let me feel you…”

The groan that rips out of him is deep, feral almost, as he comes inside me. He collapses against me, bracketing his arms on either side of my face, and buries his head against my neck. He shivers against me as we struggle to catch our breath.

When he pulls away, that soft wonder is present again. Tender.

My Nolan.

He sits back, wrapping a fist around his cock as he slowly pulls out of me. “Be right back,” he whispers. Nolan returns a minute later with a warm cloth and gently cleans me up. I push to my elbows to watch, taking in the wide line of his shoulders, the tattoos on his arms and chest, those sparrows on his hands that I love.

“You’re all I’m ever going to want,” he whispers, moving his lips over my skin until his body covers mine and the chill of the room is gone. “Can you feel what you do to me, Cassie? You and me? We’re bound to start fires our entire lives.”

I pull his head down to kiss him, allowing myself to feel him, to feel the warmth and the pain of possibility.