Chapter 16 #3
“Hold on to me, baby.” He reached beneath her and gripped her bottom, the position opening her to him even more than she’d been before. Slowly, gently, he began to move in steady strokes.
Even though the pressure was intense between her legs, her entire body was on fire for him. She’d never had sex like this—all-consuming, full-body sex.
“You’re so beautiful,” he said against her lips as his tongue dipped into her mouth, teasing and withdrawing before she could catch it.
He looked her square in the eye. “I love you, Laura. I wanted to be deep inside you, with your arms and legs wrapped around me, the first time I said those words to you. I’ve loved you for almost as long as I’ve known you. ”
Tears filled her eyes as her heart pounded in time with the steady, unrelenting motion of his hips. “I love you, too. I’m so glad you stayed here with me.”
He rested his forehead on hers. “Best thing I ever did.” Tipping his head, he took her mouth again in a series of deep kisses that left her breathless and on the edge of yet another release, which was certainly a first. Everything about this encounter was a revelation to her. “You got one more for me, babe?”
“Maybe.”
“That’s my girl. Does anything hurt?”
She shook her head and gripped his backside, wanting to keep him buried deep. Arching into him, she contracted her internal muscles, which drew a deep, tortured groan from him.
“Do it again,” he said, his breathing harsh and erratic.
She dug her fingers into his ass and bore down hard on his cock.
He gripped her bottom so tightly she wondered if there’d be bruises—not that she cared in the least—threw his head back and came with a strangled sound that dragged her right along with him in a climax that seemed to go on forever.
Rolling them to their sides in a smooth move, he collapsed next to her, still throbbing inside her.
“That was incredible,” he said many minutes later. “Unlike anything I’ve ever known.”
“For me, too,” she said, nuzzling his chest hair and planting kisses on his chest.
“I had a feeling it would be kinda awesome with you, but that . . .” He ran his fingers through his unruly hair. “I don’t think they’ve invented the word for that yet.”
Laura laughed at his befuddlement. Never would she have expected to feel so light and free after the nightmare she’d endured the day before.
As long as she was with him, she could expect more days like this one.
Maybe even a lifetime of lightness and freedom and laughter and contentment.
Maybe it was okay to hope for such things again, knowing everything about this was different from anything that had come before.
“I can hear that big brain of yours working overtime,” he said, tapping lightly on her forehead.
She looked up at him. “I’m thinking that at one of the worst times of my life I found you, and what a lucky, lucky day that was.”
“Luckiest day of my life when I found you standing in the wind and rain, staring wistfully at my family’s broken-down hotel.
You were so cute and waif-like wearing that huge old raincoat with the hood that practically swallowed up your incredible face.
When you looked at me, I felt the impact like a punch to the belly. ”
“You never told me that.”
“When did you start to, you know . . .”
“Love you?”
He nodded, boyish and adorable as he waited for her.
Laura didn’t even have to think about it. “Remember the tropical storm party at Mac and Maddie’s?”
“Uh-huh.”
“We were on the deck, and you gave me your jacket. I was so numb from everything that’d happened with Justin that I didn’t even realize I was cold.
Somehow I’d managed to survive the wedding the day before and being Janey’s bridesmaid.
Don’t get me wrong. I’ve always loved Janey like a sister, and I was so happy for her and Joe. They obviously belong together.”
He smoothed his fingers over a strand of her hair and tucked it behind her ear.
“Watching them open their gifts, seeing their joy . . . It was too much. I went outside to get some air, and there you were with your warm coat, your job offer and just the right amount of empathy when I told you what’d happened with Justin.
You were the first person I told out here.
And then Evan called you inside to play.
You asked if I had any requests, and I said anything by James Taylor.
You played ‘You’ve Got a Friend.’” Smiling at the memory, she rested her hand over the steady beat of his heart.
“You’ve been my friend—my best friend—ever since. ”
“Being your BFF has been the most fun I’ve ever had.”
Delighted, she looked up at him and said, “You know what that second F stands for, don’t you?”
Nodding, he held her gaze as he brought her in closer for a kiss. “I know exactly what it means. I’m afraid you’re stuck with me, Princess. You’ve ruined me for all other women.”
She rested her head on his chest, grinning foolishly. “Then my work here is finished.”
“Your work here, my love, is just getting started.” To prove his point, he rolled her under him and made love to her all over again.