Chapter Twenty-Two #2
“Shutting people out isn’t living. It’s going through the motions, and that’s depressing and dangerous.
You see, I think we’re more alike than different.
” His lips whispered over my hair. “My parents let me down in the worst way possible, making me a bitter, cold person. I used sex like others used alcohol or drugs. All those bodies numbed the pain of being alone, but only for a moment. And if I thought it could be something more, I had such little faith in myself after hearing my father’s ugly words in my head, that I sabotaged it, preferring to walk away than risk being left again. ”
I pressed my lips to his warm skin. “Maybe we didn’t like each other on sight because we recognized we were kindred souls. And it was too scary to admit, so we sniped at each other and fought the attraction.”
Had it only been a few months since this all had begun? Yes, it was fast, but I’d waited forty years to find someone who challenged me, and when I fought back, didn’t give up but came after me, wanting more.
“Well, you’re the smart one, n’est-ce pas? I’m just the hockey guy who slaps pucks away from the net.”
“Talk about never letting things go,” I grumbled, and he kissed my cheek.
“I do it because I know it bugs you, and you’re very cute when I annoy you.
” He tightened his hold on me, and I sensed there was more to that than our simple banter.
“I talked to Gil today. My parents called him after I was injured, to find out what he knew. He told them to contact me, but of course they never did.”
Dammit. “I’m sorry. We don’t have to keep talking about what Adrian said. It doesn’t matter.”
Denis continued speaking as if he didn’t hear me. “I’m so afraid when Gil leaves me, there’ll be no one who knows me and will ever care about me again.”
A chill ran through me, and I shifted in his arms. “I care. And I’d like to get to know you better.”
I could barely make out the shadow of his smile. “This is me. The good, the bad, and the ugly.”
“Underneath all our ugly is beauty waiting to be freed.” I ran my lips over his wet cheek and kissed the tears resting on his lashes. “Let me free you. Because I think you’re so beautiful. Outside and in.”
Our kiss was soft and gentle, almost as if we were new lovers.
Perhaps we were now that the masks were off and the shields thrown aside.
One big hand cupped my cheek while my arm slid around his neck to steady us.
I gave as well as took, sucking his tongue and pushing mine past his lips.
He tasted like everything I’d been missing all my life. Love. Desire. A home.
“Please don’t walk away from me,” he whispered. “I knew something was wrong when you wouldn’t talk to me all day.”
“I’m learning. And I’ll try my hardest to never shut you out again.”
That potential cable news job offer crossed my mind, but I’d barely given it a second thought since the morning.
I should check the email Charles sent, but I had little desire to move.
Denis and I were having the most important discussion of our new relationship, and I was loath to stop it for something trivial.
“I couldn’t bear if you left me, if in the future I’d be forced to see you kissing someone else…
falling in love with someone who wasn’t me.
” He covered my mouth with his, and I tangled my fingers in that glorious hair and gave in to the overpowering hunger to open myself up and give Denis everything he wanted.
“Don’t you know by now I’m a stubborn bastard?” I said, and he nipped at my lower lip. I pulled off his sweatshirt to run my hands over his thickly muscled chest. “I don’t give up when I want something.”
“I thought that was only a news story.” He took hold of my partly open shirt and ripped it down the middle, sending buttons popping in all directions.
Fuck, that was sexy.
“You are my top story. Beginning, middle, and end.” I tugged him close and kissed him, leaving us gasping for air.
“I want you.” Denis’s husky rasp hit my ear, and I hissed.
“Bedroom.”
We ran and hit the bed so hard, both of us bounced. He landed on top of me and pinned my arms above my head. “Tell me how much you want me.”
There was no ego in that statement, not with a fire blazing from his eyes so hot, I could’ve sworn it singed my skin. Sweat broke out from my pores.
“I’m not sure words exist to describe that feeling.” I hooked my leg around his knee and yanked him so we were pressed skin-to-skin. “Even for someone who makes his living with them. So I’ll have to show you.”
I kissed him and slid my hands under the waistband of his sweats. He helped me pull them off, along with his briefs, and I gripped his thick, wet cock.
“Hurry,” I whispered, and his devilish grin released such a rush of unprecedented emotions, I had to stop him from getting off the bed. I had to tell him. Right then. I grabbed his arm. “Denis.”
He turned from reaching for the nightstand drawer and sat next to me. “Quoi?”
I sat up and held his face to mine. “I love you. Please never doubt it or me again.”
A beautiful smile lit up his face. “Je t’aime. Je t’aime.” He kissed me until we laughed from the sheer joy of being together, and I wondered how I’d lived without this happiness for so long.
He took out the condom and the lube while I removed my pants and hung them on the valet next to my bed. Both of us now fully naked, we lay together kissing and touching. Hands sliding on hot bare skin, grasping and teasing, bringing long-dead nerves to life.
“Please,” I begged, shameless for him as he played with me, two fingers pumping inside my passage. “Denis, I need you.”
“I love to hear that. Say it again.”
“I need you. I want you. Fuck me, come on,” I demanded, and he chuckled.
“So eager. So perfect.” He kissed me, hard at first, licking into my mouth, turning gentle until I was half-wild with lust.
He flipped me so I was on all fours, and I buried my head in my arms while he held my ass spread wide.
Something wet and soft touched my hole, and I moaned as he played his tongue along my rim before nudging inside.
A year ago, the sounds he made…the noises I made, would’ve made me blush. Now, for the first time, I was alive.
“Oh my God,” I gasped. My entire world focused on the spot he mercilessly teased.
I spiraled away to a place of pure sensation, my body screaming for release.
He reached under me and stroked my shaft only for a moment before I fell apart.
In my half-awake state, I felt him enter my aching body, and I clenched tight around him as his sank into me, inch by inch.
“Ahhh, so good. So good.” Denis covered my body, his thick hair spilling over my shoulders as he moved slowly at first, then picking up speed, thrusting hard, touching that spot deep within my body that brought me to life again. I pushed to his pull, gave him my body for whatever he wanted.
He throbbed, hot and heavy, and came with a sigh, his face buried in my neck. “I play every game to win, but this is no game, and I’m not playing.”
“Neither am I.”