It wasn’t until he begged me to stop that I finally backed off and glanced up to see his head thrown back, his eyes closed, his mouth parted and his chest heaving.
I did that to him. That gave me as much satisfaction as he got, the only difference was mine was more emotional and his was physical. I took pleasure in taking the man to his knees without his knees even touching the ground.
When I grabbed his hips to use his body to help me rise to my feet, his hand appeared in front of my face. As soon as I grabbed it, he hauled me up and into him.
Wrapping his arms tightly around me, he whispered, “I love you, T,” right before he took my mouth in a kiss that showed me just how much he did.
Yes, we were finally making good memories again. And I would damn well treasure every one of them.
CHAPTER 19
Ronan (Now)
I heard his bare feet making their way down the spiral staircase. While he had been in the pool, I warmed up one of the dinners delivered earlier in the week.
Tate occasionally cooked for us since he was better at it than I was. But since he worked late and once he got home he liked to swim laps to stay in shape, I still kept the freezer fully stocked by ordering meals from my favorite chef at the local downtown restaurant.
The table was set for two and I had placed a bottle of Cabernet Franc on ice to chill.
As he strode through the kitchen only wearing his damp swim trunks and with his cell phone and a wet towel in his hands, I expected him to keep heading toward the bedroom to quickly rinse off the chlorine in the shower.
He didn’t.
He set his stuff on the counter nearby and then went bare toe to bare toe with me.
When he gave me a blinding smile, I cocked an eyebrow, wondering what was up.
“I just wanted to let you know that the whole time I swam laps, I could only think of you. It made me swim faster because I couldn’t wait to come back down here and tell you how much I love you.”
If that declaration didn’t make my heart swell to the point of exploding, nothing would. “You tell me all the time, T.”
“It’s still not enough.”
Damn.
I slowly pulled in a breath. If he asked me for the world, I’d do everything in my power to give it to him. I was that far gone. And here we were only six months in this second time around.
Our second chance at finding our very own forever.
Even though things were going well, I reminded myself six months was only a blip in time. As we both knew, the calm seas that were currently giving us smooth sailing could turn choppy by an unexpected storm at any time.
I wrapped my arms around his waist and pulled him into me. His skin was cooler to the touch than normal from being in the pool, but I could easily turn that around.
He planted both palms on my chest to push away from me. “My bathing suit is still wet.”
I tightened my hold, not letting him escape. “I don’t care.” Pressing my mouth lightly to his, I murmured, “So you know, I don’t tell you enough, either.” His erection pressed against me. “Obviously, you weren’t only thinking about how much you loved me.”
He shook against me with barely-contained laughter and I grinned against his mouth. Then I claimed it completely.
We kissed until I was hard, too, and we were grinding our cocks together. If we didn’t stop, dinner would burn and we’d end up having to disinfect the counter.
All of that might be worth it, though.
I pulled back with a resigned sigh.
He rocked his pelvis, grinding his hard-on once more against mine. “Do we want to thumb-wrestle to see who bottoms tonight?” he asked a little breathlessly.
“We already know who will win that.”
He lifted his right fist and wiggled his thumb. “I’ve been working on my thumb strength,” he teased.
I mmm-hmm’d. “You can use that thumb elsewhere.”
“If we don’t decide now, how are we going to know which one of us should eat light?” he teased, playfully pinching my nipple through my T-shirt.
As I opened my mouth to answer him, his phone vibrated loudly against the granite countertop with an incoming text. Before I could see who it was from, he pulled free of my arms and quickly snatched it up.
With a furrowed brow, he read it and murmured, “Sorry, I have to make a quick phone call.”
He walked out of the kitchen and into the living room with his head tipped down as he tapped away at his cell phone, his unruly dark hair falling across his forehead. Even with his tightly-trimmed beard covering his jaw, it was easy to see when it clenched.