“Maybe,” I said, fingering the blunt strands of his hair. “Any permanent damage?”
“I don’t think so. But you might want to kiss me to make sure.” I gave him a look as he stroked the side of my face.
“How would kissing you have anything to do with a bump on the back of your head?” I couldn’t stop touching his hair.
“I might have a concussion and you need to keep me awake. With your lips.” He leaned forward and started kissing me so I couldn’t protest. That was one way to stop me from arguing with him.
The kiss became more insistent. He wasn’t being as careful now, because he knew I wasn’t going anywhere. I moved until I was straddling him, my hair spilling down and getting in our way. He wrapped it around one of his hands and used it to pull my face closer. Our movements became rougher, harder. We kissed with a desperation that was born of us resisting for so long. Whatever this thing was between us had just ignited and if we weren’t careful, it was going to consume us.
Our hands started tugging at clothing and his shirt was the first to go, and then it was my turn.
And then I remembered what he would see if he took my shirt all the way off. It was a tunic, so it was so long that it skimmed below my hips. Perfect for hiding what I needed it to hide. My hands slammed down on the hem of my shirt as he tried to raise it.
“No,” I said into his mouth. “Shirt stays on.” That made him break the kiss.
“Why do you get to keep your shirt on?” I was momentarily distracted from my need to keep my shirt on by the fact that his wasn’t. To avoid answering his question, I ran my hands up and down his chest, over the peaks and valleys, his flat ni**les, the little sprinkling of dark gold hair that led from his bellybutton lower . . .
“I can’t tell you why. I just need for it to stay on and for you not to touch my top half. Everything else . . . is okay.” I hoped he knew what I was saying without me having to say it. The bulge in his pants led me to believe he knew exactly what I was talking about.
“But I want to see you.”
“I know, but I can’t. It’s this or nothing.” He kissed the side of my face and then my neck and I wondered what he was thinking.
He pulled away from me and rested his head against my stomach.
“Okay.”
He was agreeing?
“If the only way I can have you is like this, then okay. I love you and I want to be with you.” For a moment, time stopped.
“I love you, too.” I couldn’t hold back the words anymore. They’d been inside me for so long. I tried to kill them, to make them go away, but they’d only gained strength.
“You love me?” Will whispered, wonder in his eyes, as if he’d thought such a thing was impossible.
“I love you.” They were easier to say the second time. He beamed up at me and I couldn’t help but smile back as he started laughing.
“What’s so funny?” I started laughing too.
“I’m so happy and relieved. I always thought I would be the only one. That I would love you and you would never love me back.”
What?
“Then why did you keep pursuing me? If you didn’t think that it would ever go anywhere.”
He sighed and pulled me closer.
“Because I had to give it a shot. Because I love you and I didn’t know what else to do.”
His words were daggers, reminding me that he was good and I was not and I shouldn’t want him or love him or have him.
But here he was and here I was and I couldn’t think about what I should do anymore. I just wanted to let go for a little while.
“I love you.” Three times.
“I love you, Aud.” I crossed the distance between us and brought our lips together once more.
Now that my feelings were out in the open, I felt bolder, so I took Will’s hands that had been gripping my hips and brought them back up to my shirt. His lips stilled on mine.
“You just said—” I stopped him with another kiss.
“I know. Just ignore whatever I’ve ever said before I told you I loved you. Just forget all of it.” I definitely wanted to. I wanted to forget my life before him. Leave it behind. Erase it and fill my head with him.
“I think I can do that.” His hands gripped my shirt and inched it slowly upwards. He shifted so he could follow with a trail of kisses.
Soon he lifted my shirt over my head and I was left with only my bra.
He looked at me as if he was seeing me for the first time.
“Shit, you’re even more beautiful than I imagined. Are you even real?”
“Are you?” I countered and he flicked the clasp on the back of my bra and pulled the straps over my shoulders, exposing me. I had half a mind to cross my arms over my chest, but stopped when Will sucked in a breath.
“Beautiful, you are,” he said, which made me giggle. Of course, he would choose now to go Yoda on me.
My giggles turned into gasps as he kissed and sucked my skin, causing shivers to race down my spine. He was probably leaving evidence in the form of hickeys on my neck, but that was the last thing on my mind as he kissed the spot where my breast swelled out from my chest and then downward, avoiding my nipple. Was he afraid of it? He kissed all the way around and then switched to the other breast. I made a little sound of frustration and he chuckled against my skin.
“I’m taking my time. I want to devour you, but you deserve better. You deserve slow seduction. I can’t believe I just said that. I don’t think I’ve ever used that word in my life.” I didn’t need seduction. I didn’t need slow. I didn’t need anything but him.
I twisted my hands in his hair and pulled his face up for a kiss.
“I’m yours. Go whatever speed you want.” My body was awake now, remembering this feeling. It had been a long time since I’d been with someone.
“You sure? I could light some candles, or get rose petals, or something like that,” he said as his hands rubbed the undersides of my br**sts.
“No, this is good. This is more than good.” I bit my lip and arched into his hands as he made slow circles with his thumbs before he closed his mouth over one nipple and rubbed the other with his thumb.
I moaned and he tipped us to the side and then climbed on top of me, pressing his body into me. That was more like it.
“I don’t know how long I can hold out, Aud. I’ve thought and imagined this so many times and I can barely believe that it’s happening.”
Me, neither.