Vanilla and roses.
My palm slipped down, gliding over the frantic beat of her heart, her body trembling under my touch. My fingers fumbled with the first button it met on her blouse, then the next, and the next, until the material was splayed open.
Her chest heaved, her tits covered in pink lace, her belly soft and flat and trembling. “No woman could ever compare to you. You are the sexiest, sweetest, most tempting thing I’ve ever seen.”
“Jace,” she whimpered.
“It’s the truth. You are my perfection. Everything I’ve ever wanted. Everything I’ve ever needed. Everything I’ve been missing. My Beauty.”
The last word came out on a harsh gush of air.
Need a fucking pounding force inside me.
Demanding that I take her.
I nipped at the shell of her ear, sucked at the pulse point that throbbed below it, tongue stroking out as I made my way down her throat, tasting the whimpered sounds that escaped her.
“I missed you. More than you could know.” Her fingers were in my shoulders when she said it, ripping at the material of my tee. “I need to see you, Jace. Feel you.”
Who was I to deny her that?
I shot up to sit on my knees, straddling her waist on both sides, and slowly peeled my shirt over my head, ignoring the sting of the fabric raking over the stitches when I did.
She was worth it.
So damned worth it.
Especially when she looked at me like that. Her lips parting on a sexy sigh as her eyes rushed over me.
Lashes of fire.
Heat and love and greed.
She reached her shaking hand out to trace across my chest. “And it’s you, Jace. You who’s the most magnificent thing I’ve ever seen. The most gorgeous boy who stumbled into my life. You stole my breath the first time you came through that office door.”
Her fingertips brushed down. Stroked across my abdomen.
Every damned muscle tightened, rippled with unbearable need, this feeling that I might lose all control.
“Little did I know you’d soon be the keeper of it. The keeper of my breath. The keeper of my heart.”
She reached out and grabbed me by the shoulders to hoist herself up, angled so the words came as sweet caresses across my face. “The keeper of my soul.”
I pushed her back down onto the bed, my hand splayed across her chest. “And I’m not going to give it back.”
There was a warning in there, but the girl took it as a tease, her teeth worrying on that bottom lip as redness splashed across her silky flesh. “You’d better not.”
I dipped down quickly and raked my teeth across the defined curve of her collarbone.
She jumped.
Gasped.
Whispered, “More.”
More.
I jerked back both sides of her blouse, winding them off her shoulders, lifting her upper body from the bed so I could drag it the rest of the way from her arms.
It bound her all up, and I attacked her neck as I did, kissing that soft column as if it sustained my life.
Her head rocked back to grant me better access.
“Jace.” It almost sounded like confusion. “Every touch. Every time. How do you do this to me?”
Her scent flooded me.
Filling my head.
My heart.
My soul.
And I was going to worship her forever.
Intensity whipped the air, that energy alive in the room that was ours.
Ours.
Hunger raced through my veins and poured onto my flesh.
Severe and strong.
Uncontainable.
Brighter than anything I’d ever felt.
Blinding.
I tore her shirt the rest of the way free, loving the tiny shock of surprise that jetted from her lips when I reached out and tugged down the cups of lace to expose the tight buds of her rosy nipples.
Her tits were full and pouring out over the top.
“Motherfuck . . . you are sublime.”
I ran the knuckle of my index finger over one.
She arched, mumbled, “Yes.”
I let my thumb take its place, rolling and teasing as I angled down to lap at the other with my tongue as I pushed her back to the bed.
Sucking and loving and living.
That was what it felt like when I was touching her.
Coming alive.
I reached behind her back and freed the clasp of her bra, and I relieved her of those bindings, too.
Free.
I wanted her free.
To live in me the way I wanted to live in her.
Without the chains of the past to hold us back. To beat us down.
And her hands were suddenly everywhere. Nails in my shoulders, scraping down my back, their own plea that meshed with the cries that fell from her mouth.
More.
I ripped myself back and went to work on the button of her jeans, moving away from her only long enough to slide them from her legs.
Good God.
She stole my breath.
Hitched and hooked it, my heart caught up in the middle of it, hammering wild.
Long, long legs that went on forever, pale flesh and slender curves and fucking perfect body.
Her cunt was bare, wet and glistening for me.
I tugged her jeans from her ankles, and my fingers were right there, dragging through her pussy.
I sank my fingers into all that attraction and desire.
Enraptured.
Fucking lost in the magic of this.
I leaned forward, still touching her as my tongue darted out to wet my dry lips. “Look what I do to you, baby. Look at the way I make you feel.”
I burrowed my fingers deeper, in all that tight, slick heat, relished in her shudder that raced up my arm.
“You,” she whimpered, her hips coming from the bed.
“You,” I murmured back, kissing her softly, trying to find some semblance of control when this girl had stripped it all away.
Every vulnerability exposed.
The girl always making me so damned weak.
But this time . . . this time I felt the strength in it. The purpose. The reason.
This girl could bring me to her feet, but I’d always stand for her.
Devotion and loyalty hummed through my being. All mixed up with the frenzied heat, and I was back on my knees, ripping at the button of my jeans and shoving them from my body.
My cock jutted free, bouncing at my stomach, as devoted as the rest of me.
“No one. No one, Faith. Only you.” The promises tumbled out, leaving me like I was drugged.
Dizzy on this girl.
It’d always been her. It always would be.
I felt half crazed when I wedged my hips between her trembling thighs.
So warm.
So right.
Short breaths ripped from my lungs, mingled with her own, everything becoming one.
Bated. Held and caught up in this moment.
I pushed up onto my hands and stared down at the girl, my heart a thunder where it beat at my chest.
“You,” I told her again.
Heat blazed from her body, and I watched the bob of her delicate throat when she swallowed and watched me with all that trust that I didn’t deserve, but I’d do everything in my power to earn.
“You,” she rasped.
Energy billowed and bloomed. A fire that raged in the remaining space between us.
I had to remind myself to go slow when every part of my body wanted to fuck her wild.
Claim her.
Mark her.
I swallowed hard, dipped down and kissed her, and Faith dropped her legs open wide.
An offering.
Emotion tightened my chest, and I edged back an inch, letting my cock barely slide through the arousal between her lips.
A lick of need.
A lash of desperation.
Lust prowled my spine. The base instinct t
o take what was mine.
“I can’t wait to feel you again. I need it. I need to feel your body on mine,” she whimpered.
It felt like what was meant to be was finally catching up, matching time. Everything shifting back into its rightful alignment.
For a beat, our eyes tangled, and her nails burrowed deeper into my shoulders. “Take me. Make me remember every reason I’ve always been yours.”
I gripped her behind her neck, the other at the top of her thigh, holding on to that soft, delicate skin as I pushed her wider.
I pressed just the head of my dick into her. Nudging into her folds.
A grunt fell like a stone from my mouth. Didn’t matter that I was barely an inch inside.
The impact of her hit me like a landslide.
Too much.
Too perfect.
Too right.
Faith struggled to draw air into her lungs, her body bowing up as she struggled to accept me as I slowly spread her.
Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore. No restraint. No self-control.
I slammed home.
I’d never, ever felt it more than then.
Home.
Her mouth dropped open at the side of my neck, her nose at my flesh, breathing me in.
My entire body shook, curling around her.
I pulled out before I rocked back in.
Hard.
Hip to hip.
Taking all of her.
“So good,” ripped from my throat. “Nothing has ever felt so good.”
Pants lifted into the air, her sweet lips parted.
“Are you okay?” I murmured, terrified I’d pushed her too far and too fast. Unable to stand the thought of it at the same damned time. The fucking desolation of her thinking about him.
“Nothing has ever felt so right.”
Relief left me on a gush of air, and I began to move in her.
Slow and hard.
Half-delirious, half-sure I’d never seen anything so clearly.
Every thrust was a promise.
Every fuck of my body a claim.
Soft cries of pleasure struck the air, and I held her, took her deep and hard while I kissed her gently.
My treasure.
My prize.
While I adored and cherished and murmured that I was never going to let her go.
I could feel it, her pleasure building, the way her body began to simmer under mine.
Heat and friction and need.
Her head rocked back, and I sucked at her chin before I kissed down the column of her throat.
Energy lapped. A slow build at first, a steady increase that lit in a frenzy.
Those eyes met mine, so intense.
And the feeling that I’d been fighting since I returned gripped me whole.
She opened herself wider and lifted to meet every hard thrust.
Our bodies a wave.
Rolling.
Floating.
Building.
“Jace,” she whimpered, begging my name.
Pushing up onto a hand, I wedged the other between us, finding her clit, loving the sounds she made as I did.
Sounds of desire.
Of pleasure.
All of it for me.
I could feel her winding up.
Her body stretched thin.
She gripped my ass.
Urging me deeper as she rubbed her body against me.
Harder, faster, more.
Our skin was slicked in sweat, heat rising.
Short wheezes ripped from her delicate throat. Chants of my name.
And there was no question.
This girl. She’d always fucking been mine.
And she was going off.
Bliss a crack in the room.
Thunder.
Pleasure bound and pummeled the walls.
She took me with her. The most powerful emotion raced down to gather at the base of my spine.
Physical and emotional and alive.
All her.
I felt it splinter out.
Detonating.
Energy bursting when I came, body pouring into hers. My cock jerked and spasmed within the tight clutch of her walls.
Her body so sweet.
So perfect.
Owning all of me.
Her teeth were in my shoulder, and her hands were in my hair.
Like she couldn’t get close enough to me. Like she wanted to sink inside. Share every part. Invade every recess.
She was already there.
I held her through it, the two of us riding wave after wave. I swallowed her whimpers while she swallowed my praise.
“I love you. Fuck, I love you. So much. There’s nothing better than this. Nothing.”
Shivers rolled.
Hers and mine.
Finally, I slumped down onto her in sated-out bliss. My heart still beating madly, and my spirit thrashing in the confines of my chest.
I rolled to the side, taking her with me. I brushed back the hair that was matted to the side of her face.
There was so much intensity ricocheting in the room that I was almost nervous as I tipped her face up to look at me.
It’d fucking gut me if I’d taken her to a place she wasn’t ready to go.
But then the girl . . . she smiled.
Smiled that smile.
The one I’d told her I was there to see.
One that was genuine and filled with joy.
Joy.
I couldn’t help it. Couldn’t stop it. I wanted its existence more than anything I’d ever known.
I’d settled for a life of greed. Money and mindless sex and labels that meant absolutely nothing.
And there I was, holding the meaning of my life in my hands.
I brushed the pad of my thumb across her swollen lips. “Beauty.”
My light in the darkness. If she couldn’t chase it away, she’d promised she would at least be there to help me see through it.
She tapped her fingers across my heart.
“Beast.” She chewed at her bottom lip. “I’d always been afraid of you disappearing. Of you burnin’ out before I got the chance to keep you.”
“I never wanted to leave you.”
Our hushed voices were contained in the space between us, trapped by the four walls.
As if we could admit anything, and the wood and plaster and ghosts would hold all our secrets.
I stared at the lines and curves of her gorgeous face in the shadows, and I finally found the courage to ask her the one question I’d been both desperate and terrified to ask her all along. “You named her Bailey.”
Sadness streaked across her features.
I wanted to reach out, wipe it away, but I needed to know. It’d been gnawing at me like a bitch since the first time I’d heard her utter the name.
Her fingers were back on my face, eyes so intense as she searched for understanding. “I told you, sometimes dreams don’t die. Sometimes they don’t burn out even when the light is taken away.”
“I’d wanted it, Faith. To share that with you. I did.”
Bailey and Benton.
Bailey and Benton.
Bailey and Benton.
Old hopes spun around us, sucking me back to that time, like the girl was casting her hopes amongst the rose bushes.
“I’ll love her the same,” I murmured. Hard and soft. Lined with truth.
“How does you saying that break and heal my heart all at the same time?” she asked, a wisp of grief working its way into her words.
My grief.
Hers.
Ours.
“I promise, Faith. I will. I’ll love her like she was mine.”
“Is it wrong I wanted her to be? That the second I saw her, that name came out of my mouth before I could stop it? One look at her, and I was in love, Jace. The level of it was something I’d only felt one other time, and it was dropping free like a claim.”
Regret prowled beneath my flesh.
“If I
could have stayed, I would have. I had to leave. I had to.”
“Because we broke into this house?” She searched for the answer in my eyes, her own horror there, like she could have been the one responsible. “That’s the reason you went to prison? Because we broke in here that night?”
“Partly,” I told her, unable to stomach the idea of actually telling her why. What I’d done. The effects that had spiraled through the years.
“Why didn’t you come back for me?” she whispered.
There was no missing the hurt that slashed across her face. So goddamned real I could feel it spear through the center of me.
“I tried. Sometimes we’re too late. Sometimes no matter what we intend, we fall short.”
“Oh, God, Jace.” Regret swam with the love in her eyes.
I tried to give her the only encouragement I could find. “But we can’t regret our lives or our pasts or the decisions we’ve made. We can only learn from them and live in the day. For right now. For forever.”
“Just . . . promise me one thing.”
I took her hand that rested on my chest, brought it to my mouth, and brushed kisses across her knuckles. “What’s that?”
“Don’t walk away from me for me without telling me why you’re doin’ it. Don’t make that wrong decision for me. Not again. Don’t ever hide what’s happening in your life to protect me. You should have let me make that decision.”
“I won’t,” I promised her.
Silence climbed back into the room. Like the questions crawled in from under the crack in the door.
Penetrating and invading.
“I need you to tell me everything you know about Joseph,” she finally said, her plea small and insecure.
If Joseph weren’t already dead, I might jump from that bed, hunt him down, and kill him myself for that sound alone.
For the terror that trembled through her body.
I knew there’d come a time when we had to lay it all out. Mack’s warning from earlier rambled through my mind and clawed at my consciousness.
“You have to tell her everything.”
I knew I did.
But how was I supposed to put her through that?
I wanted to protect her.
Wrap her up and hold her and promise her that everything would be okay.
Reaching out, I yanked her closer. “Come here.”
I rolled onto my back so I could envelop her in my arms.
She rested her cheek on my chest, angled so she could still look up at me.
“It’s going to be okay, Faith. I promise you.”
Mindlessly, she ran her fingertips over my stomach, her thoughts going far. “You know that’s what Joseph told me, too? When I asked him what was happening, that’s what he told me.”
More of You: A Confessions of the Heart Stand-Alone Novel Page 28