Chapter 39 Val
VAL
Without a word, Carter grabbed my luggage and my hand, intertwining our fingers.
“Hello to you too,” I said. “Where are we going?”
“To the car, and then my apartment. We need to talk.”
My heart had been in my throat ever since our text exchange. He hadn’t even made one move to kiss me, but he’d taken my hand. That had to be a good sign, right?
I took in the sight of him, all tall and handsome, walking with determined strides. God, how I loved this man.
The drive was a nerve-wracking and awkward affair. He’d said he wanted to talk, but he wasn’t saying anything. He was so close, and yet he seemed far. To mask my growing restlessness, I started talking about my trip. By the time we entered the apartment, I was on pins and needles.
When he closed the door to the apartment, I blurted, “Carter, are you angry with me?”
He placed the luggage next to the door before turning to me. His jaw was tight. “What do you think?”
I swallowed, leaning back against the wall, looking down at my hands. When I heard him approach, I blinked up. He braced both palms on the wall, next to my shoulders. He was so close now that our lips were almost touching.
“I thought you were leaving me, Val. Do you know how that felt?”
My eyes widened. “Oh, God, Carter. I hadn’t thought about that. I’m sorry. That was never my intention. I’d just thought….”
“What?”
In a small voice, I admitted, “I was afraid that maybe you’d asked me to reconsider things because you were reconsidering them too. I know I can be overbearing and poke my nose in everything, and… I mean, I practically moved in. We’d never even talked about it, but my shit was everywhere.”
He unhitched his hands from the wall, cupping my face instead.
He captured my mouth with his, and the contact electrified me.
He was passionate and demanding, his tongue stroking mine until my hands were fumbling at the hem of his T-shirt, desperate to feel skin.
Before I knew it, Carter had lifted me off the ground, throwing me over his shoulder.
“Carter, are you crazy?” I half laughed, half shrieked.
“You are driving me crazy.”
He walked to the bedroom, lowering me directly on the bed, then climbing over me, pinning me to the mattress. His knees were at the sides of my thighs, his forearms caging in my torso.
“Trust me to love every part of you, Val, because I swear that I will. Forever.”
I melted into him, wrapping my arms around his neck, holding him close. “I promise to trust you, but I want the same promise from you in return.”
“I promise.”
“You thought I left?”
He closed his eyes. “It was a weak moment. Won’t happen again.”
He kissed me again, just as urgently as before, then moved his mouth to my throat, descending to my chest. He’d somehow managed to gather my dress around my waist, and then he pulled it over my head.
His gaze roamed over me once, and then he rained kisses on my collarbone, stopping at the ribbon holding together my bra cups and popping it open.
He tormented one nipple with his tongue, the other with his fingers.
I bucked my hips, but Carter pushed them into the mattress with one hand, taking control.
“As to the other part, you’re right. We’ve never discussed you living here. Let’s rectify that immediately.”
“Right now?” I cried.
“I have the upper hand right now, so hell, yes.”
“No, you don’t,” I challenged, even though my entire body felt ablaze.
He looked at me with a devilish smile, moving to kiss between my breasts. I kept my composure and quirked a brow to prove my point. In response, Carter nudged my thighs apart, settling between them.
“Back to our discussion. Let’s make moving in together official. I don’t care if we live here, at your house, or if we buy something new.”
“I don’t care either. I just want us to be together.”
“I would walk into City Hall with you right now and marry you.”
“You would?”
“Yes.”
Oh, be still my beating heart.
“I’d love to,” I whispered. “But I think Lori might kill us both. She’s been mentally planning my and Hailey’s weddings for years.”
He laughed against my skin, then moved his mouth lower along my body until his jaw was pressing against my pubic bone, and then lower still, peeling off my panties.
We were a tangle of limbs as we removed his clothes together.
I went on a mission to map his body. I managed a trail of kisses to his navel before Carter pushed me on my back, aligning our bodies.
The tip of his erection was pushing at my entrance, and I needed him inside me so badly that I was close to begging. I rolled my hips, but Carter pulled back, smiling like the devil he was.
“You’re too impatient. I want to explore you first. I’ve missed you.”
Before I could object, he brought his mouth to one breast, his fingers between my legs. I gripped the headboard behind me with both hands at the first strokes of his tongue against my nipple. When he pressed his thumb on my clit, a spasm of pleasure rocked through me. My inner muscles pulsed madly.
When he finally, finally slid inside me, he did it so slowly that my thighs shook from anticipation, from the intensity of it all.
I wasn’t going to lose him. He was mine. He wanted to be mine, to love me and be on the receiving end of my love.
I cried out when he slid into me those last few inches.
I came apart at the seams one thrust at a time.
Every sensation was magnified. I was feeling everything so intensely that I could barely breathe through the pleasure.
My inner muscles tightened when I felt him starting to swell inside me.
I climaxed so hard that my senses were off-balance, and I drew him into a kiss, moving in sync with him until I took him with me over the edge.
A few minutes passed before either of us spoke. We were both curled on one side. Carter had an arm around me.
“I’ve missed holding you like this. Watching you sleep, waking up and spying as you get dressed in the dark,” he said.
“You spy on me?”
“Yes.”
“Every morning?” I clarified.
“And every evening. And if you happen to change in between, I spy on you then too.”
“Isn’t spying illegal?”
“You’re so fucking sexy and lovely that it would be illegal not to spy on you.”
I shimmied against him and was startled when I felt his raging erection against my back. “Again?”
“I told you I’ve missed you. I’m going to spend the next few days showing you just how much.”
“You’re such a sweet talker. All to keep me in bed.”
“You’re holding it against me?”
I turned around to face him, hugging my pillow with an arm. “Umm, no. Is my lying here naked not enough proof that you’ve won me over with your devious plans?”
He rolled us over until I was under him, pressing every inch of that delicious chest against mine. “Nah, I’m going to demand more proof.”
“I’m more than happy to provide it.”