CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR #2
I pulled back, running my hands over his broad chest, relishing the feel of his muscles under my palms and taking in the ink he always kept covered. His skin was a puzzle, one image bleeding into another, overlapping and twisting together. But as I searched, I found item after item tucked away.
Suddenly, I knew why he never went shirtless. Not to spar at the gym or even on pool days at Cope’s. He always said the sun was bad for his ink, but I knew the truth now.
It wasn’t just the sparrow behind his ear or the strawberry on his arm. Dogwood blossoms covered his chest. My necklace—the arrow—was woven around a realistic heart over where his lay. I saw packages of strawberry Sour Patch Kids and gummy bears.
There was a little first-aid kit like the one I’d carried with me to school every day to doctor his wounds.
And the Band-Aids themselves were scattered over his ribs.
A set of lips that were also a bow adorned his right pec.
And so many other hidden gems I knew it would take me weeks—if not months—to discover.
And then I stilled completely. There was a portrait of me, my head tipped back, and my eyes closed as if I were soaking in the sun.
“Kyler,” I croaked.
“I needed to feel you with me. Even when you weren’t mine to touch. To have and hold. I needed to feel you.” He took my hand and lowered it to his thigh.
He traced our fingers over a single band of scrawl I recognized. My handwriting. My name. Over and over around his thick corded muscles.
“You’ve always owned me, Sparrow. I just wanted to remember that. Have your brand on me forever.”
My fingers ghosted over his thigh, my words, my writing, my name. “When?” I croaked.
“Since the day I turned eighteen.”
I forced my gaze to his. “Kyler.”
“I love you. I’ve always loved you.”
Pleasure and pain warred in equal measure. “I love you, too. It’s always been you.”
My fingers encircled his dick, gliding up and down. Kye’s eyes fluttered closed, his head tipping back. “You’re my undoing.”
I kissed the hollow of his throat. “And you’re mine.”
I tightened my grip, and he groaned. “Sparrow, you keep doing that, and it’ll be over before it starts.”
I grinned against his neck. “I could get used to that sort of power.”
Kye’s arm went around my waist, forcing me to release him as he lifted me, backing us up until we reached the bench at the rear of the glass enclosure.
He lowered himself to the stone and lifted me to straddle him.
His fingers found my slit as his eyes found my face.
“Most beautiful creature to walk this Earth. All willowy lines and gentle curves.”
His hand lifted to palm my breast, his thumb circling the hard peak. “Gonna make a study of all the ways you react to every touch. Gonna memorize the way you bend and bow.”
“Kyler,” I breathed as his fingers circled my opening.
“Never heard my name spoken with love until you gave me the syllables in that music that’s only yours.”
My eyes burned, pressure building there and everywhere. “Please.”
“You ready for this, Sparrow? Finding out what we make together?”
“I’ve been waiting for this moment for more than half my life.
” Saying the words aloud made me realize it was something I could mourn.
But I refused to look at it that way—as everything we’d lost. Instead, I chose to see it as what it was.
Revel in the knowledge that we’d never take these gifts for granted because we’d lived without them for so long.
I steadied myself with a hand on Kye’s shoulder as I lifted the other to his mouth. My fingers traced his bottom lip, wanting to feel what it did as we cemented this thing between us.
“You’re leading the way,” Kye rasped. “Telling me what you want, what you need. If it’s too much, we can stop at any time. We have forever to find our way.”
Tears filled my eyes as he guided himself to my entrance. His tip nestled there, but Kye didn’t rush; he let me lead, just as he said he would. “Take your time. There’s no hurry.”
It was hard not to, feeling all the need I’d stored up for years bearing down on me.
But I didn’t want to miss a thing. My fingertips hovered over his lips as I slowly sank down onto Kye.
I took it all in, the stretch, the flicker of pain, the fullness, and then I felt what I always did with Kye … everything.
His amber eyes didn’t stray from mine as he fully seated himself in me. “Never felt more than this moment. More than knowing we’re bonded in every possible way. Sparrow …”
My mouth met his as I started to move. That pressure and hint of pain shifted to pure heat, my blood coming alive under the fire Kyler lit in me.
I took and took until I had to rip my mouth from his to suck in air. My back arched as I took him deeper.
“That’s my girl, finding exactly what she needs and giving it back to me.” He leaned forward, sucking a nipple into his mouth. A whole new sensation lit inside me.
Sparks danced through every nerve ending as I picked up speed. Kye joined me there, in the give-and-take we created together. Everything in me spun tighter.
“The way you move,” Kye ground out. “Like we were made to dance, just like this.”
“Because … we … were.” I struggled to get the words out with so much building inside me. There was so much feeling, it was almost pain.
“Sparrow,” he croaked. “Find it with me. Let go.”
His thumb circled my clit once, twice, and on the third pass, everything in me shattered. Shards of me, of him, of us, cascaded around us. Kye arched into me, planting himself deeper as he came. We lost ourselves in each other, but what we found was something entirely new.
And it was us. Like a camera lens finally coming into focus or a kaleidoscope dial clicking into place. The world changed in a split second, and there was only beauty.