Chapter 39
Jericho
Her lips on mine feel like coming home.
It feels like a place we were always meant to be. Maybe there was always a part of me that imagined us making it back to this place, but the answer would've been different if I had been asked only a few weeks ago.
I've never been a man to live in the past, despite my inability to keep this woman off my mind. Moving on for me wasn't simple. It wasn't trying to find a new love or someone to replace her. I knew the second that blade touched my skin that I would die loving only her whether that happened then or in a hundred years.
The concept of soulmates has eaten away at me for eight years because I knew I'd never have a life with mine. I was bitter about Hemlock finding Zara, although I didn't begrudge that of him. Even Ace, a man who was devout that love was something that made a man weak, found love eventually.
I knew I had experienced it only for it to be ripped from my hands.
But I have a second chance to love the woman I was only able to hold for such a short period of time, and I'll be damned if anything comes between us now.
I fully understand Hemlock’s reasoning for locking Zara away in the basement to protect her from everyone, including himself.
I'd crawl to the edge of the earth over shards of glass to keep them safe, and the thought that one day I might have to do that only makes me stand a little taller, ready for that battle.
There is no alternative. Her in my arms, my son healthy and in the other room, is the only way it can be. I'll cut down any man, woman, or child who tries to interfere with that, but I know that war will not be waged in this home. We're welcome here, protected by a family we've built within these walls. There isn't a person here who wouldn't defend the others with their lives, and I know that to be true of both Zara and Cora with the way they interacted with Eli earlier.
"What is it?" she whispers, making me realize I pulled back from our kiss and was just staring down at her.
"Until the end of time," I vow before lowering my lips back down to hers.
My hands seem to have a mind of their own as I pull at her clothes, but she doesn't seem to mind because her hands immediately reach for the button and zipper on my jeans.
I groan with need when her soft, cool hands reach behind the waistband of my boxer briefs to glide over my erection.
"Fuck, Peach," I moan when she pulls back from our kiss with my lower lip pinned between her teeth.
In the next breath, I rip her shirt over her head and toss it to the side.
"Take it off," I say, pulling at the edge of the sports bra she's wearing. "Or I'll ruin it."
She doesn't hesitate to start working the thing over her head as I bend forward and push her sweats off her hips. It puts me in perfect alignment for my mouth to wrap around the tip of her breast the second it's revealed.
Her hands grip a handful of my hair, but the pain makes me even more ravenous as I switch to her other breast, nipping at her nipple with my teeth, only sucking it into my mouth when she whimpers and tries to scurry away.
When I lift her, mouth still wrapped around her breast, she instantly wraps her legs around my waist. My shirt is damp with her arousal by the time I make it to the bed, lowering her slowly to the mattress as I pull my mouth away.
I lick and nip at the skin of her stomach, and this time she doesn't move her hands to try and hide the effects her pregnancy with Eli had on her body.
Her hands are right back in my hair with the first swipe of my tongue over her slick pussy, and as much as I want to play and tease, this is no different from the first time we reconnected days ago. Instead of taking it slow like I know I should, I feed that lone wolf inside of me and devour her, spearing her with my tongue and groaning in pleasure when her core pulses against it.
Her hips roll, hands gripping me tighter, as her body begs for all the things her mouth won't let her say.
We didn't get to spend much time like this years ago. We were always under the threat of getting caught, and I can't wait to see who we really are together now that we can love each other out loud.
Her thighs clamp around my head when her body grows taut, but I urge them open with my hands splayed on her thighs, pulling back, and blowing a stream of cold air on her heated skin until she convulses.
"Nolan!" she screams, and I know she has to be lost in her pleasure to make such noise.
I dip my head back down, sucking her clit into my mouth, and wishing I wasn't such a selfish man. I know the second she comes, I'm going to shove my jeans down and slide into her when I really want to spend hours and hours relearning her body.
I rub my thumb against her slit as I suck and roll her clit in my mouth, and I swear her body is reaching for me, her pussy pulsing and begging to be filled.
"That's it," I praise. "Come for me, Peach."
I'm not a fucking magician, and just my words aren't enough to send her over the edge. We lock eyes, hers looking down the length of her body, and when I suck her clit back into my mouth again, her back arches, her body giving me exactly what I demand of it.
Her mouth hangs soundlessly open as her back arches further off the bed. I chase her with my mouth, sucking on her clit and pressing my thumb inside of her until she's smacking at my head because the sensation is just too much. Her body continues to pulse around my thumb as I slowly push it in and pull it out.
My cock throbs, begging for pleasure when I pull back and tug my shirt over my head.
She looks at me with sleepy eyes, her tongue snaking over her lips to wet them. I swear I falter, wondering how many times I can dip the tip of my cock past her lips and still be able to maintain some semblance of control.
When her hands reach down, fingertips teasing her pussy, I know the answer is not even once, because I'll be damned if she isn't a hundred percent in control right now. One press of my cock to her lips and this entire event will come to an explosive end long before I'm ready for that to happen.
I shove my jeans down, cussing at my fucking boots for being exactly where I put them on my feet this morning after getting ready for the day.
"Fuck, Peach. Give me a minute."
She whimpers when I pull away and sit on the edge of the bed.
"Don't worry about them," she says reaching for me.
"I’m not going to fuck you with my boots on and my jeans around my goddamned calves, Peach," I growl, knowing that was how things were all those years ago.
We could never get truly intimate the way I wanted to because we needed to be able to separate quickly in case we heard someone coming. I won't treat her like a quick fuck, although she was never that for me. I felt guilty every time I made love to her and had to leave so quickly after so we wouldn't get caught.
I make quick work of my boots, kicking them away until one thuds against the door, and scramble back into her arms, covering her body with mine.
I don't bother to fight the groan that bubbles up my throat when she spreads her legs for me like I've always belonged between them.
"Do we need protection?" she asks when I inch my hips back before nudging forward, notching my cock into her center.
We didn't use protection before and I know she can't get pregnant, something that I feel is my fault, as if being there with her, holding her hand, and loving her through her pregnancy would've somehow saved her uterus.
"What are you asking, Peach?"
"We're... safe?"
I blink down at her, my cock literally being warmed by her slick arousal.
"We are, right?"
She dips her head, rolling her hips up until my cock sinks further inside of her. I don't want to know about the times she was intimate with Damien. We promised to look to the future and forgive the past, but that isn't something I feel she needs forgiveness for. She has made countless sacrifices to keep our son safe.
Her neck arches up, throat exposed for my mouth, as I press all the way inside of her.
"Ah, fuck, Peach. You're perfect."
My cock gives a warning flex, and I focus my attention on her neck, wondering how old is too old to be marked and think fuck it, she's mine. I feel like a feral animal leaving my scent all over her as I suck on the delicate skin. She must enjoy it because her core clenches around me.
"Give me a second," she begs when I pull back, every muscle in my body demanding that I spear forward. "You're too big."
I shake my head, burying my smile in her neck. "That doesn't help, Peach."
She smacks at me with a chuckle, and I love the way we can laugh right in the middle of something so intimate. At the same time, it also clenches those perfect muscles of hers around me, and I'm already so fucking close to the edge, I'll come if she keeps it up.
"I'm ready," she says, dropping her legs open, and I pull back, looking down at where we're connected as I slide back into her, the resistance this time no different from before.
She's perfect, made for me in the best ways possible. I fit inside of her like a glove. When I press my forehead against her, our breaths joining, I'm already planning the next time we get to be like this.
"Peach," I whisper, hearing the brokenness in my tone.
"Please," she begs, and that's all it takes.
I pulse inside of her, my orgasm so fucking strong my vision blurs for a few seconds. There will come a day when I can make love to this woman all night long, but I don't see that being possible any time soon. There's a very good chance I'm fooling myself, because I can't imagine holding her in my arms, slipping into her body, and not feeling all the same things I feel right now. The love, the tenderness, the gratefulness. All of it is almost too much but also somehow perfect.
I can't wait to spend the rest of my life loving her and Eli.