Chapter 6
The door closed with a click, and she turned to face him.
Say it again.
She smiled at him. “I love you.”
He tugged at the hem of her T-shirt, pulling it out of her jeans and over her head.
Again.
“I love you.”
He spun her around gently, unclasping her bra and sliding it gently down her shoulders with lightly trembling fingers, down her arms until it dropped soundlessly to the floor, then he turned her back around.
Again.
“I love you.”
He unzipped her jeans, then dropped to his knees in a single, graceful movement, tugging them down over her hips, catching his thumbs in the waistband of her panties so that he slid everything down her body at once.
She lifted one foot out of the pool of discarded clothes, and he kissed the soft insole, listening to her breath quaver and catch before setting it down and lifting the other.
He nibbled it gently, pulling her jeans away before releasing her small, perfect foot to the floor beside him.
He gazed up at her on bended knees. Naked. Blissfully, exquisitely naked before me. Worshipful in awe of her trust, her faith in him, her hope for them, her light and her goodness, and now, her love.
Again.
“I love you, Jack. I love you forever.”
He reached up and put his hands on the soft, pliant skin of her backside and pushed her toward him, burying his face in the soft triangle of melon-colored hair between her legs.
“Jack!” she gasped as his tongue found the sensitive nub hidden in the folds of hidden skin.
Her head fell back as a low moan escaped from her throat. Her knees threatened to buckle, but his strong hands held her up as his tongue licked, sucked, and swirled, and a delicious pressure built inside of her.
Her hands, which rested lightly on his head, flexed and stretched, threading through his hair as her insides melted into lava, coursing through her body with abandon, a wild fluttering bringing her closer and closer to heaven until the heat was unbearable.
She exploded, screaming his name as her body tremored and shuddered and her knees gave out and her body surrendered.
Her eyes were still closed while her muscles spasmed, contracting and releasing. Her insides flooded with heat. She felt him pull away, but instead of falling into a limp heap at his feet, she was swept into his arms, and he laid her gently on his bed.
She heard the buckle of his belt hit the floor, and a moment later, the weight and heat of his body settled beside hers, his lips capturing hers in a slow, decadent kiss.
His tongue licked her lips, running over the smoothness of her teeth to find hers, and stroke it gently.
She tasted the salty sweetness of her own body in his mouth, and it roused her from the aftermath of her climax.
She opened her eyes with renewed vigor, wanting one thing alone, for him to know the same awesome wholeness, the same perfection, the same physical embodiment of love that he had just rendered to her.
She pushed against his chest, and as he leaned back, looking at her quizzically, she put her hands on his arms, pushing gently until he understood and smiled, falling back onto the bed so that she could lean up and kneel beside him.
Darcy looked at his enormous, thickly veined shaft, which pointed straight up toward her and seemed to pulse with the beating of his heart.
She flicked her glance to his eyes, smiling.
Is that for me?
He smiled back at her, his chest rising and falling rapidly, nodding his head on the pillow. Then he unleashed a tense, strangled sound as she bent her head over his chest, taking a nipple in her mouth and sucking it into a quick point.
She looked up at him again.
More?
Pain and excitement crossed his face as he nodded again.
She bent over him, her soft hair brushing against his short, curly, wiry hair, and she captured the other nipple between her lips, flicking it with her tongue before gently using her teeth to make it pebble-hard in the space of a moment.
Looking up at him once more, she ran her tongue over her lips and smiled.
More?
He must have been holding his breath because it came out on a low hiss as he nodded his head one final time, throwing an arm over his eyes as he winced with a fevered expectation of what was sure to come next.
She leaned over his chest again, and as her fingers encircled the base of his cock, she touched the very tip of her tongue to the glistening head, swirling once before taking him entirely in her mouth, into her throat, in one smooth, soft, slow motion.
The muscles in his stomach flexed, and he groaned, his fingers curling into fists in the sheets on either side of his body as her breasts skimmed his stomach.
She released him briefly before sucking him back into her mouth again.
The heat of her mouth, the hot wetness of her mouth on him was like nothing he had ever felt before in his entire life, and his nerves screamed for more, more of her tongue, her soft wetness, the mind-blowing suction, the strong, slow pumping motion of her hand.
His eyes rolled back in his head, and he felt a gathering inside, stronger and stronger until he was sure he would—
How she did it, he’d never know, but one moment he was in her mouth, and the next she had straddled him, lowering her body onto his pulsing, quivering erection. He thrust instinctively once, twice, reaching for her hips and opening his eyes.
Say it again, baby.
She smiled slowly, and he could see it on her face.
He could see that she had never loved anyone as she loved him, that she would never again love anyone in her life as she loved him.
His eyes burned and teared, and if he had died right there, his life would have been worth living for every moment that led to this one.
I love you, Jack. I belong to you.
She bent down and bit his upper lip as she came with a loud moan, her insides quivering and trembling around his shaft.
His muscles clenched tightly in preparation, just as he fell over the edge with her.
He reached up to clasp the sides of her dreamy, spent face, plunging his tongue into her mouth at the same time he kissed her womb with the tip of his hard length, letting go of any remaining control as his body exploded, shattered by the pleasure of Darcy’s body climaxing around him.
He growled her name into her throat, spilling his strong, full-blooded seed into her waiting, willing, beloved perfection.
“What time is it?” she asked him, resting her head on the damp hair of his chest. The skin beneath was hot on her cheek, but she couldn’t bear to pull away. She sighed, never wanting to leave his bed. Never wanting to be further away from him than she was right this second.
He moved slightly, the hand caressing her hair, stilling momentarily before resuming its gentle stroking.
“Four,” he murmured. “We have time.”
“That’s a relative expression for us.”
He didn’t make a sound, but she heard his chest rumble lightly, and he ran the backs of his fingers over her cheek before returning to her hair.
“I love your hair,” he said quietly, reverently. “I’ve always loved it, since that first day you walked into the library. Like an angel with a halo walking out of the light and into my life. I dreamed about it for years and years.”
“When we were apart,” she murmured, propping herself up on his chest to see his face. “What were those years like for you?”
“Awful, hungry, desperate, hopeless…” He shook his head, his face stricken and tender at once. “Those four days I spent in Boston? Watching you when you were in grad school? They were the best of the bunch. Four days in twenty years.”
“Did you do that a lot? Find me? Watch me?”
He shook his head. “No. Not a lot. A handful of times.” He looked sheepish for a moment.
“I know the woods around Willow’s house pretty well.
And you always made it easy, sitting in the window seat.
But I never stayed very long after getting so attached in Boston.
Minutes. Hours. Just enough to see you.”
“Jack,” she murmured, searching his eyes as hers filled with tears. “I’m so grateful you were there.”
He kissed her softly. “Me too, baby.”
“I wish I’d known you were there. I wish I hadn’t had to wait so long to see you again.”
“You felt me, though?” he asked, stroking her hair out of her face and lovingly tucking the strands behind her ears.
She nodded, smiling at him sadly. “Going inside kept you fresh in my mind. I’ve always felt connected to you. Always. Even before that night backstage. I wanted you so much from the very beginning. From the first time I saw you across the library, I wanted you in my life.”
He reached for her, cradling her against his chest and kissing the top of her head. The heat of his skin was searing, but it felt too good to pull away.
“You too. You walked into that library bathed in light. I think I would’ve happily died for a moment with you.”
“Instead, we get a lifetime,” she breathed, feeling happy, feeling like Jack was her home, her choice, her heart, her life.
He didn’t speak again right away, but his arms tightened around her, and he buried his face in her hair as if overcome by her words. When he spoke again, his voice was soft, emotional.
“I did everything I could to figure out how to be with you. But there were so many dark moments, Darcy. How was I supposed to make you understand? How in the world could I ever have what I wanted most in the entire world? You seemed impossible to me.”
“Possible.” She smiled, reaching up to trace his lips with her finger. “You figured it out.”
“Have I?” he asked, his brows furrowing with uncertainty and hope. He searched her eyes. “Are we…are you…”
She tilted her head to the side, anxious to reassure him, but looking for the right words to express her feelings for him. “Jack. I don’t—”