His body heat radiated and mingled with mine; I wondered when he had removed our clothing. Despite my nakedness, I was flushed. My eyes searched his face. I almost couldn’t decipher the words when he breathed, “I love you.”
I shook my head, blinking back tears. One escaped and drifted down the side of my cheek, over my cheekbones, falling to our feet. “No,” I said. “This is something more.”
I threw my arms around his neck, and he devoured me in an urgent kiss. Our shaking bodies absorbed one another. His hands ran along the sides of my breasts and then down to encircle my waist, clutching me against the hard body I’d come to love. Every touch was real, every touch sent chills over my skin.
We fell back into the carpet that had promised refuge only moments before. My legs opened for him, and he ground his pelvis against me.
I raked my hands through his hair, and he dropped his weight on me. I thrust my hips up and gasped as he drove all the way into me. His cheek scraped against my neck as he kissed it. I clenched him between my legs, and he released a shuddering cry against my skin. His pace hurried, and he plowed me with such power that our bodies dripped with sweat.
He slid into me over and over, slowly then quickly, making sure that I felt every inch of him. I inhaled sharply with each change of pace.
“You’re so fucking sexy,” he rumbled at me. “And so tight.”
My hips eagerly met the force of each delicious plunge. “I’m gonna make you come harder than you ever have,” I rasped.
He growled as thunder vibrated the room and bucked harder, deeper. “Oh, Olivia,” he groaned as sweat trickled from his body onto mine. I craned my neck to watch as I swallowed up the thick base of his cock. My arousal amplified just watching his abs flex with each drive.
As I approached the edge, I grasped for something to hold on to but there was only him. My surroundings were speckled with white flashes as my body responded, constricting around him and trembling under his hulking body.
“You feel too good,” he uttered hoarsely. “I’m never letting you go, you feel so fucking amazing.”
“Come for me, baby.” I grasped urgently at his hair and pulled him down to me. “I need you, David,” I begged into his mouth. “All of you.”
“No,” he hissed. “Not . . . until – ”
“I’m yours,” I cried. “I’m yours, David, I’m yours, I’m yours.”
“Olivia,” he moaned. His muscles tensed and released, his body convulsed and he finished me off with unwavering focus. I gasped and arched from the floor as my nerves shattered into a million divine pieces. I writhed into his punishing final thrust, and with a primal roar, he erupted inside me.
He collapsed, pinning me to the floor with his solid, sweaty body. Heat radiated from us, engulfed us. My hands touched his shoulders, his neck and his face, pushing the matted hair from his forehead. He drew back and ensnared me in a desperate kiss. He pulled on my knotted hair to fall breathlessly into the curve of my neck. In that moment, nothing mattered more to me than the feeling of him, real and secure on top of me.
~
I struck a match and lit one candle on the kitchen table. We had dressed quickly in the dark and hurried from the bedroom, though I knew well enough that his spell could not be confined to any particular space. I moved to sit across from him, but he pulled me down, and I fell into this lap. He sat back and rested me against his arm, giving me a quick but sensual kiss.
“Is this from the tree?” I asked, capturing his slightly bruised and swollen hand in mine. “Does it hurt?”
“Not anymore.”
“I’m sorry.”
“So am I.”
I hesitated and clutched his t-shirt as though he might disappear suddenly. “Did you . . .”
“What?” he asked, tugging on my bun so I had to look up. I could feel his heart pounding, but his expression was soft.
“Did you mean it?”
His face creased. “Do you think I would say it and not mean it?”
“I don’t know.”
“Olivia, I’m in love with you. I’ve known for so long, but I also knew it would scare you away. You gave me no choice though.”
Silence fell between us. With David’s past and my present, I couldn’t tell him that I loved him too. I looked away and rested my cheek against his chest.
He ran a hand over my hair. “Olivia.”
“David,” I replied, squeezing my eyes shut and tensing in his embrace.
“I want more,” he whispered in my ear. “I want you.”
“It can’t be.”
“Why not?”
I shook my head. “This is wrong. It’s the last time. Bill knows, and you and I are done.”
“There are other options.”
I climbed off of his lap, tension settling again in my neck. As the glow wore off, everything I’d been shouldering seeped back into my thoughts, wakening my conscience. “He’s not going to leave. He doesn’t want a divorce.”
He bolted upright. “That’s not what I mean. This can work,” he said with blazing eyes. “If you want it to,” he added.
“H-how?” I stammered, taken aback by the intensity of his glare.
He lifted a hand and ran his knuckles over my cheek before taking my jaw. When he spoke, his voice was urgent and grave. “You leave him.”
CHAPTER 25
DAVID’S WORDS SANK AND SANK until they settled heavily in my consciousness. I had no idea how long I’d stood there gaping at him before breath rushed back into my lungs. “What?”
“You leave him.”
I pulled my chin from his grasp. “Think about what you’re saying,” I implored, stepping back. “You want me to leave my husband for you? Do you have any idea what that would involve?”
“We can handle it. Together.”
“David,” I said with an unsteady breath. “What I’ve been through since . . . There was a moment where . . .” I let the sentence trail off. Saying these things aloud were different than thinking them. I’d opened up to him, but not like this. The thought terrified me, but I looked him straight in the face. “There was a moment when I thought I might die without you. But you – you don’t know what you’re asking. I can’t just leave. And you aren’t ready for such a commitment. I’ve already ruined so much,” I said, pressing my fingertips to the corners of my eyes. “I have to make things right.”
His voice was stern. “When I said that everything was for you, I meant it. My whole life I’ve been building and saving and preparing for the woman I knew would come along. I had to believe you were out there, because if I didn’t, I would have nothing.” His big shoulders heaved as he took a breath. “I’m not a religious or spiritual man. I am guided solely by my instincts, my gut. And they have led me to you. Without you, I have nothing to believe in.”
I blinked, shocked into silence. His words were needy, romantic, loving – misaligned with the man I had originally suspected him to be. Even though his bearing was stiff, tense even, I could see that there was only truth in his eyes. “I – I don’t know what t
o say, David.” I did though – I wanted to say that it was beautiful. That no one had ever said anything like that to me.
“It’s just the truth, the plain fucking truth.”
An awed smile touched my face. He was looking at me again the way he had that night at the hotel. Love. Love is what I saw that night, and that is what scared me. I already knew on some level that you loved me, David Dylan.
I inhaled. “You want me to leave my husband? Is that really what you’re asking?”
“Divorce him, Olivia.”
I shivered at the word. “I don’t think I could do it,” I said honestly.
“I would be there every step of the way.”
“I can’t even – have you even talked to Dani?”
“I tried to tell you. I ended things, but she begged me to take her to that one last event. I owed her that much.”
“You owed her?”
“She’s been patient and sweet, but I can’t give her what she wants with you in the picture.”
“And if I weren’t?” I bristled.
“I don’t even care enough to wonder. She said she had already paid for the tickets and that she was embarrassed to go alone. I’m only human.”
I scoffed to myself. “That was a lie, they were Gretchen’s tickets.”
He pursed his lips. “Regardless. Do you trust me that nothing happened with her? She kissed me that night, but I stopped it. She was desperate.”
I nodded and looked away. “What about Maria?” I asked into the dark kitchen.
He exhaled a short laugh. “Do you think I’m playing games, Olivia? I don’t want Dani, I don’t want Maria, I want you. I would never ask you to leave your husband if I wasn’t ready for the commitment. Not just ready, but dying for it.”
I shook my head in disbelief. “Why? I don’t understand why.”
“Why what?”
“Why me?” I whispered. “What makes me worthy? You could have anyone.”
His face fell. He cupped his hands under my jaw and looked directly at me. “How can you say that?” he asked sadly. He sighed, looked around the room and then back at me. “I’ve never had trouble meeting women, that’s true. But I knew as early as my first kiss that there was something missing. I never gave up hope that the right girl was out there. I knew you were it the moment our eyes met.” He paused and ran his thumbs over my cheekbones. “I didn’t need any other proof after our first night together. If you don’t see it now, you will.”