Chapter Twenty-Seven Lyra #2
I reached out my hands. “Gimmee,” I demanded, and his smile was wicked.
“Let’s get this dress off you. I suspect you’ll be less than happy with me if I rip it.”
“No, I wouldn’t like that. I bought this in France.
” I stood up and turned, pulling my hair to the side, and shivered when his lips met the back of my neck.
My body felt languid and excited, little pulses of pleasure keeping my nerves alight.
Rab unzipped the back of my dress, and cool air hit my skin.
“Holy… hell, Lyra. Are you trying to give a man a heart attack?” Rab’s voice at my back was a rasp in the dimly lit room, and I looked over my shoulder at him as my dress dropped to the floor. I stepped out and turned, and Rab froze, his eyes on my body.
“What?” I asked, looking down at myself. I had a matching pale pink silk set on—well, I’d had the set on, but my pants had disappeared with my stockings. Delicate lace edged the silk of my bra.
“You’re a miracle. A walking fucking miracle,” Rab choked out.
I reached up to cup my breasts.
“You like this bra?”
“I like you. And anything you put on your gorgeous body.” Rab came forward, and where I’d thought he’d rush, he slowed instead.
I saw the moment his face twisted, anger flashing.
“Och, don’t.” I went to cover the jagged scar at my side. The stitches had already magically dissolved, but the scar was bright pink and puckered against the creamy white skin of my side.
“No,” Rab said, taking my hand away. Bending, he pressed a soft kiss to the wound, tracing his hand lightly around it. “You’re beautiful, Lyra. All of you. Even this. Do you still have pain? I shouldn’t have carried you.”
“Sloane’s going to kill you.” I tried to inject some levity, but his eyes came up to mine, his face serious.
“She should. I shouldn’t have been so rough with you.”
“You weren’t rough, Rab. Truly. I’ve healed up quite a bit. Aside from this, that is.” I looked down at the ugly scar.
“I could have lost you.” The words were barely a whisper, but the pain on his face spoke volumes. His emotions filled me up, and I swallowed against the lump that had formed in my throat.
“I’m still here. Scarred and fabulous.” I went to cover the scar with my hand, but Rab took my hand away, pressing a kiss to my palm before dropping it.
Running his hand softly up my side, he cupped my face. “You’re the most beautiful woman in the world, Lyra. You’re a goddess, bringing light, even in darkness. Knox doesn’t have to light Briarhaven. He just needs to send you out in the square and the whole damn town would glow.”
“Rab,” I whispered, tilting my head up for his kiss. Tears welled. “You’re too sweet. It’s too much. I should—”
“No, love. Not now. This isn’t the time for regrets. We’re here now. With each other. And you, Lyra? You are my light.”
“You’ve always been mine, Rab,” I said, and he deepened his kiss. “You were the only thing I looked forward to. Every day.”
“I know, Lyra. I know. I know what we were to each other.” Rab looked up and held my gaze. “And I know what we can be to each other. I love you so much. Do you know that? Can you feel that?”
He took my hand and placed it on his chest, where his heart beat in a heavy rhythm.
“I love you too, Rab. I always have. There’s never been another… not like you.”
“Same, Lyra. Same. Even when I tried to forget you. Goddess knows I tried.”
And then his lips were on mine, in the kiss to end all kisses, and I felt his love pour through me, all the way down to the very tips of my toes.
My entire body trembled with need, and now that I finally had free rein, I stroked my hands across his chest, loving the feel of his strong muscles under my hands.
He was built so exquisitely, a god in his own right, chiseled from stone.
I arched backward as he buried his face in my breasts, his hands coming up to cup them, his thumbs stroking my nipples.
I went dizzy with need.
“I think… I need to…” I gasped, throwing my head back as he kissed my breasts, finding my nipples through the silk, his mouth wetting the material.
“Aye, lass. Settle back.” Together, we eased backward onto the bed, Rab crawling after me, and I cried out as he brought his thigh up between my legs. Hard muscles rubbed against my sensitive skin as I rocked against him, and he reached beneath me to unhook my bra.
My breasts spilled free.
“I feel like I should genuflect.” Rab’s eyes were wide, drunk on the sight of my naked body, and it was the hottest thing I’d ever seen. It had always been him, the one I’d wanted to look at me this way.
“Rab?” I asked sweetly, even though my body throbbed with need.
“Aye?” Rab tore his eyes away from my body and looked up to me.
“Speaking of that condom… I hope you have one?” I trailed a finger down his chest and to the waistband of his jeans. “Because I want your mouth on mine and you inside me.”
Rab groaned, his hands tightening at my waist, and buried his face in my neck as he shuddered in a deep breath.
“What the lass wants, the lass gets.”
Rab rolled off me, and I instantly missed his weight against my body.
But I admired the view as he stripped, his bum high and tight, thick muscles banding his shoulders.
He protected us with a condom, and then he was back to bed, crawling over me until the delicious weight of him pressed me back into the pillows.
“I’ve missed you,” Rab said. He kissed me, soft and sweet, and I sighed into his mouth, so many emotions playing through me. Desire for him, sadness over time lost together, all the what-ifs spiraling through me. Rab pulled back and his eyes softened. “Och, love. Don’t.”
“It’s hard not to. We’ve missed out on so much.”
“Maybe we had to,” Rab said, nibbling at my lower lip. “To bring us back here again.”
“That’s a nice thought, isn’t it?”
“You know what’s another nice thought?” Rab asked, and I gasped as he rubbed himself against me. I was slick and ready, desperate to have him inside me.
“What’s that?” I whispered against his lips.
“Doing this. Every day. Until the end of time.” Rab laughed against my lips and then entered me in one long thrust. I gasped at the intrusion, my body opening and welcoming him in, and then I arched my hips against him.
Clenching, I pulled him close, needing him there, and threw my head back against the pillow as he pinned me, refusing to move.
“Rab,” I gasped, angling my hips, needing him to move.
“Och, the lass wants more, does she?” Rab angled himself over me and took a nipple into his mouth, biting lightly as I moaned. “Greedy, aren’t you?”
“No.” I gasped, laughing, and smacked him lightly on the shoulder.
My gasp turned into a moan as he rocked, and then neither of us could speak as he thrust into me, sliding so deep that my body shook with need.
He rolled his hips, his body hard to my soft, and slid in again, ever so softly, as he crooned words of love at my ear.
I’d craved him. For years. His touch, his laughter, the way he looked at me.
He’d always made me feel like I was the only person that mattered in the world.
Rab’s focus was intense, his exploration thorough, his hands touching, stroking, caressing, while his mouth licked, his teeth scraping sensitive skin. And still he rocked into me, his rhythm precise, his control unmatched as he pulled me to the edge with him.
“Rab, I…”
“Go over with me, Lyra. Together.” It was only then I saw the tic in Rab’s jaw, the strain as he held himself back, waiting for me.
He’d always been waiting for me. My body convulsed as waves of pleasure washed through me. “Rab,” I cried, needing his kiss, and his lips came down to mine as he found his own release.
“Lyra, it’s always been you. Always you.”
“Us. It’s always been us.” I gasped into his kiss.
And we collapsed together, neither of us willing to move apart, to break this moment that had brought us back together.
“Rab.”
“Shhh, Lyra. Just a moment longer. Just like this. You and me, me and you. The way it’s meant to be.”