Cruel Legacy (Cruel 3)

He nudged me. “I spent a few afternoons here with a friend in the astronomy department. I have a basic grasp of the machine. I can handle it.”

I was pretty sure there were actual stars in my eyes. “That’s so awesome.”

“Oh god, there’s my nerdy girl.”

I playfully nudged him. “Hey!”

“I like it,” he said, drawing me into the room and toward the blanket. “Once night has finally fallen, we can use the telescope, but for now, I think you’re starving.”

My stomach grumbled in response. “How do you do that?”

“It’s almost like I know you.”

“I suppose.” I crossed my legs and sat on the gingham blanket. Candlelight flickered over Penn’s sharp features as he took a seat next to me. “Penn.”

He had just reached for the picnic basket but stopped and looked back at me in question.

“Thank you,” I said. “Thank you for doing this. It means so much to me. You mean so much to me.”

He grinned that cocky little smile that made my knees go weak and then drew my lips to his. “You’re most welcome.”

I wanted to launch myself at him and rip all his clothes off for the gesture, but somehow, I held myself back as he went back to the basket. He withdrew a large baguette, some grapes, a container that was full of still-warm baked Camembert, a selection of meats, and a bottle of French wine.

I tipped my head back and laughed. “Oh my god, are you re-creating our first date?”

“Was that a date?” he asked.

“It was something.” I stared down at the spread that he’d prepared just like he had that one night we shared in Paris.

He’d walked right into a French restaurant and come out with a spread similar to this for us. We wandered down to the Seine and ate it on the water overlooking the Eiffel Tower. He kissed me as the lights flipped on, and it had been magical.

“Perfect,” I amended. “It was perfect.”

We dug into the food. Memories flooding us both from that time almost eight years ago when we’d been young and stupid. We’d fallen in love in a night and not even known that our lives would drag us back together over and over again until we were here, in this moment.

“So,” I said, savoring the taste of baked Camembert on my tongue, “tell me, what’s your deepest, darkest secret?”

He dragged me into another kiss. “I think you know all of mine now, love.”

“Ah, such easier times when it was just that you wanted to escape your life. Poor little rich boy,” I joked.

“And you?” He gestured to me. “Do you finally feel like you belong?”

It was the answer that I’d given so long ago. That I acted like I belonged, but I really didn’t. Had that changed? In some ways, I was acting more than ever. But the truth of it was, I did belong. Just as he’d said so long ago.

“I belong with you,” I told him.

“Good answer.”

Our kiss deepened, lengthened, until I lost where I started and he began. It was just us, tangled together, hands and lips and tongue. And I didn’t want to come up for breath. I didn’t want to discover the space between us. I wanted to live in the moment forever where Penn and I were one.

Chapter 31

Penn

“Penn,” Natalie groaned into my mouth.

It was an encouragement. Like screaming, Yes, yes, yes, at me just from my tongue against hers and my hands in her hair. Sex had always been my perfect art form, but it was something else entirely with Natalie. It made me reconsider everything that I’d ever thought in the past. Made me look at myself and see everything I’d been lacking. That I’d tried to cover up with sex. As if it could fix what was broken inside of me. But only when we were together did I feel like maybe I wasn’t broken after all. Maybe I just had never really known love until her.

I lifted her arms and slid her shirt over her head, getting a peek of her nipples hardening through the lacy material of her bra. My hands slipped back down her arms, her shoulders, and to the soft contours of her chest. I hooked a finger under her bra, teasing the erect peak until she squirmed under my touch.

I loved every moan and whimper and sigh that I extracted from her willing body. The way it moved and ached as I worked on her. This wasn’t just sex. This was seduction, and it made my cock harden in my pants.

But I was in no rush. I had every intention of taking my time with her.

My fingers pinched the clasp of her bra, and her breasts fell out of their constraints. I tossed the useless material aside before pressing her back against the blanket. She pulled her arms back up and stared at me with a come-hither expression on her hooded bedroom eyes.