“Mine,” I mumbled back. “You’ve been mine since the second I looked up and saw you. God, Grace . . . it’s you . . . you who changed everything inside me.”
Kisses are for the ones you love most.
Standing at the foot of the bed, I laid her down in the middle of it. Her blonde hair spread out across the pillow, her lush body rocking with her own need.
Her hand fluttered toward me, that charm bracelet on her wrist tinkling as it slipped up her arm, the connection binding us pulling taut, her voice comfort and seduction. “That man’s been there all along. You just needed someone to believe in him. I believe in him. I believe in you.”
I stood staring down at the girl of my dreams.
A fantasy.
Everything I’d never believed I deserved or even wanted.
And there she was, spread out like my idea of eternity.
A partner to this place that screamed of purity and safety and love.
Faith told us last night that magic happened in this room.
Miracles.
I’d become a believer.
Because standing there, I knew I’d never be the same.
Grace. Grace. Grace.
I needed it in my life.
I needed her in my life.
How had I been so blind to what I was missing?
I climbed over her, and those long legs parted, making me room.
Hands planted on either side of her head, I stared down at her in the moonlight.
My chest expanded, so wide I was sure it was going to burst.
Those fingers trailed down my face.
She angled up to brush her mouth across my bottom lip. “I love you, Ian Jacobs.”
Hands diving into her hair, I captured her mouth.
Kissed her wild.
With the type of passion I’d never allowed myself to experience.
Unbridled.
Raw.
Real.
Emotion pitched and rocked and drove us higher.
Her heart was drumming an erratic thud, thud, thud, and I spread my hand out over it, feeling it pound for me.
“I love you,” I said again.
Because I couldn’t stop.
She moaned through a small laugh and whispered, “I love you so much.”
I drank down her words like they were the water of life.
God.
She was exquisite.
Her tongue temptation.
A sweet, juicy plum.
Every flick of it sent shockwaves of lust racing through my body.
“You are delicious, Grace.” I couldn’t help but tell her.
Another giggle slipped up her throat and landed on my tongue.
Like she was offering me her joy.
Joy.
That might have been the first time I felt the fullness of it. The wholeness of what it meant.
I edged back so I could peel her shirt over her head, leaving her in her bra and jeans. Her hair mussed and her lips swollen from my kisses.
Her spirit danced and lapped, at one with the shadows, glowing in the darkness.
Wrapping me up in ribbons and bows.
Sitting back on my knees, my eyes rode up and down her perfect body.
“Grace,” I murmured, reaching out to stroke her cheek with my thumb, running it under the hollow of her eye, down to that mouth.
Back and forth.
Back and forth.
“Look what you’ve done to me.”
I pressed my hand behind her back to rid her of her bra before I edged up a fraction so I could reach down to flick the button of her jeans.
I left her only long enough to rip them and her underwear down those legs.
Those legs that were nothing but miles of silk and curves and seduction.
I’d gladly get lost and roam them forever.
My own sacred promised land.
I continued to kiss her while everything between us intensified.
Growing more desperate by the second.
Wasn’t like I hadn’t been inside this girl before. Taking her. Owning her.
But this . . . this was different.
We both knew it.
It was the pinnacle we’d been climbing toward.
Where everything melted and then melded.
Where me and this girl became one.
This was where I offered everything.
Where it was only Grace and me.
This . . . this was where love lived.
Her fingers trembled as she worked through the buttons of my shirt, the girl shaking as she pushed the fabric off my shoulders. I twisted out of it, tossing it onto the floor with the rest of her clothes, the girl making short work of my pants, shoving them down my thighs so I could kick them free.
I hovered over her body, my eyes devouring every inch, cherishing every second.
“You’re so beautiful,” I murmured, dipping down to nip at her ear. “So sexy. I can’t see straight when I’m looking at you, because the only thing I see is my perfection. Everything I’ve ever wanted. But it’s this heart . . . this sweet, sweet heart that changed mine.”
Her chest heaved.
I dipped down to kiss along the slender column of her neck, and her head rocked back. Fingers sank into the flesh of my shoulders.
Lips traipsing, I moved lower, roving over the wild thrum of her beating heart. I licked a path across one breast until I was taking it into my mouth, sucking and laving and making her moan.