Chapter Twenty-one #2
Her face shifted before she could hide it, tenderness breaking through first, pain close behind, with that softness she always tried to bury rising to the surface anyway.
“That’s what made New York unbearable,” I said.
“It wasn’t only him or the funeral. It was standing there and realizing that life did not matter to me the way everyone expected it to.
The name, the company, the apartment, all that Stone family bullshit, it felt dead.
Then I came back here and saw the disappointment in your face because I had left you with silence again.
” My throat tightened. “I didn’t know how to fix it. ”
Edwina said nothing for a moment. Then she moved closer.
“You don’t fix grief,” she said. “You survive it.”
I closed my eyes.
She was right.
I was tired. So fucking tired.
For the first time since the phone call, something inside me loosened enough to admit how badly I had needed someone to say that.
Then Edwina kissed me.
For a moment, I did nothing. Want had nothing to do with my stillness, Christ, I had wanted her every second since I came back.
The kiss just hit too deep. I had spoken my father’s death into the room, shown her the hollow place it left in me, dragged all that New York cold back to London, and somehow her mouth became the only warm thing in the world.
Then I kissed her back.
Harder. Deeper.
All the hunger, exhaustion, and relief I had been choking on since New York broke loose at once.
Edwina was giving me this, letting me take the comfort of her mouth, letting her body move closer on the couch until the last inch between us disappeared.
I had no interest in meeting her halfway like some restrained, civilized bastard.
I kissed her as a man starved by grief and silence, a man who had finally found the one thing that still tasted alive.
Then she moaned my name into my mouth, soft and broken, and whatever restraint I had left burned out of me.
I could feel Edwina trembling as I pulled her clothes off, revealing her soft, delicate skin. My eyes darkened with lust as I took in every inch of her exposed body. “Fuck, Edwina...you're so goddamn beautiful,” I growled.
My mouth watered as I took in the sight of Edwina's perfect breasts. I dipped my head, swiping my tongue over one pert nipple before drawing it into my mouth. She arched beneath me with a gasp, her fingers tangling in my hair as I suckled and teased her sensitive flesh.
“Hayden...” she whimpered, rocking her hips up to meet mine. I could feel the heat of her arousal pressing against me, driving me wild with need.
Slowly, I trailed a path of hot, open-mouthed kisses down her quivering belly, inhaling the scent of her desire. Edwina writhed and mewled beneath me, her thighs falling open in invitation. I groaned at the sight of her glistening pussy, pretty and pink and begging to be tasted.
I dipped my head, swiping my tongue through her slick folds with a filthy groan. Edwina cried out, as I circled her clit, again and again, before sucking the little bud into my mouth. I plunged my tongue inside her, fucking her with it as I massaged her sensitive nub with my thumb.
“Yes! Oh God, don't stop!” she panted, riding my face with abandoned shamelessness. Her honeyed juices coated my chin as I ate her out ruthlessly, savoring the taste of her pleasure on my tongue. I could feel her inner walls fluttering against my tongue as she started to peak.
“Mmm, my little Flare...you taste so fucking good,” I groaned, my mouth still hovering over her glistening pussy.
I could feel her delicate muscles quivering against my lips, her honey coating my chin as I gazed up at her with dark, hooded eyes.
“I could lick this sweet little cunt all goddamn night.”
“M-more, Hayden,” she panted, her hips rocking up to meet my mouth. “Please...I need your tongue inside me.”
I shivered at her filthy words, aching to obey her shameless demands completely.
With a filthy groan, I dipped my head, spearing my tongue deep into her clenching heat.
Edwina cried out. Broken gasps and mewls spilled from her kiss-swollen lips as I brutally tongue-fucked her, my tongue curling and lashing against her inner walls.
“Fuck! Yes!” she wailed, claws of her digging into my hair as she ground herself against my face.
Hearing my beautiful woman talk so dirty to me only made me hotter.
I growled low in my throat, the vibration making her inner muscles spasm around my tongue as I relentlessly worked her toward the edge.
With a filthy groan, I gave her clit a sharp suck, reveling in the way her silky thighs clenched around my head as she came undone with a shrill cry.
I licked her clean as she twitched and shuddered beneath me, savoring the taste of her release.
“Come here,” I panted, crawling up her sweat-dampened body. “I need to kiss you.”
Our mouths crashed together in a filthy, open-mouthed kiss, sharing the taste of her honey as we devoured each other whole.
“I love you,” I said, the truth dragged out of me raw and bloody. “I love you so fucking much.”
I caught it between my hands and held her there, making sure she heard me.
“Stay with me,” I said. “Do not run from me again, Edwina. I swear to God, there is no version of my life that works without you in it.”
My mouth brushed hers once, then again, and the next words came darker.
“You belong with me. To me.”
My thumb moved along her cheek, my voice roughening around the names I had never stopped carrying for her.
“My girl. My little Flare. The only woman I ever wanted badly enough to ruin myself over.”
I kissed her again, slow and consuming.
“I have lost too much already.” My thumb dragged across her lower lip. “I will tear down every goddamn thing in my way before I lose you too.”
Her breath trembled.
I leaned closer until my forehead rested against hers, until she had no choice but to feel every word.
“So be careful when you look at me with those eyes,” I murmured. “Be careful when you kiss me. The part of me that loves you is not gentle, sweetheart. It is hungry, possessive, and old enough to know exactly what losing you did to me. It will not survive letting you go again.”