Chapter 19
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Erika
The tension between us evaporates in an instant as my body reacts in ways only he can evoke. No one kisses with a blend of gentle dominance and power quite like him. Although I’ve only felt his lips on mine a few times, his kisses leave me speechless and seem to steal the air from my lungs.
I remove my hands from my eyes at the same time as he settles on top of me, and I make room for his wide body to move between my legs.
Controlled as always, he takes his time exploring my mouth, his gentle movements unrushed as his lips slowly and tenderly slant over mine.
I moan when our tongues meet for the first time in what feels like forever, licking and tasting, twisting and turning around each other lazily, like long-lost lovers greeting again.
Because that’s what we are, and I don’t understand why we’ve denied this connection for so long.
If I get to kiss Leon for the rest of my life, it still won’t be enough, and I sigh as sheer bliss runs through my veins.
His touch, his lips, everything feels so different yet so familiar—his kiss filled with promises and things we’ve left unsaid for years, bringing an end to the self-inflicted punishment we’ve endured.
It’s monumental, as everything is about to change between us; a shift in the tide or the world tipping on its axis. I want to cherish every second, every millisecond of it all.
I thread my fingers into his wavy hair, pulling him closer and pressing his face against mine, feeling the need to devour him.
Every nerve ending in my body wakes up because his kisses make me feel like my whole body is on fire; my skin is about to burst into flames.
I let out a long moan when he presses his hard, naked body against mine, his fully erect cock resting between us. I lift my leg and wrap it around his waist, pulling him closer, wanting every part of him to touch me.
Our kiss goes on endlessly, as we relish the moment because we have all the time in the world. We’re going on vacation together; we have hours, days, to relearn everything we thought we knew about each other. Hopefully more, but it’s a start.
In contrast to the way he kisses, his hips thrust with urgency, with the desperate need to chase his release.
This promotes a deep growl to rumble through his chest, and I gasp when he rubs my pantie-covered pussy with his cock, flooding my body with euphoria and an ache so deep in my core I could come from just another few thrusts of dry humping.
“Leon.” I lowly moan his name between our tongue tangles.
He pushes my T-shirt upward and pulls it off my body, only breaking our mouths for a few seconds.
I arch my back when he cups my breast, then rolls my nipple between his fingertips, making it pebble. I try not to freak out because we are taking a huge leap, and I don’t think there’s a way back for us—only forward.
The way he moves his hand from my nipple and brushes his fingertips across the outer edge of my breast sends shivers down my spine because his touch is much softer than I ever imagined.
He slowly glides his hand up my chest, tickling my skin before wrapping his hand around my neck and giving it a gentle squeeze, causing a buzz of excitement to radiate through my body, with every hair standing on end, craving his attention.
He unexpectedly pulls back, and I search his eyes through the darkness.
More intense than I have ever seen him, he stares at me, his look full of meaning.
“I hate hearing you cry, baby. I never meant to upset you.” Using the pad of his thumb, he brushes away my tears from under my eyes that I had long forgotten.
“You didn’t. It’s just, this, us, it’s a lot, Leon. And I don’t want to play games anymore or sidestep around the truth.”
“I’m not playing any games. You’re it for me.” Then he says, “Soft lights on.”
With his gentle command, the sidelamps turn on, and as if I’m seeing him for the first time again, he looks even more handsome as he stares at me, passion and intensity shimmering in his eyes.
He pauses for a moment, as if choosing his words carefully, confidently, looking down at me. “Look at me when I say this, because I mean it, Erika.” His face is unsmiling, his eyes flicker between mine in the gentle light. “My heart is yours.”
I inhale a sharp breath. He’s already told me this, but it’s like I’m hearing him loud and clear for the first time.
He adds, “It destroyed me the day you told me you were engaged. It messed me up so fucking bad.”
Everything falls into place. “Is that why you ghosted me for weeks afterwards?”
“Yeah.” He rests his forehead against mine, then shakes his head slightly. “I would have died inside if you’d married him.”
His raw proclamation of love has me inhaling a sharp gasp of astonishment, leaving me totally entranced by his confession.
I wish he had told me sooner. Hell, I wish I had spoken up earlier, and we could have saved each other so much pain and hurt over the years.
Sadness clouds his eyes, and my stomach clenches when he admits, “I was physically sick before I left for the church. For months, I’ve tried to come up with a million different ways to stop the wedding without appearing like a complete bastard.
I thought you loved him, so I wouldn’t have done that to you, and as much as it hurt, I knew I had to let you go.
” The weight of his heartfelt words makes all the shadows across my heart disappear, and peace, unlike anything I’ve ever felt before, wraps around me like a warm blanket as if an invisible thread connects me to him.
I can’t believe he would have let me marry Huck, even if it made him unhappy.
His next question reveals his insecurities: “Swear to me that you don’t love him?”
“I don’t love him. There has only ever been space for one person inside my heart too.” My hand cups his face. “It’s only ever been you, Leon.”
A smirk then gives way to a full-on smile, shaping his lips. “Tell me again. Say the words you said earlier.”
He presses me to repeat my words that slipped out before our kiss.
“I love you.” That’s scary to finally admit, and saying it out loud makes happiness fill my body from my toes up to every follicle of hair on my head.
My body relaxes, and for the first time in years, I’m being honest about how I feel about Leon, making me feel lighter and freer.
“I love you, Erika.” It’s the words I’ve longed to hear.
“I love you, too.” It’s the unshakeable truth.
It’s impossible to push this thing between us away any longer.
“Kiss me,” I whisper as his lips hover above mine. I want him to devour me.
He wastes no time, and we kiss and kiss and kiss.
It’s messy and dirty and feels sinful as we grind our hips together and explore each other’s bodies with our curious hands.
Eventually, after what feels like hours but is probably only minutes, our kiss slows again.
He shifts his attention, brushing his lips across the apple of my cheek, one and then the other, then my forehead, my temple, before laying a trail of kisses across my jaw toward my ear, where he mutters softly against the shell, “For years, I’ve replayed what it would feel like to kiss you again. ”
“Me too,” I pant breathlessly, trying to ignore the way he’s rubbing my clit with his hard length, which is impressive and big enough to have me walking funny for days. I’m sure of it.
His jaw tightens when he clenches his teeth, and I can tell he’s desperately trying to hold himself back from fucking me. I wish he would, because the two of us are so worked up, making me feel like a teenager all over again, but his parents are sleeping down the hall. We can’t.
“God, that feels so good.” I gasp, tilting my neck to the side, inviting him to lick, bite, kiss, do anything he’ll give me, which he does until I’m rocking my hips against his with wild abandon. We should stop, but my body and mind really need to get the memo.
“Shhhh. You’ll wake my parents up.” On outstretched arms, he stops kissing me and looks at me with worried eyes crinkled at the edges. “I don’t want to fuck this up with you. You have my word; I’ll take care of your heart.”
With every bone in my body, every beat of my heart, I love this man.
“And we can take things slow,” he suggests.
I laugh, then say, “I’m almost completely naked.
This isn’t slow.” I run my hands through his floppy locks I’ve always had a soft spot for.
“But I think that’s a great idea. Although from what I can tell so far, I quite like the look of your penis, and I might need to see it sooner.
” Heat floods my cheeks. Oh, great, as if I haven’t embarrassed myself enough, now I seem to have a case of verbal diarrhea.
“Sorry, I mean, it’s big, sorry, not big, thick, nope, that’s not what I meant either, it’s… ”
He makes me lose all train of thought when he pushes his hips into mine again, my arousal soaking my panties. “You can have a look at him now if you want.”
“I thought we were taking things slow?” I’m so tempted to look, but instead, my insecurities spill out. “And you’ve never seen me naked before.”
“I don’t need to see you naked to know I’m already obsessed with you.” His eyes respectfully stay glued to mine.
I let out a contented sigh, and for a moment, I consider that this might not be real, but I somehow stepped into a weird dimension days ago, and now I’m living out my dream. This is exactly what I’ve wanted for as long as I can remember.
“There’s no harm in looking.” He teases the head of his cock against my lace-covered clit, harder this time and with the perfect amount of pressure that allows me to feel his piercing rub against it. “Just looking, but you do have permission to touch if you want.” He grunts.
I really want to because taking things slow has never sounded so dreadful.
He dips his chin, gesturing to the space between us, and I glance down without needing to be told twice.
“Holy shit,” I say the first thing that comes to mind, then, “It’s big.” And beautiful and velvety looking. Unable to stop myself, I move my hand between us to touch him for the first time.
“It’ll fit,” he replies confidently, hissing when my fingers brush across the tip of his cock. “Do you like the piercing?” There’s a wild gruffness in his question. And I watch with fascination as a pearl of precum beads from the tip, the shiny jewelry glinting at me, as if begging me to touch it.
“Yes.” I hiss when he cups my pussy over my panties, and just when I think he’s going to push his hand inside of them, instead, he stops and travels his lips down my body, moving his cock away from my desperate fingers before he sucks my exposed nipple into his mouth.
Licking it gently with his tongue, he flicks it, lashing at it with urgency, cupping my tit with his hand, and rolling my other nipple between his deft fingers.
My body aches for him to touch me everywhere.
“You’re so fucking beautiful.” Leon bites my nipple harder than I expected, making them pucker into tighter peaks.
I lay my arm over my mouth to muffle my moans of ecstasy as a delicious hit of pleasure shoots through me, sending a rush of arousal flooding between my legs.
“We shouldn’t be doing this,” Leon says, moving further down my body, kissing my stomach.
He stops just above the waistline of my panties.
“We should take our time.” He drags his nose down over the fabric, inhaling me so deep he’ll smell how turned on I am.
Then he does something completely unexpected—he tongues my clit through the thin fabric.
My back arches off the bed, and my fingers dig into his scalp to keep him there as I move my foot on top of his shoulder.
“Greedy girl.” His warm breath against my skin feels hotter than a volcano.
“Not yet.” He licks me again, causing a surge of energy to course through my core, before he moves upward again, bracketing me with his body.
“Patience.” He bites his bottom lip between his teeth suggestively.
My endurance is wearing thin. If he doesn’t let me come soon, I might have a full-on chemical explosion.
So, we really are taking this slow? Goddammit. He’s right, but I hate that for us.
Although I’ve been waiting half my life for him, so what do a few more days, weeks, or months matter?
Months? Hell no. I won’t wait that long. I understand why, and it makes sense, but the sexual chemistry between us has always been there. By admitting how we feel, we’ve turned the dial to a hundred. I’m both ready and not all at once.
Staring at the beautiful man above me, the man I’ve spent almost every day with since I was eighteen, I note the vein in his neck pulses hard as if he’s doing everything within his power to restrain himself.
“I want to date you… properly,” he states firmly.
Swoon.
I lay my hand on his solid shoulder and stare into his emerald eyes that are my kryptonite. He glides his nose down mine.
“I love the sound of us dating,” I tell him. I want every ounce of romance. The dates, the walking hand in hand with him in the rain, the snow, meals out, movie nights, everything. We’ve been doing this for years, minus the kissing and intimacy. Now I want it all.
His mouth is close enough again that I can see the fair stubble that frames his wickedly sexy lips. I close the small distance, planting a soft kiss on them.
“We’re doing this,” he whispers against my mouth as he nods.
“Yes.” Finally.
“And we take things slow.”
“Yes.” With his still hard cock resting between us, I’d agree to anything and happily let him fuck me into next week with that piercing of his. But not now.
Reassuringly, neither of us is willing to destroy what we already have; instead, we plan to make it even more beautiful than it is now.