Chapter 4 #2
His eyes dilated more as his brown gaze focused on her as if he were a man waiting for a life vest tossed from a ship to save him in the middle of a storm.
“Not here,” he said as he coiled his arms around her waist and stood. “Wrap your legs around me.”
She nodded and did as he said as he carried her down the hall. She took advantage of the moment, dipping her head to kiss and nip at his neck. He tasted of salt and honey and heaven.
When they reached her room, he slowly released her to slide down his solid form. Gooseflesh erupted on her skin as tingles of awareness, arousal, and anticipation surged through her core and limbs.
His mouth crashed down on hers, urgent and hungry and drowning with thirst. She savored every move he made as his strong hands gripped her waist, then inched up, removing her t-shirt with the action.
He pulled back from their kiss to tug the fabric over her head and toss it to the floor. In the muted lamp light, his gaze reflected heat and pinned her with a need so fierce, it sent shivers straight to her toes.
As he leaned in, his lips met hers once more, then trailed kisses across her cheek and to her neck, where he teased and licked and sucked. Fire exploded in her core as he continued and nibbled at the tip of her ear.
She gripped his sides and arched into his touch. His hands roamed, exploring her, caressing her, encompassing her, landing on the waistband of her shorts and underwear and gliding them from her body.
He drew back and feasted his eyes on her as if she were a fancy meal and he’d not eaten in a week. The approval in his stare made her feel desired and treasured.
He shed his clothes—the whole time watching her, drinking her in, lavishing her with longing and lust.
She soaked in the view and admired his form. A body forged in the gym and on the gridiron, a temple built on healthy habits and honed to sinewy perfection. Mason was a god.
Closing the distance between them, she trailed her hand across his rock-solid abs and up to his chest, where her hand rested above his heart, the thing she cherished most in the world. His eyes indicated that he felt it, too, a connection so deep that time and hurt couldn’t erase or diminish it.
Then, they were a tangle of limbs, feeling, exploring, worshipping each other. He backed her to the bed and gently guided her down. She lay, and he examined her as his chest rose and fell in a beat out of time with his typical calm and cool.
She reached up for him to join her, and he gave her his smile, but it was different. The curve of his lips still melted her, but at this moment, they smoldered her insides with yearning. Then he pulled back abruptly.
“Oh, hell. Stay right there,” he said, then emphasized, “Do. Not. Move.” He turned and rushed from the room, returning mere seconds later with his wallet. After ripping a foil packet from the inside pocket, he tossed it across the room to her dresser.
When he climbed next to her, he groaned as he again surveyed her curves and body, memorizing the smoothness and dips and arches of her bare flesh and awakening her senses fully.
As he clasped her cheeks in his hands, he turned her face to him. “Are you certain?”
“Yes,” was all she could rasp out, then her tongue darted out to wet her lips.
He nodded, then positioned himself between her legs, ripped open the package, and put on the condom.
Their eyes met, and nothing else existed.
He lowered himself. With one measured push, he was inside her, and pleasure consumed Emma.
He stilled for what began as a second—then the moment stretched into a perfect moment of time where they were in sync, a snatch of time worth waiting an eternity for.
Mason’s hand cradled her face as he studied her, his eyes swimming with need and emotion and something that broke the wall she’d built around her heart.
With each thrust, a new emotion burst from somewhere she’d hidden inside; longing replaced by contentment, hurt replaced by hope, loss replaced by fulfillment, unreturned love replaced by unconditional love.
There was no denying it to herself. She still loved him. Always would.
She dug in, savoring each second that his pelvis rubbed against her clit, his penis filling and completing her, his passion igniting sparks of rapture.
And… she was falling into nirvana, into sated bliss.
Her breath caught and released in short, strangled gasps as she let the ecstasy pull her under. As she did, Mason’s gaze fixed on her, and his strokes became erratic. It sounded as though he said, “Em,” before he was panting, and his whole body went rigid with tension as he came.
Mason stayed on top of her, caressing her cheek, kissing her lips, watching her as if she were his salvation.
A few moments later, he rolled to her side and said, “Let me get rid of this.” He stood and walked over to her bathroom trash, then returned and turned off the lamp.
Just as Mason was returning to the bed, a phone on her nightstand buzzed. It lit up the room like an emergency flare at a crash site.
Her chest tightened.
Fear and the rotten, festering memories of being abandoned enveloped with the stench of panic.
Mason reached for the phone.
Her eyes stung, and her stomach churned.
But she was going to be a woman now, and she’d prepared herself with no expectations for the future. Still, she’d held out hope.
The phone buzzed again.
She wanted to weep with the unfairness of it.
Mason silenced his phone and set it face down on her nightstand. Her eyes watered with joy and relief. He wouldn’t take off like before. He wanted to be here with her.
He settled in and cradled her close, his arm wrapped protectively around her. “We have so much to talk about,” he said.
“Tomorrow,” Emma pleaded. “I just want to enjoy this right now.”
“In the morning, then.” He kissed the top of her head, then inhaled.
Before long, she was asleep.
And when she woke… Mason was gone.