Never breaking our gaze, he carried me into his house and toward his room.
I clung to his shoulders, knowing all those beliefs about forgiveness that my father had ingrained in me held all the power they promised. What happened in the past no longer mattered. I only needed to be assured of one thing. “Promise me something.”
“Anything,” he said as he carefully laid me out in the center of his bed.
I lay there staring up at the beautiful man towering over me. Desire coursed through me. A magnetic energy that coated my veins and pulsed through my nerves. Palpable. Real. My chest heaved with strained breaths, an open display of everything I wanted to give him.
“Promise you’ll never lie to me,” I pled through a pained whisper, and deep inside those old wounds flared.
It was Christopher who held the power to extinguish them.
Emotions moved through his expression, lines of remorse and devotion scoring his face.
Slowly, he climbed onto the bed. Never breaking his unyielding gaze, he nudged my knees apart to make him room. He planted his hands on either side of my head. Muted lights glowed from high up in the recessed niches outlining the far wall behind him, casting us in shadows.
He cupped one side of my face. His words were earnest and sincere. “I promise.”
Acceptance swallowed me whole.
A soft smile curved my mouth, and I reached up and fluttered my fingertips along the side of his face. “I’ve missed you so much.”
Christopher gathered my other hand and drew it up between us. In the darkness, those severe green eyes locked to mine, a silent fury stirring in their depths. “Not one fucking day went by that I didn’t think about you. Miss you. And these last few months…” His tongue darted out to wet his lips, and he shook his head. “It was torture having you so close and knowing you weren’t mine.” He blinked a long blink. “I am still so in love with you, Samantha. Completely, crazy in love with you.”
My heart stumbled at the same words he had uttered so long ago. It was a memory that had haunted my years. A promise of forever I’d thought would never come to pass.
“I love you with every part of me, Christopher. I never stopped.”
How could I have?
A wistful smile edged his mouth, his brow drawn tight. “It was supposed to just be you and me.”
I gentled my fingers across his bottom lip, giving myself over to that old sorrow that now was replaced with so much hope. “Just you and me and forever.”
“Forever,” he said. Something passed through his eyes, before he descended to capture my mouth in a kiss. Coaxing. A constant ebb and flow, a needy push and pull of his lips as they played fervently against mine. He lifted up on his hands. His shoulders tensed as he dipped down to nip at me with his teeth, before his tongue dove in to tangle with mine.
And I kissed him with everything I had. With everything we had lost. With everything I had left to give.
It was that same war of pent-up need, tongues and teeth and desperate hands.
One I no longer wanted to win.
This was surrender.
Christopher moved to lavish my neck with openmouthed kisses. I lifted my chin to grant him more. Chills skimmed across my skin and I whimpered.
Could anything feel better than this?
“Samantha,” he murmured, trailing lower, across the exposed skin on my chest. “Baby, I need you so fucking bad. You have no idea.”
He rocked against me, his erection pressed to my center, and all those pleasured places cried out for him, begging for relief.
I drove my fingers into his hair, and my back arched when he closed his mouth over my breast, which was covered by far too many layers of clothes. “Oh God, Christopher. Please,” I begged. “I’ve never needed anything as much as I need you.”
My voice almost sounded foreign to my ears, but at the same time it was so clear. I’d never been more certain of anything in my life.
Hot and desperate, his hands slipped beneath the hem of my sweater. I shivered under his touch. He tugged it over my head, and his mouth went right back to my neck as he pushed his hands under me to unclasp my bra.
He sat back on his knees and slowly drew the straps from my shoulders.
A rush of cool air bit at my flesh, and the buds of my breasts pebbled as I lay there exposed to this man, who stared down at me as if he’d just been handed the world.
And I felt no urge to cover myself the way I normally did. No force of that modesty and discomfort that had haunted me for the last seven years.
I wanted him to see me.
Because I belonged to him.
He exhaled a weighted breath and brushed his fingertips up my belly.
I jumped and squirmed, every nerve alive.
“You’re gorgeous, Samantha.” He flicked through the buttons on my jeans. He leaned back, his eyes hungry and hot as he slowly dragged them down my legs. He left me in nothing but my panties, and I felt like I’d burst into flames when he swept his gaze down my body. “So fucking gorgeous.”
He looked back up at me, swallowing hard. “Do you have any idea? Any idea at all what you do to me?”
Redness blossomed across every inch of my skin, and my heart hammered an unsound beat, filling up all those places that had been empty for so long. Desire pulsed as a tortured throb between my legs, and my hips bucked in anticipation, spurred on by his stare.
Christopher pulled his shirt over his head and tossed it to the floor.
My attention went straight to the intricate colors that adorned the entirety of his chest. It swirled up over his collarbones and shoulders, spiraling down both arms, an expanse of delicate art imprinted on his skin. An intonation of hope and light.
All of it was mesmerizing, this dangerous man who’d marked himself with grace.
“You’re beautiful,” I said on no more than a whisper. I sat up and placed my hand over his thundering heart. “Somewhere inside, after everything, I always believed it. You’re beautiful, Christopher. Inside and out.”
He grabbed my face between his hands and shook his head. “No, Samantha. You just make me better. You can’t see all my ugly when I’m surrounded by your light.”
My gaze trailed down the defined planes of his stomach. I kissed his chest, and my shaky hands slipped down his sides to fumble through his belt. I struggled with his buttons, too anxious and nervous to get my fingers to cooperate.
A tender smile pulled at his mouth and he eased off the end of his bed.
Everything about this moment was Christopher. My Christopher. The boy I’d come to love and trust and know when I was just a girl.
Slowly, he worked through the rest of his buttons and rid himself of his remaining clothes, never taking his eyes off me as I watched him undress.
I only shook more when he nudged me onto my back and pulled off my panties.
Nerves hurtled through me, desire and need and a flicker of fear.
And I understood the risk, that my heart was again in his hands. Exactly where it’d always been. But this time it was more vulnerable than before, just as vulnerable as my naked body that quivered as he slowly climbed back over me.
He could break me so easily.
Because I was giving him everything.
My heart. My future. My trust.
Christopher kissed me, a passion-fueled kiss that left me light-headed and almost frantic for more. I panted, digging my fingers into his back while his hands explored. I jerked when he ran the back of his hand down between my thighs.
“You okay?” he asked, turning his hand to run just the tips of his fingers back up through my slick folds.
That fire raged.
“Yes.” The word fluttered from my mouth. More than okay. “Perfect.”
The faintest smirk pulled at his mouth, and he lifted up on just one hand. He focused on my face as he pushed two fingers inside. I gasped and he groaned. “Samantha… baby. Been dyin’ to touch you this way.”
Frenzied, my fing
ers scraped over his chest and shoulders.
He turned and kissed the inside of my elbow, the sweetest brush of flesh, and he whispered across the sensitive skin, “Love you… so fucking much.”
He sought out that tiny pleasured place with his thumb. He circled it as he pumped his fingers. Little sounds whimpered from my mouth, an incoherent utterance of his name, and shamelessly I writhed, feeling as if I might die, as if I finally could live. “Please… make love to me.”
Christopher stilled, searching my face, before he leaned over and grabbed a condom from his nightstand drawer. Sitting back, he ripped it open. I watched in awe as he rolled it down his length.
He was so big and beautiful, every inch of him, and I trembled beneath his brazen, hungry stare. Desire swelled between us, sparks of energy igniting in the air. But it was more than lust. Heavier. Denser. Fuller.
All consuming.
He lowered himself, his breath at my ear. “It was always supposed to be you.” He fisted his hands in the sheets at the sides of my head, his body straining over me as his erection nudged at my center. My eyes went wide as he slowly spread me.
Fire and light.
Heaven and hell.
The most exquisite kind of torture.
And I couldn’t see.
Could only feel.
Christopher filling me. Taking me whole.
“Fuck,” he grunted. Then his words slipped into a strained whisper. “So good… so fucking good.”
My lungs felt strangled as he scored deeper into my body, marking me in my darkest places. In places I had no idea existed. Places that had been created just for him.
Uncontainable, tears broke free as all the love I’d kept shored up inside spilled over. I squeezed my eyes shut, unable to process the magnitude of it.
It was stunning.
Staggering.
His voice was suddenly at my ear. “Shh… baby… don’t cry.” Christopher dragged his lips over the flood of emotion I couldn’t hold back, kissing me all over my tearstained face. He lifted my arm and draped it around his neck, and his hand slipped under my back to bring me closer. He pulled back so he could look at me. “No more tears. It’s just you and me.”
He withdrew slowly, and then rocked into me, hard and fast.
I released a gasp, and those intense green eyes watched mine, pulling me deeper into them, and I lost myself a little more. He drove into me again and again, lifting me higher, this boy who’d always made me feel as if I could fly.
And they fluttered around my consciousness, frantic wings of pleasure that twisted up my insides. My stomach tightened. “Christopher.” It was a plea from somewhere in my spirit.
His movements became jerky, and he shifted, striking me deep. The base of his erection hit that sensitive spot and I knew I couldn’t take much more.
He clutched me tight, the action purposed and strong when he did it again.
White-hot light burst behind my eyes. Blinding. As hot and blinding as the tremors that shot through my body as the most acute pleasure erupted in my core. A torrent of it rushed just under the surface of my skin, taking me whole, my entire being lifted to the highest high.
Ecstasy.
I floated on it for what felt like forever, while my walls clenched around him, gripping him tight while Christopher jerked and cursed. His body went rigid when he came.
Panting, I clung to him and buried my face in his heaving chest as I tried to regain my failing senses.
But the only thing in this world that made sense was him.
It took him the longest moments to come back down. Tremors vibrated his stomach when he cautiously eased out of me and fell onto the bed at my side. On a heavy exhale, he pulled the condom off and tossed it in the trash, and he came right back for me, kissing the top of my head before he palmed it and ran his hand down the back, nestling me in the crook of his arm.
Little pleasured pulses still tingled through my body, and I pressed against him, reveling in the way his muscles ticked and jerked beneath my hands.
Contentment settled fast, the two of us saturated by bliss.
I traced along the colors on his chest. “I love you, Christopher,” I whispered.
He grabbed my hand and pulled my fingertips to his lips. “Not letting you go. Not ever again.”
“Never,” I agreed.
He drew the covers over us and tucked me close in the middle of his enormous bed.
He brushed a soft kiss to my forehead. “Sleep, my sweet girl.”
And I did, so easily drifting off into the sweetest kind of sleep.
Because nothing in this world could touch us.
TWENTY-FOUR
Christopher
Daylight blazed through the edges of the window blinds. Groaning, I rolled to my back and blinked away the sleep.
Samantha.
The thought of her slammed me hard.
Like a fucking vise, my chest tightened when I realized she wasn’t lying at my side. Frantic, I shot up in bed. I heaved out a sigh of relief when I heard someone rattling around in the kitchen.
Shit.
I rubbed at the sore spot right over my suddenly frenzied heart. The girl had me wound so tight I couldn’t breathe.
And if last night hadn’t undone me, nothing would.
All right. So maybe I was undone. In the most fucking phenomenal of ways. Hadn’t ever felt so good. Not in my whole life, because my life was finally here. Filling up all that dead space that she’d hollowed out when she’d gone.
I rolled out of bed and snagged my boxers from the floor. I pulled them on and ran a hand through the disaster on my head, all too eager to go in search of my girl.
Yeah.
My. Girl.
Still couldn’t quite catch up to the fact that it was true.
Quietly, I slipped through the bedroom door. The air got all locked up in my throat when I found Samantha standing in my kitchen in front of the coffeepot. She was just pressing BREW.
Feeling a rush of satisfaction, I leaned my shoulder up against the wall, observing her from the side, and there wasn’t a single thing I could do to look away.
She wasn’t wearing anything but the T-shirt I’d been wearing last night, the fabric brushing her thighs. She was barefoot, and her blond hair was all mussed up from where my fingers had been buried in it all night. Rays of sunlight slanted in through the living room window.
My girl all lit up in a halo of light.
Like the woman she’d always wanted to be had finally worked its way out.
I swallowed hard, and she glanced over at me when she realized I was standing there. I watched the redness crawl to her face, and she chewed at that damned lip that I was already wanting to devour. She took a step back to face me, fidgeted with the hem of the shirt she was wearing, my shirt.
Lust curled my insides, right where it got all messed up with the love I had for her.
God, she was going to be the death of me.
“Good morning,” she whispered, seeming unsure of what to say.
“Morning,” I said, pushing from the wall. I took a step toward her, an irresistible need to be closer taking me over.
We fumbled through an awkward beat of silence, like neither of us knew exactly how to act after what we’d shared last night, those hours powerful and profound.
“Woke up and thought you left,” I admitted finally, fucking hating the way it sounded grating up my throat. But hell, told her I wouldn’t lie to her. Figured the shit she’d worked up inside me counted.
Her gaze dropped to the ground, before she tilted her head up and to the side, staring across at me like she was searching for an answer. “Where would I go?”
Relief gusted through me and took that second’s unease with it.
Good answer, sweet girl.
A smirk twisted up the corner of my mouth. Couldn’t do anything to stop it, either. I lifted my chin in her direction. “Nice shirt.”
She reddened more but shocked the shit out of m
e and did this cute little curtsy thing, dipping her knees and holding the shirt out to the sides.
I just about fell to mine.
Fuuuck.
She was so sexy it hurt.
“You like it?” It was all flirt. Pure tease.
I rubbed my fingers over the smile forcing its way out. “A lot,” I said, my eyes raking up and down, not even trying to hide it, because this girl needed to know exactly what she did to me. Finding her in my kitchen this way.
Best. Morning. Ever.
“You wearing anything under it?” And I tried to keep it a tease. But shit. Could anyone blame me for really wanting to know?
For a flash, those blue eyes widened in embarrassment. Then she smiled another coy smile as she lifted the hem, just enough to let me peek at the edge of the black lace panties she’d been wearing last night.
And damn, if I didn’t love the playful tone that just took over our mood, if I didn’t love waking up to her in my house, if I didn’t love every damned thing about this moment.
Fuck.
I just loved.
Simple as that.
Taking another step toward her, I cocked my head to the side. “Now, that is a complete and total shame.”
“Oh, is it?” she challenged, blue eyes flashing with amusement. I stalked toward her. Because not touching her? That was no longer an option.
She backed up against the island. And the girl was fighting this huge-ass smile, teeth clamping down on that lip, trying to contain her laughter.
With a grin, I grabbed her by the back of the hips and lifted her. She squealed in surprise, throwing her arms around my neck.
“Christopher.” She swatted at me, and I laughed.
“What?” I asked with all kinds of feigned innocence.
She wrapped all that soft, toned flesh around my waist and locked her ankles at my back.
Every inch of my body hardened.
“You’re going to drop me.”
“Not a chance.”
I set her on the edge of the counter, and she pulled back to look at my face. It was her smile that got all tangled and snagged in my heart.
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