Chapter 26
TWENTY-SIX
My stomach went on a roller coaster ride as Graham bounced me higher in his arms, readjusting his grip as he carried me down the hall.
Once we reached the foot of the bed, I expected him to lower me onto it.
Instead, he sat with me still in his arms, pausing to look me up and down, awe softening his features. “You really are something, you know.”
He brushed kisses over my forehead, the tip of my nose and each eyelid, the drag of his scruff causing my skin to anticipate and tingle. “Before I met you, I would've declared it impossible to fall so hard and fast, but when you told me you loved me...” Using his thumb, he depressed my lower lip, his throat working a swallow. “I do care for you, Zoie—so fucking much. If things were different…”
My heart caught, the desire for things to be different nearly overwhelming me. Hope snagged on one of the broken pieces within my chest, causing me to hold my breath and wish for things I’d already been denied.
“I’m sorry they’re not,” he finished, and I lifted my hand to the side of his face. My heart skipped a few beats at the way he automatically turned into my palm, as if he’d never have enough of me.
Given the fact that he’d be leaving for the other side of the world without attempting to put up a fight, he was right, and again, I wanted to argue my point, but that wasn’t what this night was about. “Aww, look at you, figuring out how to use your brain and your heart.”
“I had an amazing guide,” he said, shooting me a panty-melting grin. “Mad fit, too.”
“Ooh, was it Gandalf? Guys with big staffs turn me on.”
His huff of laughter stirred the hair at my temples, and he undid the button and fly of my jeans.
I was absolutely damp from all the foreplay, and a harsh swear escaped his lips as he slipped his fingers inside my panties and discovered as much for himself. I squirmed in his grip as he stroked me, eliciting a deep rumble that emanated through his chest and vibrated from him to me.
“Christ, you’re a vision.” He slowed the drag of his fingers, and I hooked my arm around his neck and draped myself over the front of him, lost to the sublime sensations he evoked in me. “You bring out a side of me I never knew existed.”
I craned my neck to pepper kisses along his jaw, the scrape of whiskers abrading my lips until they were slightly swollen and extra sensitized.
With a twist and flick of his wrist, he removed my bra, but when he looped his fingers in the tiny strings connecting the front and back of my thong, I circled my fingers around his wrist. “You need to catch up on the nakedness.”
I rolled the hem of his shirt in my hands, tugging the fabric upward, and Graham assisted me by gripping the collar at the base of his neck and yanking it up and over his head. It mussed his wavy tresses, giving him a rumpled look only I got to see in moments like this.
His pupils dilated, the debauched gleam in what was left of the green eliciting a rush of adrenaline, sending my fight-or-flight response into overdrive. I could make a good run of it, but Graham would catch me and make me pay, and on second thought, I was very interested in exploring that option.
But then he rolled me onto my back and peeled off my jeans, adding them to the accumulating pile on the floor. We continued to undress each other slowly, taking our time, tracing the grooves, curves, and planes of each other’s bodies with fingertips, mouths, and tongues.
With the devasting finality of his departure hanging between us, clashing urges tugged me one way and then the other—hurry up and devour, or draw out every moment so we could savor it longer.
As soon as he rolled on a condom, I pushed his back to the bed and straddled him, feeling powerful and in control of my sexuality in a way I so rarely did. There was something about Graham—about the two of us together—like the recurring dynamics between the sun and the moon. Venus and Mars.
At the meeting of our cores, we both moaned, the sound of our pleasure spiraling me higher. Bracing my hands on his shoulders, I hovered above him, the head of his cock nudging my entrance.
“Zoie.” His fingers dug into the flesh of my hips, rigid and adamant. “Zoie, you’re driving me fucking mad.”
“Then we're even,” I said on a ragged breath. “Besides, I want to make sure you remember me.”
I slid home and rolled my hips, the pressure and friction so divine the world around me faded in and out of contrast. “I want to make sure you remember this night.” I gripped the headboard and bent closer, until the tips of my hair brushed his shoulders, creating an intimate curtain for just the two of us. “Remember us , and how fucking incredible we were together, if only for a brief stretch of time.”
In the next instant, I’d been flipped onto my back, my sexy Brit now looming over me. The weight of his body pinned me to the mattress, and I couldn’t help but think my perfect weight is Graham Edwards on top of me.
He pistoned his hips and slammed into me again and again, stretching and filling every spare inch of me. I cried out, only for his brutal mouth to slam over mine and give my life new meaning, and it was making love to this man.
I couldn’t believe we had to say goodbye to a connection I’d never felt quite so securely and wholly before.
The sting in my eyes and nose warned there’d be tears if I didn’t change tracks, so I locked eyes with the man moving over me and kept them there.
A delightful tightening sensation raced through my body, curling my toes and causing me to gather fistfuls of the sheets in my hands. It was that moment before the free-fall, when all you could do was brace yourself and enjoy the ride.
Each time Graham withdrew his hard length, I clasped as much fabric in my hands as I could, leveraging myself as I arched my hips to meet his next driving thrust. And just when I thought it couldn’t get any better, he reached between us and found my clit.
At my keening noise, he increased the tempo. Gravity left the building, leaving me levitating. Graham became my tether, my center of the universe, and how cruel of fate not to allow him to be mine in the way I needed most.
Pleasure streaked through me, his plundering strokes amplifying every sinful sensation within me. “I’m so close,” I rasped, and the line of Graham’s jaw snapped tight.
Watching the man who was always in control lose it over me…?
Well, it rocketed me off through space, like the ships in the museum.
In the past few weeks, he’d taken me to new heights and showed me new stars. Shooting stars that were there and gone in a glorious flash, the impact burned into my mind. Rare and phenomenal, just like Graham and I were. Burning this brightly, we might very well consume each other, but I’d choose that option in every single galaxy and timeline.
“Graham, Graham, Graham .” I repeated his name like an affirmation, requesting my anchor in the storm.
And he was there, pumping into me, drawing it out and forcing me to take more pleasure in the torturous minutes before I broke apart, the pressure building and building.
Then I did.
I flew off among the stars, experiencing their glow while surrounded by their warmth as a body-wrenching, soul-rending orgasm ripped through me.
With a wicked grin, Graham drew it out, riding the wave along with me and holding me on my way down.
Once I tumbled to the bed, a heap of boneless, sated limbs, the last thread on his restraint snapped.
He came with a guttural roar, eyelashes fluttering closed and fanning his cheeks. Boyish and vulnerable in an unguarded juncture that was all mine.
Then he fell to the bed next to me and collected my liquid limbs into his arms. His chest rose and fell against my back as he caught his breath, and I’d never been quite so blissfully comfortable and content in my life.
At the bark outside, our time was up, and I’d have to thank my doggie wingman for giving us that stretch of time later.
When I moved to get up, Graham’s binding arm wrapped tighter. “I’ve got it,” he whispered, the bed shifting with his weight.
A minute or so later, he returned to the bed, Nova in tow.
The man I was completely and utterly in love with gathered me into his arms for naked cuddle time while Nova crowded his way in. Happiness filled me bottom to top, but the bittersweet edge refused to go away.
As I lay there, the boys snoozing and snoring away, I placed my hand over my aching heart and did my best to convince myself that even though Graham’s leaving would shatter my heart into a million pieces, I’d somehow find a way to be okay.