I thought I would have been a cluster of nerves saying all this shit to her, but I wasn’t. I was calm. It felt like a weight off my shoulders, pouring all of this out. By the look in her eyes, I knew maybe, just maybe, she would give me a chance at making this dream a reality.
“This is crazy,” she finally said, shaking her head, pulling her hand away from mine, and everything inside of me froze. Maybe I’d counted my chickens too quickly. She wound one arm around herself, and touched her lips with the tips of her fingers on her other hand before looking up at me.
“Are we really doing this?” she asked, and I could see it all in her eyes and hear it in her voice. Hope. Fear. Love.
“Are you going to give me a chance?” I asked, standing up and moving closer to her. She was my entire focus, the only thing I could see. I didn’t give a shit about being in anyone’s way or if we were attracting attention to ourselves. I kneeled in front of her, a small box in my hand.
“Brandon?” Her eyes widened. “Baby, I don’t think I’m ready for all that—”
“Trust me?”
“Of course, but baby—”
“Nina Montenegro, you take my breath away,” I said honestly, our eyes pinned on one another as everything around us faded away. “Every time I look at you, it’s like I’m seeing you for the first time.”
“Brandon—“ I opened the box, and she looked at what was inside and shut her eyes tight and looked away. I knew what she was seeing.
What she was remembering.
#
“You have my heart,” I’d said, and she’d smiled brighter than the fucking sun. I took the heart-shaped diamond pendant necklace from its box, and she lifted her hair.
It had been the first piece of jewelry I had ever purchased. It wasn’t anything expensive. She was coming for a visit the week after Valentine’s Day, and I’d been saving. Silver with tiny little diamonds framing the heart, it wasn’t fancy, but when I’d seen it, I knew it was meant for my beautiful girl. By the look on her face, I hadn’t fucked up. I clicked the clasp in place, and she let her pretty hair fall before turning to look up at me. “What do you think?”
I looked at that heart around her neck, and it was like I was some kind of caveman. It wasn’t huge, just a small mark of my claim on her. Mine.
“You look like you’re mine.”
“I like that.” She grinned before kissing me. “You think we can stay in bed a little longer?” Her eyes glittered mischievously, and I loved that about her. She never hid how much she wanted me.
“Five more minutes?” I winked, leaning in closer, the urge to taste the skin at her bare shoulder too great. We’d stayed there longer than five, but it had been worth the time.
_______________
“Will you be mine again?” I rasped, nerves suddenly striking. She looked down at the necklace again, a stray tear rolling down her face. I wiped it away when she looked at me.
“What took you so long?”
And just like that, I could breathe once again.
Chapter Nine
Nina
“I PROMISE TO be quicker,” he said, cupping my face, and I leaned in closer. His scent enveloped me, making me feel like I was home.
Reminding me I was home.
It was insane to jump back into this thing with him so quickly. We hardly knew one another anymore. Two years changed a person. But as crazy as it was, just like the first day we’d met, it was the rightest thing in the world. It made as much sense to me as one plus one.
“Not too quick on everything,” I said without thinking and watched his face brighten slightly. I enjoyed knowing I could make my sexy Marine blush.
“I love you, Nina… never stopped. I’ll never stop loving you.”
“Love you too.” I sniffled as he pulled me in closer, and I felt his lips on mine. After so many sleepless nights, my world made sense once again.
_______________
“Nervous?” he asked, and I shook my head. “You’re quiet,” he observed as we walked down the long hall of the hotel he was staying at.
Once he returned and put the necklace I had sent back after our breakup around my neck, something shifted between us. It was tangible change. An energy rushing back and forth between us. Thickening the air and crackling between us.
It only mounted with anticipation and a slow burning ache as we had dinner and then dessert. Conversation had flowed, but both of us stopped at one glass of wine.
I touched the charm resting over my collarbone and smiled.
“I’m fine.” I squeezed his hand, and he brought it up to his lips, pressing a kiss to my knuckles.
“We don’t have to do anything… You know that, right?”
“Are you saying you don’t want me?” I asked, but he stopped, and since I had kept walking, it made me stop abruptly.
I looked behind me, his gaze more than warm. “Come here,” he ordered, and I slowly exhaled before moving toward him, taking the two tiny steps. His arm slid to the small of my back, the heat from his hands making me shiver.
“I’ll want you until the day I stop breathin’, babe.” The sincerity and crystal-clear desire echoed back at me.
“I’m not nervous, but about being with you or us…”
“What is it?” he asked, his free hand touching the side of my face so gently, so sweetly, I momentarily didn’t know how to string two words together. “Baby? Talk to me.”
“Is your, umm… is your friend Sam going to be—” He shook his head, and I lightly sighed, feeling some of the tension seep out of my shoulders.
“That’s what you were worried about?” he asked, and I could tell he was trying not to smile. I couldn’t help myself. I lifted myself to the tips of my toes, brushing my chest against his and shuddering a warm breath against his lips. “He has his own room tonight.”
“You don’t get it,” I said softly, my breathing slightly jagged.
“Tell me,” he demanded, and I could feel that energy between us kick up to something more. We were ready to snap, self-combust.
“You want me, and I do, I want you, so bad,” I breathed, never taking my eyes off his. “But it’s more than that, Brandon. I need you.” My words were like a switch to him, and his lips fell on mine. His kiss was bruising and hard. Desperate. As quickly as the kiss ignited, he moved us. Lifting me up like I weighed nothing. My arms wrapped around his neck and my legs around his narrow waist. I could feel him.
Rock. Solid.
Bigger than I remembered. Perfectly nestled against my sex.
He fought with the keypad, and if I wasn’t so hungry for him, I would have giggled at the frustrated sounds he made when the key didn’t work the first try. But I was too busy kissing his scruffy jaw. My mouth moved to his beautiful neck. Wet, open-mouthed kisses and long, leisurely licks. Reacquainting myself with the taste of his skin.
“Finally,” he grunted. Before I knew it, he opened and kicked the door shut behind him. The click of the lock being set in place only drove my craving for him higher.
He set me on the floor, and we looked at one another. It could have been a second or an hour as far as I was concerned. Time slowed, and our breathing picked up. Without saying a word to one another, we reached for the other. Our hands touched. My gaze followed. His hands. God, his hands were so big. He had beautiful hands. Pianist hands, his mom used to say. But right then, all I wanted, all I needed were his hands on me, over me, in me.
The sexual tension too much, the spell broke, and we were off. We were a blur of two people, taking off every piece of clothing, helping one another with buttons and zippers. Our mouths fused, and we communicated without words. His taste blossomed and ingrained itself in me, and I in him. Both trying to gain dominance, trying to help find a release we achingly needed. He picked me up and tossed me onto the king-sized bed. I didn’t bounce once before his body was covering mine, his mouth on my skin. I panted and moaned, completely uninhibited.
Sex with Brandon had always been like
that. Like a match thrown into a drum of gasoline, we ignited something explosive. Our bodies were created for the other. No matter the time, the first round was always scary passionate. The couple of times we had been able to steal weekends away, I doubt we said more than hi before ripping one another’s clothes off, starving to devour the other.
This time was no different.
Despite the two years, or maybe because of the time apart, we burned brighter. Mindlessly lost in the feel of us together, our naked flesh against the other’s, our bodies knew exactly what to do. His apt hand slid down the front of my body, grabbing hold of my breast, tweaking my nipple on its journey to my sex. He cupped my mound, his eyes burned into mine, forcing me to keep eye contact as his talented finger reached my wetness between my folds. I moaned when he touched the spot. God, he always found it quickly.
“Bran.”
“I got you,” he grunted as he brought a second finger through. “So fucking tight.” His voice was like gravel, and his nose flared as he went in and out of me.
“Baby…” I whined. I couldn’t help it.
I wanted more.
I needed more.
“I got you,” he gritted through his teeth. He held his body up with the hand he had placed above my head. His bicep pronounced in my view made my mouth water.
I loved him like this.
Draped over me like my favorite shield against the world. In that very moment we were the only ones who existed. Our air filled with the scent of the both of us, the sounds only uttered from our lips. His fingers worked magic, getting me closer and closer to the edge. I writhed and squirmed, grinding down, needing to fly apart, but I couldn’t let go. Not yet. Not without him.
“Bran,” I whimpered, the need, the ache so great it teetered on painful.
“I know. I know, baby.” His fingers disappeared from my body, and he rested a hand on either side of my face. Cocooned together, all I could see was him. All I could feel was him. I opened my legs wider, resting my feet on his amazing ass, and I felt him. His thick crown at my entrance. Unknowingly teasing me.
“It’s gonna go fast,” he warned, his eyes searching for my understanding.
“I don’t care. Please, I need you. Fill me,” I pleaded, squirming, tying to get him to move closer, less than an inch was all I needed for him to enter me.
“I might not be able to hold off,” he gritted, his tip pushing inside, and I held his face with both hands
“I need you.”
“I promise I’ll take care of you…”
“I know you will,” I whispered, breathing in deep, drowning in his warm gaze.
“Always.”
“Always,” I repeated softly and gasped just as he pushed inside. I didn’t know if it was possible to get bigger, thicker, but he sure felt like it. He filled me so full I had to close my eyes, clenching my hands on the back of his head, his short hair soft and cool against my fingers.
“Jesus fuck, Nina,” he groaned. “So damn tight.”
“You’re so much bigger.” I gasped.
“We fit. You were made for me.” His lips touched mine, and I held on, kissing him back, my body taking him as he slid in and out. The discomfort quickly faded and became something more.
“Open those eyes, baby,” he panted, pulling away from my mouth, and I did as I was told. My hands clenched his hair, now sweaty, our bodies slick against one another. My blood heated, and when he jerked his hips just right, I moaned.
“Like that. Right there,” I gasped, meeting his thrusts, holding on for dear life as he rutted in and out of me.
“Fuck,” he growled.
It wasn’t graceful or anything out of a movie, but I didn’t care. It was real.
It was primal and animalistic and so gut-wrenchingly beautiful to have something you only thought you would ever touch again in your dreams. I opened my eyes and watched him. His serious almost feral stare on me, we fought to keep the rush at bay as long as possible, but like the insanely crazy people we were, there was no holding back. We cried out one another’s names like a chant of a prayer and jumped headfirst into the waves of ecstasy. Pleasure pulling us under almost simultaneously into a beautiful abyss.
Brandon
Breathless and spent, I fought from giving her all of my weight, but when I tried to pull away, her hold tightened, pulling me into her.
“Five more minutes,” she whispered into my chest, and I held her.
Five more minutes.
How did that small fraction of time make all the difference? I held her tight, fighting to keep as much of my body weight off her. My dick slightly softening inside of her, I didn’t move. I needed this moment as much as she did. Jesus Christ, the beauty of Nina Montenegro was astounding. It surprised me at every corner, and there was no way I could ever get enough.
The intimacy of the moment. The silence and closeness. I’d missed this. How had I forgotten this about her? I could feel her heart beating against my chest, and I knew she could feel mine as we caught our breath. My nose buried itself at the top of her head, breathing her in like she was the answer to everything.
Seconds stacked on top of one another, and I knew it was time to move. When I did, I heard her whimper as I slipped out of her body, the loss almost unbearable, but I rolled off. My back on the mattress, my girl at my side, I quickly wrapped her sexy body around mine.
“I love you,” I said, my lips touching her temple. “I love you so goddamn much it scares the hell out of me,” I confessed, feeling slightly vulnerable and exposed. She stayed quiet and shifted, resting her body on her elbow as she hovered slightly above me.
“Hello, pot, I’m kettle,” she said with a straight face, and we both started to laugh. Fuck, I loved that about her. How we could be serious and heavy one second and lighthearted the next. I exhaled slowly, our laughter dying down as she snuggled into me.
“I didn’t think I would have this again,” she said into the darkness of the room, and I stilled. “You know, I would dream about this. Touching you—”
“Fucking me?
“You are pretty good in the sack,” she teased back with laughter in her voice. We lay there, my hand playing with the tips of her hair when she broke the silence, her voice serious, almost shy. “But more than that, I dreamt about just this. Being with you.”
“I’m glad I wasn’t the only one, baby,” I confessed, and she looked up at me. So much love and emotion reflected back at me, it rendered me speechless. She used that to her advantage, moving her body over mine. Her tits pressed into my chest, her hands on my shoulders, she cupped my face in her hands.
“Thank you for coming to find me. For finding us.”
“Fuck, baby.” I pressed my forehead against hers, at a loss once again.
“Thank you for giving us our second chance.”
“This is it for us. You and me,” I said, my jaw clenched. Feeling her pussy on my dick, he quickly woke the fuck up and hardened. Her wetness and warmth too fucking much. “Ride me,” I demanded and watched her eyes glitter as she aligned me just right and sunk down. Her sweet pussy held me like a glove, her honey heat warm and sticky, the remnants of our first round only adding fuel to the fire.
“Yes.” She closed her eyes, her head falling back, the line of her neck so fucking sexy as pink started to flush throughout her body.
I watched my girl, my beautiful girl, the one who owned me, balls and heart, ride me. Taking and giving pleasure until we were both on edge. Until the very end as we drained every ounce of pleasure possible.
I held her close again, peppering small kisses on her face, neck, and shoulders as we came down from the orgasmic high. We whispered our love into one another’s skin, and when the perspiration we had worked up dried and chilled our skin, I carried her into the shower. I could see the exhaustion in her eyes as I soaped up her body. After we cleaned up, we cuddled back in bed, and I made sure to control myself, not giving in to the temptation of going for a third round.
She
fell asleep in my arms, and I knew there was no way I could spend any other night than like this. She snuggled in close as if she was worried I’d disappear in her sleep, which only solidified what I knew I needed to do. In the darkness, one hand behind my head, the other playing with her hair, I planned.
Calls needed to be made. Important ones.
One especially was on the top of my list to a man I seriously respected.
Gerardo Montenegro, like my own father, was a man of integrity. A man who put his family above everything and everyone else. A man who could have told me off at first sight but chose the right moment to approach me, and when he did, it was with love and respect. Not just for his daughter but for me. I knew no matter who the man was, it would always be difficult to genuinely like the guy your daughter brought home, but I believed Gerardo liked me as much as he could.
Because of that and my own respect toward him, the moment my girl completely fell asleep, he was going to get a call from me.
Chapter Ten
Nina
I OPENED MY eyes slowly, and when his bare chest came into focus, I happily sighed. Mio. Mine, I thought to myself as he slept deeply.
It was crazy.
Two years, and here I was, ready to start everything like nothing had every stopped.
Because I never stopped loving him.
Not once.
I had half-heartedly tried. Going through the motions of getting over the heartache. Heartache I understood now as I lay next to him, fascinated with his long inky lashes. We’d been so young when we’d met. We still were, still in our early twenties, but we knew now. We had a base of where to kick things off from. We were better equipped to deal with the things that came with commitment and creating something from nothing. My degree, his time in the military. Those were the things that would help us create the sort of life we both wanted.
The night before, in the restaurant, he had said he wanted to be clear about where he wanted us to go. What he wanted out of our relationship. I wasn’t stupid. Endgame. He was mine, and I was his, but in it was just the beginning of our future.
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