Was he messing around with me when he didn’t stop?
I beeped again, then relaxed as he pulled off on the road near the lake, our cars bumping over the gravel into the tree-lined solitude.
I was out of my car before he was. “Didn’t you hear me blowing?” I asked.
He was about to answer when I rushed up to him. Then, just as Bret had done to Carley, I pulled him down into a kiss that knocked us both back against the side of his pickup.
He hesitated for only the barest second, as if taking in the fact that this was really happening, and then he pressed me tight against him as our mouths ravaged each other’s. The world was revolving like it didn’t have an axis, whirring off into nowhere—or at least somewhere I’d always hoped to go. Somewhere with Noah.
As he wrapped me in an even hungrier embrace that had me clinging to him with just as much ferocity, I broke away from the kiss, using what oxygen I had left in my lungs to talk.
“You went public in a big way today.”
“When you’re in love, you want everyone to know.”
In love. He was in love with me.
“I’ve never been in love,” I said. “I have no idea what it’s like.”
“Are you in it now?”
I pushed the last of my fear aside, turning my back on it, even though I heard it screaming in warning as it got farther away. But it was wrong, so wrong.
“Yes,” I said, finally committing. “Lord, yes, Noah.”
He cupped my jaw, then softly touched his lips to mine. There was a future in that kiss, and that future rolled out in front of me in an endless landscape of color. A picture I could finally be a part of.
I squeezed him again, then nestled into his neck. “I’ll do anything for you, too, be there when you need me, be there even when you don’t. And I don’t care if it’s in New York or Aidan Falls or Timbuktu.”
He laughed, stroking my hair. “How about Aidan Falls for now? I can go to the city when I need to.”
“I hear they have universities and hospitals in New York, too.”
“We can talk about all that later.” His gaze had intensified, burning with the desire he’d always had for me, plus more.
So much more.
“I said I’d come back for you,” he whispered.
I surged up to him for another kiss, and this time, I knew it wouldn’t end in more talk. We were alone, together, and I craved him with every beat of my heart. It’d felt like eons since I felt him against me, inside me.
“Jade,” he said softly, and I knew he was asking, not taking, not demanding what he thought he could have as the tycoon who always got what he wanted.
“Yes,” I said again, smoothing my hands up his chest, pulling at his shirt until it slid out of his waistband.
I eased my fingers under the flannel, feeling notched abs that jumped at my touch. Power. We both had it over each other. He’d found his match, I’d found mine.
Tearing his shirt off him, I laughed as his buttons popped. I remembered the panties he’d destroyed that day in the gym, and he seemed to recall that, too, as he smiled down at me, that one dimple sending tingles through me. Then I worked at his belt, sliding my hand down to cup him before I was even done.
I was desperate for him, especially after thinking I’d never have him again.
Me and my billionaire, finally together.
He climbed into the cab of his pickup, helping me in and pulling me onto his lap. I laughed as adrenaline flooded me, cleansing me in a baptism of fire. And it seemed only moments later that my apron was on the floorboards, followed by my shirt, jeans, bra . . . everything else.
Completely bared to him, straddling his lap with his erection so close to the throbbing place between my legs, we breathed in sync, his hands on my hips. In his eyes, I saw a new life, green and promising, and I arched over him, feeling him at my entrance. Then, with one move, he was in me.
His flesh in mine, warm, fitting just right as we moved and held to each other. I felt as if I were in an ocean, like the one Nyi Roro Kidul swam in, cutting through the water, every stroke fluid and strong. We kept moving, trying to break toward the brightness seeping through the surface, trying to get toward the liquid sun.
A thrust, reaching higher . . .
Another . . . faster now, fighting our way up, almost there and—
With a gasp, I broke through, weak yet stronger than ever, bobbing in the tiny waves that held me up as surely as Noah’s arms were doing. And when he came, too, we held to one another even tighter, knowing what we’d found.
Knowing that nothing was ever going to come between us again, as long as we kept holding tight.
***
Noah:
Are you watching croquet or is it too cold there?
Mom:
Far too cold. Lucky me, though, I get more texts from my son today. More news about Diamont?
Noah:
No, but it’s still good news. She let me in, Mom.
Mom:
Oh, Noah. I’m so happy for you.
Noah:
Just as I told you since that first day, she’s the one.
Crystal Green is a RITA nominated romantic fiction author. As Chris Marie Green, she has written fantasy novels including the Vampire Babylon series and the Jensen Murphy, Ghost for Hire series, as well as the new adult SHE CODE books. As Christine Cody, she wrote the supernatural post-apocalyptic western Bloodlands series.
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