35. Chapter 35 #2
“It’s okay. My grandparents did their best. They really did.
Then, I met Captain Hoover at boarding school, and he was kind of like a father figure to me.
I wanted to make him proud.” He paused, staring at the headstones.
Did I see tears in his eyes? “I like to think they’d be proud of the choices I’ve made too.
I’d like to think they’d have loved you. ”
“I hope so,” I whispered. Did I? After my family spent so much time hating him, maybe I deserved to have them hate me. Maybe they would’ve hated me for ruining his life.
“Aunt Bev loves you. She raised me when it became too much for my grandparents.” He chuckled, and I couldn’t help but laugh too, thinking about the patient who so often made my day. “And she has always been a good judge of character.”
I laughed, resting my head on his shoulder. “I’m glad she approves of me.” I yawned until my eyes watered. “She was right that her nephew is really handsome.”
“Let’s go,” Connor said, planting a kiss on the top of my head that almost made me forget where we were. I inhaled the comfort of his scent—the familiar cologne I’d missed more than I realized.
I took his hand and followed him back to the car. “Where are we going now?”
“I’m taking you home.” My stomach sank when he unlocked the doors. I didn’t want to go home.
“Will you stay with me when we get there?” The smile that pulled at his face was the only answer I needed to buckle my seatbelt.
Connor put his hand on my thigh, and when he squeezed, the warmth from his palm traveled to my core.
Butterflies in my stomach tripped over themselves, racing for my throat.
“I’ll stay as long as you’ll let me. If it were up to me, I’d never leave you again.” The weight of his hand matched the weight of his words.
When we walked in the front door, Connor took his jacket off, tossing it over a hook before he grabbed my hands and pulled me to him. “I have something for you,” he said, taking hold of my jacket and slowly sliding it from my shoulders.
“What is it?” I shivered when my bare skin was exposed to the cold air. He dropped the jacket over the hook next to his, running his hands slowly over my arms. For a moment, he just stared at me like he wanted to memorize me.
“I had it fixed,” he said, pulling a box from his pocket.
When he opened it, my breath caught. Every single pearl that had been thrown at him in a fit of rage was delicately tied back together with a simple knot between each one.
Connor took the necklace out of the box, holding it up so the light caught the creamy, smooth finish of the pearls.
“My necklace,” I whispered as tears welled up in my eyes.
I reached for them, running my fingers over them before he quietly twirled his finger in a gesture for me to turn around.
When I did, Connor gently clasped the necklace around my neck.
The subtle weight of it resting on my collarbones drew my fingers to it.
Connor leaned down, placing his lips over the pearls and kissing the supple skin beneath them until I shivered. A responsive whimper slipped from my lips, earning a wide smile. “Do you know how much I missed the sound of that?”
“The sound of what?” My whimpering? The way my breath caught in my throat under his touch, like I didn’t spend weeks trying to convince myself I hated everything about him?
“The sound of you desperate for more but too breathless to ask for it.” He chuckled when I gasped. “Tell me you’ve thought about this as much as I have.” Connor’s lips traveled the curve of my necklace.
“I’ve done everything I can to try and forget.” My voice was as breathless as I felt, like all the oxygen was pulled from my lungs through my skin.
He lifted both his brows, and his golden eyes drilled into mine. “And did you?”
“Did I what?” I asked, putting my hands on his back and imagining I could feel his heart beating through his sweater. Following the conversation got harder the more I focused on the lines carved into his muscles.
Connor lifted my chin. “Did you forget?”
“Not even a little bit.” I tried for weeks to think of anything else—to try and forget about the way my body craved him. It didn’t work. I desperately wished to forget everything I was reminded of every time I turned a corner.
“Good.” He kissed me, wrapping his hand around the back of my neck to deepen it. I hummed, savoring the taste of him—the taste I would never forget, even if I had to. “I’m going to remind you anyway. I’m going to remind you of all the ways you belong to me.”
My breath hitched, and my pussy clenched. “Don’t forget a single thing.”
Before the words had fully left my lips, Connor lifted me.
My legs wrapped around him like it was second nature—like he belonged between them.
The wall he pressed me against was cold on my back, but his warmth enveloped me.
It felt like forgiveness and lust had blended together, and there was no denying it anymore. There was no need to.
“I don’t plan to,” he said just before his lips took control of mine. I wrapped my arms around his neck, holding on to him even though I knew he wouldn’t drop me. Not again.
The kiss started with a need we both felt deep in our cores, but it soon became a breathless, desperate fight to make up for every kiss we missed.
I could feel every brush of his tongue over my whole body, and it made me want more.
It made me desperate for more. I sucked his bottom lip into my mouth and bit down hard enough to pull a low grunt from his core.
Connor gripped my thighs, holding my legs tight to him for a moment before his hands moved to cup my ass.
He gathered the fabric, tearing along the seam and exposing the thin cotton thong that remained between us.
A high-pitched gasp sounded more like surprise than the sudden rush of need that filled me.