Once they were completely naked and very sweaty, Owen whispered to her, “Have you ever made love all night long?”
“No. But I hope I’m about to.”
He gave her a smoldering and confident look that melted her inside out. “We have a lot of lost time to make up for.”
“Well then. Let’s not waste any more of it.” She spread her thighs, and he settled between them. He fit so perfectly as if only he was ever supposed to be there.
“No. Let’s not.”
She put her hands on the sides of his beautiful face and looked deeply into his eyes. How much she had missed him. Suddenly, she was overwhelmed with the full weight of what she felt for him. He was about to make love to her again. She’d missed him being inside of her more than anything. She’d never wanted anyone the way she wanted Owen Matthis. Yes, he fit so perfectly with her. Tears of joy sprang to her eyes and ran down the sides of her face while she continued to hold his face in her hands.
“What’s wrong?” he whispered, concern entering his gorgeous gray eyes.
“Nothing.” She shook her head. “No, don’t. Stay right where you are.” She stopped him as he started to roll away. “They’re tears of joy. I’m so happy to be right here with you right now. This is better than anything I’ve ever felt.”
Smiling, he leaned into her touch. “Me, too.” He lowered his head and kissed away her tears.
Moving his mouth to hers, he entered her body for the first time in way too long.
Chapter Thirty-Six
At Owen’s graduation, Marci sat with Ronnie, Owen’s mom who insisted Marci call her Brenda, and Jeremy. Brenda couldn’t stop hugging Marci and telling her how happy she was about how everything in Owen’s life was going. Marci didn’t know if it was because Brenda was just glad to be rid of Kristin or because she genuinely liked Marci, but either way things were going well there.
Jeremy seemed happy about it as well. And Ronnie, of course, could not stop congratulating herself on getting the two of them together and going on about the new addition on Marci’s ring finger.
Marci looked down at the small diamond on her ring finger. It was much smaller than Kristin’s, which Owen had gotten back even though it was no easy feat. Kristin wasn’t taking things well. She was threatening to sue Owen for part of the money from the lost deposits and other carnage from the twice canceled wedding. Marci had made Owen take that ring back to the store, knowing it cost way too much money.
“I can’t believe you gave that thing up,” Ronnie said, looking at Marci’s hand. “That was one huge rock.”
“I don’t care about that,” Marci said. “I care about him.” She nodded toward the stage where the Physics majors were lined up, waiting to walk across the stage. He caught her eye and gave her a grin that melted her heart. Everything about him melted her heart. He waved to her, and she waved back. With a goofy grin on her face, she said, “He would never in a million years let me buy my own ring, and that’s fine with me. I told him if he really wants to get me a bigger one down the road, when it makes more sense financially, he can. But really, I couldn’t care less about the diamond. His happiness matters more to me than just about anything.”
Brenda reached over and gave her what was probably hug number four hundred and fifty of the day. “Thank goodness he found you.” Brenda pulled back and dabbed at her eyes with a tissue.
Marci patted her future mother-in-law’s back and smiled. “I’m the lucky one.” Shoot. Brenda was going to get her all emotional as well. When she thought of how close she’d come to throwing it all away, it made her heart want to stop cold.
After the graduates crossed the stage and got their diplomas, and after all the pictures were taken, Marci and Owen finally got a moment to themselves. Marci was going to drive Owen back to his mom’s house where everyone was meeting up post-graduation. They were driving separately so they could have a few minutes alone before the big gathering at the house.
As soon as they got in the car, he pulled her to him for a long kiss. This was the first day they hadn’t been able to spend hours of in bed since they’d gotten back together a week ago. It had been a bit of a struggle for her—for him, too, obviously.
“If it weren’t for my mom and not wanting to ditch her, I’d say let’s go back to your place or mine and pick up where we left off early this morning,” he murmured over her lips.
“It’s a big day for you. That wouldn’t be right. We need to celebrate.” She ran her hands through his hair. He leaned his head into her touch. “Congrats, by the way.”
“Thanks. And seeing as how the only graduation present I want to open is right here, I’d be okay with celebrating just the two of us.” He leaned over and gave her a long, lingering kiss.
“You almost have me convinced, but you know we can’t do that. So you’re going to have to get back to that passenger seat and behave yourself before I lose this last shred of self control I’m clinging to over here.”
“I guess you’re right.” He sat back in his seat with a sigh. “When am I going to meet your parents?”
“My mom and her husband,” Marci insisted.
He put a hand on her arm and smiled at her. Just his touch had a calming, euphoric effect on her. How could anything in the world be wrong with him touching her, smiling at her like that?
She returned the smile. What did she really have to be bitter about anyway? Glenda King had made her own choices, and Marci made hers. One very good and very right choice of Marci’s was sitting in this car with her. And he was right. You made your own happiness. “Whenever you want,” she said.
He moved his hand down her arm to her hand and weaved his fingers through hers. “I love you so much for so many reasons, I can’t even begin to name them all.”
“Good because it would suck to be alone in this.”
“Believe me. I know.”
She looked at him sharply, realizing what she’d just said. “I’m so sorry. I’ll never be able to apologize enough for that.”
“Stop it. I was joking. Sort of.” He chuckled and tightened his grip on her hand, giving it a loving squeeze. “I promised you I’m not going to beat that dead horse, and I’m not.”
She took her hand back to push the button to start the car and wheel it out of the spot. Then she slipped her hand back into his.
“Let’s go out there now,” he said.
“Go out to Cali you mean?”
“Sure. As soon as we can get tickets. Weren’t you going to go out there for a few weeks this summer anyway? Before we got back together?”
“Yeah, but I canceled my flight on Sunday, remember?”
“We can book another one. Together.”
Together. She’d never get over how good that word sounded when applied to the two of them. “If you’re sure you’re ready for Glenda King.”
“Are you kidding me? I have you. There are no more hurdles. Everything else is a minor speed bump.”
“Okay. We’ll go.” Like she could deny him one single thing he wanted. She shook her head. “Every part of me feels light when I’m with you. Warm. When I see you across a room, I actually get lightheaded. I didn’t know that sort of thing actually happened in real life. I didn’t even know it was possible to love like this.”
“I didn’t either.” He held her hand tightly in his lap, and she steered the car with her free hand at the bottom of the wheel. Every time she snuck a glance at him, he was smiling at her.
“You? Mister Romantic Love? You really didn’t know?”
“Nope,” he said simply. “Not like this, not with anyone before. I hoped it was possible, but I didn’t know.”
“Never stop loving me.”
“I think I can manage that. If you can manage the same.”
“Deal.”
He brought her fingers to his lips and kissed each one of them reverently. “Definitely a deal.”
THE END
About The Author
Nicole Green is the author of six r
omance novels and one novella. In chronological order, they are: Love Out of Order (Genesis Press, February 2010), The Davis Years (Genesis Press, February 2011), Holding Her Breath (Genesis Press, July 2011), Pink Champagne (February 2012), His Melody (July 2012), Love Locked (February 2013), and Otherwise Engaged (May 2013). Soft Shock is her seventh novel. She is always at work on her next novel and constantly seeking out people who love to read her novels as much as she loves to write them. You can learn more about Nicole at http://www.nicolegreen.webs.com. You can also get in touch with her through email at [email protected]. She would love to hear from you.
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