Lia angled herself to one side and looked at me. Her hand rested on my upper arm for a moment before she traced the outlines of muscles from my bicep down to my wrist. Maybe she needed romance, and maybe she didn’t, but I felt like she deserved something from me—something genuine. There were questions in her eyes, and I responded before she could ask them.
“You gave me my sanity back,” I said quietly. “Your presence, your words, your touch, and your body—they brought me back from someplace I don’t ever want to be again. The way I feel when I’m with you—like I could spend the rest of my life just looking in your eyes—it scares the shit out of me. It’s more terrifying than that place I was inside my head. The best way I can come up with to cope with that is being inside of you, because when I’m there, everything is right. It’s the way it’s supposed to be.”
Why all of that made her smile and brought tears to her eyes at the same time, I didn’t understand. She seemed more happy about what I had said than not, at least. Maybe I didn’t need to understand it—I mean, I wanted to figure her out, but what guy really knows what’s going on in a woman’s head?
“I’m glad I showed up when I did,” she finally said.
“Yeah, you wouldn’t have wanted to miss that scene.” I snorted a laugh.
“Not because of that, obviously.” Lia turned to her side and propped her head up with her hand. “I’m glad I was there in time to know what happened to you, so I could help. If I had showed up a day later…well, who knows how long it might have taken me to figure out where you were?”
I couldn’t help but wonder how everything might be different if she had arrived the day before. Maybe I wouldn’t have killed Bridgett and gone off the deep end at all, except that I still would have found out about her betrayal eventually. What would I have done then?
Probably the same.
It was all the more reason for me to get Lia out of my life, but I couldn’t bring myself to think along those lines. I was going to tell her everything, and whatever happened after that, happened. Maybe she would accept it, and maybe she wouldn’t, but I was going to do whatever I possibly could to keep her.
“What are you thinking about?” Lia asked.
I pulled myself out of my head and smiled up at her.
“I’m just glad you were there, too. I think Mark’s comment about dying from lack of sleep is total bullshit, but I definitely prefer being able to get a little shut-eye every once in a while.”
She looked at me for a minute and then leaned down to press her lips against mine. I reciprocated, reaching up to the back of her head and holding her closer so I could get my tongue in her mouth. A couple minutes of kissing, and I was ready for round three.
My hands moved over her body, gripped her tits, then continued down her stomach and to her hips. My mouth followed, and Lia’s fingers traced the outline of the muscles
in my shoulder and back as I licked around her navel.
I pushed her legs apart a bit, then teased over her outer labia until she was wriggling under me. With a little more pressure, I cupped her pussy and my thumb circled her clit. Lia let out a groan, and I moved two fingers inside of her, which made her jump a bit. When I glanced up at her, the look on her face wasn’t one of pleasure, though, so I stopped.
“You okay?”
“I’m just a little sore,” Lia said with a blush. Her teeth went after her bottom lip again, so I reached up and pulled it away.
“I can stop.” I didn’t want to, but obviously I would. “Take a break for a while.”
“No, don’t stop. It’s okay.”
Some odd version of a gentleman inside me told me to stop anyway because she was just being nice and giving in to what she knew I wanted. The selfish, horny bastard inside of me had a lot more influence over my mouth, though.
“Want me to go slow?”
“Do you know how to do it that way?” Her beautiful smile teased me.
I didn’t answer. I just rolled over on top of her, holding my weight up off her skin with my legs out by her sides and one hand pressed against the mattress near her shoulder. With my free hand, I traced the backs of my fingers from her shoulder down to her wrist. I leaned down and kissed the spot right above her heart, trailed more light touches with my lips up to her neck, and then whispered against her ear.
“I will always give it to you exactly how you need it.”
With my hand against her jaw, I tilted her head back and kissed slowly down the front of her throat. I licked lightly over her nipples, kissed each of them, and then moved to the side so I could better reach her with my other hand.
I continued down her body, moving my lips gently over her pink skin. At times, I barely touched her, just grazed the fine hairs of her stomach and below. My head tilted to the side, and I continued down the inside of one of her thighs until I reached her knee. I wanted to get her off again—it was a moral imperative—but she’d already said she was sore.
An idea came to me, and I got up from the bed and extended my hand to Lia.
“Come with me.”
She nodded, wrapped her fingers in mine, and I led her into the bathroom. I turned on the shower and adjusted the temperature up high. As the water heated, I grabbed the bath towels and laid them out on the bed.