“Yes,” she finally whispered, face still hidden against his chest.
“What?” he breathed.
“You’re worth the risk. And I’m worth taking the chance. I still love you, Brian.” The words broke, rough with tears. “I never stopped. I tried, but I couldn’t make it stop. I didn’t know how.”
He wasn’t the kind of man who cried easily. In fact, he couldn’t remember the last time he had. At his father’s funeral, probably, five years before. But now his eyes burned, and he had to squeeze them shut to stop the tears.
“I love you,” she said again, as if she were making herself face it.
“Thank God, Eve. Thank God. I’ve missed you so much.” He tipped her chin up and kissed her. He didn’t stop kissing her for a long time, not until he’d maneuvered her into her bedroom and onto the bed. He reached past her to switch on the bedside lamp and Eve squeaked.
“Turn that off!”
“Are you kidding me? I have to make up for all these years of not seeing you naked.”
She gave a huff of incredulous laughter and strained toward the light. “No way.”
“Come on.” He eased her sweater up and pressed a kiss to her ribs. “Please. I want to see you. All of you. Naked and turned on and open to me.” He pressed a kiss to her belly, then lower, just above her navel. He unbuttoned her jeans. “Please?”
Eve groaned and dropped her head to the mattress. “Why didn’t you tell me you were coming back? I could have hired a personal trainer.”
“You’re gorgeous,” he murmured as he tugged down her jeans. “Perfect.” She was. She always had been. Soft and natural and sweet. He reached for her panties and pulled them down before he could stop her.
“Hey!” She kicked at him with a bare foot, but he just grabbed her ankle and kissed the inside of her knee.
“Stop!” She pulled her ankle out of his grasp and squeezed her thighs together, but she was laughing.
“I’m going to see all of you. A lot. Every day. Give in gracefully.”
She smiled up at him, looking beautiful and decadent, her hair spread across the bed, sweater shoved up beneath her breasts, her thighs naked. She looked like a picture of every evening in his foreseeable future. His heart shook.
“And...” He slid a hand up her thigh. “I’m going to taste you. Now. And then again later. And tomorrow morning, too.”
Her gaze softened and swept down his body. “Yeah?”
“Hell yeah.”
She bit her lip. Her thighs relaxed and eased the tiniest bit apart.
He tightened his grip on her leg, and slowly, slowly eased her open.
He’d thought he was hard already, but now his cock was straining. She was so gorgeous and wet and pink.
“Yes,” she finally whispered. “Do that.”
He did.
The taste of her arousal filled his mouth and made his cock throb. He teased her and licked her, sucked at her clit and tongued her pussy, figuring out exactly what she liked by the way her hips bucked against him and her cries filled his ears. She came with his fingers buried deep inside her. On another day, he’d insist on one more orgasm, but today... Today, he wanted inside her. He needed it like he’d never needed anything. And when he slid his cock slowly into her wet heat, her whispered words filled his ears. I love you. I love you.
It was everything.
CHAPTER SIX
“HOLD STILL!” Eve ordered, lining him up in her sights again. She watched his shoulders rise and fall on an impatient sigh as she snapped away.
“Come on, Eve.”
“Just a few pictures.”