28. Penny
TWENTY-EIGHT
PENNY
He loved me.
My head was swimming with whiplash from the last thirty minutes. How was it possible Maize had seen for years what I had missed, and how was it possible I had this man right there in front of me, not only seeing it but taking action? My eyes stung from the pain of my tears and my chest ached, but as Gavin kissed me, gently tugged at the knot at the front of my towel and pressed his hand to my skin, nothing else mattered.
I gripped his biceps and rolled to my back, forcing him to come with me, and once the weight of his body settled on mine, all the broken cracks inside my heart and my body began mending themselves together.
Gavin Kelley loved me.
He would be the kind of man who ensured I went a lifetime with feeling no pain, and if I somehow did, it would not only not come from him, but he’d ensure it was corrected.
My eyes stung with more tears, but I forced them down and slid my hands to his cheeks, down the sides of his corded throat and firm and toned shoulders.
“I love you,” I rasped against his mouth.
He responded with a smirk, gazing down at my eyes. “I love you, too, Penny.”
And oh dear God. I wanted this. I wanted him and I wanted us connected. I wanted everything this man had to give me, so feeling boldness once again, I licked my lips. “Make love to me, Gavin. Please?”
His head fell forward and settled against mine. “I was waiting for the perfect moment. The right time.”
“There is no perfect moment or time. Perfection comes from what you do with the moments you’re given.”
He was teaching me that. His family’s love for each other taught me that. The way he loved Josie was an ardent reminder every single day and time I saw them together.
This man was everything, and in giving him my heart, it wouldn’t only be protected, he’d ensure it was never broken again.
My body heated as he kissed me, and my core pulsed with desire. Gavin didn’t argue, and although he didn’t agree, his kisses turned needy and hard and soon, I was spread on top of my towel, my nakedness exposed to him. Gavin sat back to his knees and brushed his large, strong and calloused palms over my stomach, around my breasts. He tracked his movements with reverence in his gaze and settled his hand at my chest. “Do you know how precious this is to me?”
“I do.”
“It’s safe with me,” he said, and I couldn’t tear my eyes off the intensity in his eyes, the cut of his jaw, and the ferocious way he looked at me.
I covered his hand with mine. My heart raced beneath his. “I know that.”
“You’re sure? About this? Now? Because in all honesty, I was going to wait until tonight and give you all of this.”
“I don’t want to wait.” I’d waited a lifetime for this kind of care and love. Waiting longer would be pointless, and then it occurred to me. “You have to go to work.”
He smirked and bent down, rested on an elbow next to me so he was close enough to kiss me. “They can manage it for a day.”
“Okay then.” I grinned up at him, breathless.
Gavin kissed me. He dove his tongue into my mouth and wiped away my nerves and my fears. He filled me with love and compassion and true, pure hope of a future I could never have quite imagined even on my hardest days of trying.
Our hands roamed each other’s bodies. We touched and teased, and he brought me to the crest with his fingers and then his hands. Our bodies slickened with sweat and heat, and as he climbed off the bed, discarded his briefs and pulled a condom from his wallet, I watched every single beautiful moment of him covering himself.
Protecting me.
He climbed back onto the bed, pushed my legs farther apart, and trailed his lips up my legs. He kissed every inch of me, my calves, the backs of my knees.
A shudder of pleasure swam through me, making me restless with need to move and to enjoy and to soak in every moment of this experience, and then he was there, pressing into me.
My eyes rolled back into my head and my hips bucked, seeking him, aching for him.
“Please,” I rasped and wrapped my hands around his wrists. His thighs. I touched him anywhere I could as he gazed down at my body he was entering.
My body stretched, stung as I accepted him, then Gavin leaned down. He braced his hand next to my shoulder, pushing in farther. “God, you feel incredible.”
He felt glorious as he moved. His face was twisted with concentration, his arm muscles strained from holding back, and as my body relaxed beneath him, I leaned up and brushed my lips to his jaw.
“Let go, Gavin. I want this.”
His eyes speared me for a moment, and I hoped like hell he saw the desperate need in them.
And then he bent. He slammed his way fully inside, kissed away my cry, and then the man moved.
I arched my back, rolled my hips. We worked together, in tandem, to find that perfect rhythm. Our tongues tangled together.
He swallowed my cries and grunted his own excitement, and then I was there, thighs stretched and burning. A furious heat rose in my belly, spreading to my limbs. My core pulsed around him, and I yanked my mouth off his as my orgasm hit.
“Gavin!”
I cried and dug my nails into his lower back.
He picked up his pace as I came. I shattered beneath him while he sought his own release and just as my climax crested, his own hit.
He slammed into me, the force making me flinch and spin into a beautiful vortex where there was only him and me and the new love growing between us.
“I love you,” he moaned as he came, thrusting into me and seating himself so deep I’d feel him just like this for months to come in my mind’s memory.
I kissed the hinge of his jaw, his cheek. He turned and gave me his mouth, and our kiss went from fervent to slow and sweet as our hearts raced and the last remaining twinges of the pleasure he pulled from me dissipated.
“That was incredible,” I finally whispered. “So good.”
Gavin chuckled, kissed my shoulder, my jaw, and then the tip of my nose before he hugged me tight and rolled so I was above him.
“We’ll have a very long time ahead together to perfect.”
I didn’t think it could get much better than that. But knowing Gavin, he’d ensure he made it so.
“I want that,” I said right back with a hopeful smile on my face.
“Then that’s exactly what I’ll give you.”
I didn’t doubt him for a second.