Tremors raced across her flesh.
“Richard. You…your touch has always burned me alive. Left me ash.”
She pressed her knees onto the ground on either side of my lap, rising higher so she was hovering over me.
My head tilted back, and I devoured that mouth as the girl consumed mine, her hands riding over my shoulders.
Cupping my face.
Yanking my hair.
Delirium.
Ecstasy.
A travesty because I knew it couldn’t last.
I let my hands wander higher. High enough that I held two handfuls of perfect, round ass.
My dick jumped as I gripped her bottom.
“God. I missed you. Missed you, baby. So bad.”
She whimpered, and she edged back, staring down at me when I brought a hand around to the front and pushed the silky scrap of material covering her aside.
“Want me to touch you? This what you’re asking for?”
She nodded. Frantic. Quick. Tongue darting out to wet her lips.
I gazed up at her when I slowly pressed two fingers into her tight, wet heat.
Hot, slick flesh.
Shivers wracked her.
I nearly came.
Fucking beauty.
Awe-inspiring beauty.
I dragged my fingers in and out. Pumping into her pussy. Watching her as I wound her up. As her thighs quivered and her stomach shook and her fingers dug deeper into my shoulders.
Her mouth dropped open and her eyes drifted closed.
Girl giving herself over to me.
Trust. Trust. Trust.
She yelped when I suddenly swept her up and shifted so I could lay her out on the ground. Patches of grass had been trampled beneath her, creating a soft bed.
Wild hair strewn around to frame her gorgeous face.
That dress twisted and bunched up her thighs.
Moonlight poured down from above and cast her face in an ethereal glow.
A fairy made of blown glass.
Gorgeous and fragile.
The prettiest thing just waitin’ to bloom.
Moonflower.
Love gusted through my veins.
Real. Intense. Inescapable.
Heaving out a strained breath, I sat up on my knees at her feet, staring at her through the wisps of light. “You are the most stunning creature I’ve ever seen. Magic, baby. You are the magic inside me. The best thing that ever happened to me. The light that went dim when I lost you.”
She shuddered, and I set my hands on her knees and pressed them apart. I glided up the insides of her quivering thighs, following the trail of chills that lifted on her skin, taking the skirt of her dress with me. I didn’t stop until it was all the way around her waist.
Her hips bucked from the ground. “Please. Don’t tease me.”
Gripping both edges of her underwear, I ripped them free.
She gasped.
A smirk crawled across my face. “You forget, sweet girl, what you do to me? How I love you? How I make you shake? How I make you scream?”
“I tried,” she whimpered, “Lord knows, I tried. But I can’t, Richard. I can’t forget you, no matter how many years have gone by.”
And there was a nagging thought at the back of my mind that told me to end this, but I was nudging her legs farther apart and getting a good look at the pink, swollen flesh tucked at the juncture of her thighs.
Wet and glistening.
My mouth watered.
I dove in.
Forgetting reservations.
Forgetting regret.
Just needing a taste.
Violet cried out with the exploit. Her delicious body convulsed with the shock of intensity.
With the zap of energy that struck.
I licked deep into her slit.
Diving deep before I edged off, kissing across her lips, nuzzling into the cleft of her thighs.
I drove her into another frenzy.
A ball of desire.
Girl a live wire I held in the palms of my hands.
Hers were catching in my hair. Urgent and dire. “Please. Richard. It’s been too long. Too long. Don’t tease me.”
“You want this fast?”
“Yes. No. I just…need. I just need you.”
I gave, turning my attention to her clit that was engorged and as needy as me. I licked it, stroked it with my flattened tongue, lapped and suckled while I drove two fingers deep. Dragging at that sensitive spot on the way out.
My free hand spread over the lower part of her flat belly and pressed down above her pelvic bone.
She moaned.
So deep.
Desperate fingers yanked on my hair. “Oh god. I almost forgot. Almost forgot.”
I drove faster. Rushed her toward the precipice while my body screamed to get lost in this fantasy. Cock so hard I couldn’t see.
Intoxicated.
Half mad.
Wanting to climb to heaven.
Ride out this bliss.
Violet came on my tongue, walls clenching around my fingers. Girl writhing as she rode out the ecstasy. As the stars fell around us. Like a thousand glittering wishes I’d do anything to keep.
I needed her.
Fuck, I needed her.
And I was kissing up her stomach, over the fabric of that dress. I pressed up on one hand, my mouth going higher and higher, licking over the swell of her breasts and the turbulence of her heart.
With the other, I frantically unbuttoned my jeans and pushed them down far enough to get my cock free.
Lust stampeded.
Clouded my vision.
Made me dizzy with greed.
My lips were at her chin, her jaw, kissing across the plush line of her mouth, murmuring, “Can I have this?” as I wedged a spot for myself between her thighs. “Want you more than I want life.”
I felt it. The slight shift of her chin away from me.
They slammed me all at once.
Her reservations.
Her fears.
And I groaned out in pain.
At my recklessness.
Fuck.
Fuck.
I fucked this up. Such a botch job there was no chance for recovery.
Jeans halfway down my thighs, I hustled back.
Scrambled away.
Shame battering my senses.
I have no right. I have no right.
But this girl had me in her hand before I could make sense of it.
The thrill screamed through my veins, and a groan ripped up my throat, and Violet was on her knees where I was on mine, girl stroking me with greed.
With desperation.
“I want to hate you. I want to hate you, but there’s never been any hatin’ you, Richard Ramsey,” she rumbled right before she plunged downward and took me into her mouth.
Sucking on my aching head. Long and hard.
Those words were probably the last thing a man wanted to hear before a girl had his dick in her mouth.
But I didn’t mind.
I’d take any pain she gave if it meant experiencing a second of this.
Her sweet mouth and her wicked tongue.
Swirling and lapping while both those little hands curled around the base of my cock.
Then she was taking me deeper.
Deeper and deeper.
Tongue driving me into madness.
Hands stroking in time.
Sucks and licks.
Faster and faster.
So good.
So good.
My hands were in her hair. Tight. Tugging. Not sure if I should push her away or beg her for more.
“Shit. Violet. Baby. That mouth. That mouth. You. I need you. I need you.”
Doubted truer words had been spoken.
“Motherfuckin’ magic,” I rasped.
Pleasure built with the friction.
Gathering fast.
She took me all the way down to the back of her throat.
Bliss ga
thered to a pinpoint before I split apart.
Combustion.
Devastation.
I came and came in her mouth. Orgasm going on for days. Every cell in my body taking part.
I wanted to cling to that feeling forever, but I could feel the girl pulling away.
She tried to keep her attention averted as she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and readjusted her dress.
I didn’t even take the time to tuck myself back into my pants. I took her by the face, hands on both cheeks, urging her to meet my gaze.
First thing I saw was the horror in her eyes.
Shame and guilt.
“Don’t,” I grated. “Don’t regret this.”
She exhaled a tiny sound, those eyes overwhelmed. “Don’t regret this? How could I not?”
I brushed back the hair matted to her face, caressed the pad of my thumb over the angle of her jaw, stared down at the one who meant everything. “Because you and I both know where we belong. That you and me? We’re right, baby. We belong. No denying that.”
Pain lanced through her expression. “I can’t even control myself when I’m around you. You make me weak. You make me so weak, Richard. I don’t even recognize myself when you’re around.”
“You’re wrong. When we’re together? Both of us are exactly who we are supposed to be.” My voice ground with sincerity.
Sorrow sifted through her demeanor, and she tried to wipe away the dried tears on her cheeks. I pulled my jeans up before I stood, and I reached a hand for her where she was still on her knees. “Come here, sweet girl.”
Instead of taking it, she looked up at me with that false determination written on her in dark, chaotic colors. “This can’t happen again.”
I didn’t say anything. I just nudged my hand out closer to her.
Sighing, she took it, and I helped her onto her feet.
I snatched her underwear from the ground and tucked them into my pocket.
She rolled her eyes, mumbled in that adorable drawl, “God, you are such a man.”
I got back in her space, towering over this seductive thing who looked like she didn’t know if she wanted to climb me again or bolt. I fluttered my fingertips across her trembling bottom lip. “A man who’s gone without for far too long.”
Her teeth ground, and she forced out the words, “Maybe it’s time you found someone else.”
My thumb grazed her jaw, voice rough, “That what you want?”
“I wish that it was.”
“And I wish I could be the man good enough to give you everything you deserve.”
I didn’t say anything else. I just followed her back through the rows of flowers and hedges that this girl watched over.
Made them flourish.
The kindler of beauty.
Silence moved around us in wisps and vapors. That energy lulled yet unsatisfied.
She climbed the main hill back toward her house. She started for the porch, and I reached out for her hand and stopped her at the first step.
Warily, she turned.
Rays of milky light shined down on her precious face.
Her spirit a hammer in the atmosphere.
“Not gonna give up, Violet. Until my last day, I will be loving you. I will be protecting you. Whatever the cost. Hate me or not.”
Then I dropped her hand, turned, and left her there as I headed back to my truck. I climbed in and watched her staring at me in the distance.
She stood like a statue.
A fortress.
Black hair billowing around her vulnerable strength as the breeze blew through.
A goddess to be revered.
Had no clue how long we just sat that way. Like our pasts raced to see if there was a way to carve out a future from the barricades and trenches the years and betrayals had formed.
Finally, she turned, slowly climbed the steps, and crossed to the door. She glanced back. Her soul on display.
Sheer, unmitigated love.
Hope.
Belief.
And the glaring hole left by distrust and doubt.
She opened the door a crack and slipped inside.
And I wondered how big of a fool it made me that the one thing I was clinging to was that hope.
The tiny, threadbare dangling string of hope that I could pull this off and she wouldn’t completely hate me in the end.
Twenty-Three
Violet
Seven Years Ago
Nerves rolled through her being. Body and soul. Heart and mind.
She inhaled an anxious breath as she straightened out her dress. She was at the base of the rolling hill, hidden from everyone else. Her bridesmaids marched a path ahead of her as the strains of the violin drifted through the cool evening breeze. The heat of the day waned as the sun began to sink toward the horizon, making a descent toward the tops of the lush copse of trees that surrounded the area.
Her daddy stepped up to her side, his face spilling over with the amount of love that shone. “Oh, mi amor, you are a sight to behold,” he told her, his smile so soft and filled with abundant warmth.
“Thank you, Daddy.”
“I am nothing but the speaker of the truth.” He touched his chest. Sincere.
She fiddled with her dress that was made of white embroidered leaves and flowers. A plunging neckline and fitted waist, giving way to a full skirt that was covered in the same delicate pattern.
A modern take on a traditional.
A dress her mama and sister and Emily had basically demanded was the one when she’d been concerned it was too much even when her heart was screaming yes.
She’d thought to go for practical when in reality none of this was practical at all.
Marrying a man she’d known for all of six months.
A man who’d shown her what that old adage of being swept off your feet really meant.
Head over heels, only she’d been tumbling heart over feet since the second they’d met.
A man who was destined to be great.
To be famous.
A superstar.
A man who’d spent half their relationship on the road.
And she was getting ready to walk down the aisle to meet him.
No.
She wasn’t scared.
She was itching to run down it to get there faster.
Her daddy lifted her chin. “Are you sure you’re ready for this? I can’t believe my baby girl is taking the hand of a man.”
Soft affection played through her spirit. “Yes, Daddy. I’m ready. I’ve never been so ready for anything in my life. The question is, are you?”
He chuckled a gentle sound. “Never,” he teased, then sobered, “but I am happy. So happy to see the way my daughter glows. The love shines in your eyes.”
Violet nodded at him, and the music shifted, and Violet knew it was her time.
That her life was getting ready to change forever.
Her daddy extended his elbow, and she looped her arm through his, and he began to lead her up the path covered in a dozen different petals of flowers.
Each from their farm.
A token of wishes in each.
They came to the hilltop where the massive tree came into view. Branches stretched out wide with the sun just dipping down enough to touch the top. Lanterns hung from the lowest limbs, and long pieces of chiffon were draped from them as well, billowing down to touch the earth.
A few rows of chairs sat in front of that awe-inspiring tree.
Her bridesmaids and the groomsmen stood there to welcome them.
But it was the man waiting at the end of the aisle that stole her breath.
Bronze hair whipping in the wind, that face hewn in sharp angles and lines, sage eyes intense and spearing her from across the space.
Energy billowed. Curling around her like a warm embrace.
Home.
Her daddy leaned in and whispered in her ear, “And it shines in his, too.”
* * *
Night had
descended. Lanterns glowed and strings of light twinkled in the trees and in the shrubs that surrounded the lush, gorgeous setting.
Round tables and a makeshift dance floor had been set up under that gorgeous tree, and another band Carolina George was friends with was playing for the reception.
Richard wrapped his arms around her and exhaled his potent aura into her hair. “I can’t believe you’re my wife. My Violet. My inspiration. My world.”
She could feel the contentment and excitement burning through his blood. The outright awe in his touch.
Her heart ran manic, flooded with an amount of joy she didn’t know existed. She grinned up at him. “Believe it. You’re mine now. Husband.”
Richard grumbled a needy groan. “I like the sound of that.”
“Good…because you’re going to hear it for all my life.”
He brushed back a piece of her hair, gazing down at her with adoration. “And then forever after it.”
Joy burst, and he tightened the arm he had around her waist and tucked her closer to his side where they stood beneath their tree with both sets of their parents flanking them on each side.
Where he’d proposed two months before. When he’d taken a red eye from Los Angeles on a one-day break and confessed that he couldn’t live without her permanently in his life.
Their guests were scattered throughout the tables, having just finished their meals, while the rest of the wedding party had risen from their table and moved over to the tiered cake covered in bright edible flowers.
Emily, Melanie, and Violet’s sister, Liliana, had stood up as bridesmaids. Richard’s groomsmen were his brother Lincoln, Rhys, and Shawn, the band’s drummer.
They’d kept it simple. Only the few people closest to them.
Violet thought it looked like a perfect picture plucked out of a magazine.
A picture that would forever be emblazoned in her mind.
Rhys clicked a knife on the side of his champagne flute to get everyone’s attention. “Now, now, now, I’ve got somethin’ to say. A toast is in order before we get to the dancin’.”
“Oh, this is bound to be good.” With a light chuckle, Richard tossed out the razz and curled his arm a little tighter around Violet’s waist.
Melanie groaned from where she was standing to the right of Rhys. “Make it snappy, cowboy! You are not the star of this rodeo.”
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