“Fuck.” He blows out a sharp breath. “I’m so sorry. I should have realized something had happened. I saw how upset you were at breakfast that morning—this was after we spent the day together, wasn’t it?”
“Don’t. You didn’t do this, and I handled it.” I wrap my hands around his body, pulling myself closer.
"You shouldn't have had to handle that alone. That's not nothing."
"It's over now. He's not here. It's just us. Don’t let it ruin tonight."
"What he threatened... that's not something you move past in a single conversation." He exhales slowly, his thumb brushing along my collarbone.
"James, it happened almost two years ago. I've processed it. Gone to therapy. I'm okay. I'm not brushing past it or ignoring the severity of it." I meet his eyes.
He studies my face for a long moment, then slowly pulls me closer, resting his forehead against mine. “I… fuck, we’ve wasted so much time.”
“Then let’s not waste a minute more.”
His lips crash into mine. A hard, desperate kiss that steals the air from my lungs and makes every moment of waiting worth it.
“I love you,” he breathes against my mouth.
My heart aches for everything we lost, all the moments we were forced to bury. But none of it matters now. I kiss him back, pouring years of longing, regret, and love into every touch.
He pulls back, eyes dark and pleading. “Say it.”
A slow smile curves my lips. He watches it like it holds every answer he’s ever wanted.
“I want to hear you say it,” he repeats, his voice hoarse.
I cup his face, feeling the slight tremble in his jaw. “I love you. Today. Tomorrow. I don’t know what the future holds, but I promise to show up and keep choosing you.”
A tortured sound escapes him as he lifts me, my legs wrapping around his waist, and he sits with me straddling his lap, breathing deep. My hands bury themselves in the dark waves at his nape, guiding him closer as his mouth meets mine. A kiss that offers everything and asks for nothing.
With one finger, he slips the first strap off my shoulder. He presses his lips between my breasts before gently sliding the other strap down my arm. I lift my hips, easing the slip and thong away. And I let him see me. Not the woman trying to be perfect, not the mother burying her desires. Just me. His fingers trace my curves as his eyes study every inch of my body.
“I used to lie in bed dreaming of these freckles,” he whispers, kissing the scattering of brown dots on my collarbone, trailing down my chest. “Fantasizing how far they traveled down.”
His tongue follows their path. I groan when he finds the tender skin of my breast.
“I’ve waited a long time for this.” His mouth claims mine again. “But now I’m yours and I’m never letting you go.”
“We’re ours.”
There’s no urgency, only a slow undoing. The candlelight flickers around us as we strip away years of distance, moment by moment.
When I slide his pants from his hips and stretch my body over his, we both let out shaky breaths. Skin to skin, nothing separating us. The heavy, hard length of him rests between my thighs as I slowly move against him, my warmth seeking his fullness.
“Sydney,” he groans, eyes heavy-lidded. “You keep doing that, I’m going to last maybe ten seconds. Let me love you first.”
“Show me what you’ve got.”
And he does.
His mouth worships every part of me, slow and unrelenting, learning exactly how to make me shatter—with his tongue, his fingers, his unrelenting devotion. He brings me to the edge again and again until I’m trembling and sated. Sparks dance beneath my skin. Flaring and fading, firefly-bright. He crawls up my body, kissing me through the tremors and groaning like the sound of me unraveling is his favorite thing.
I flip us in one swift movement. My tongue takes a slow journey down his body, memorizing him the way he did me. James’s fingers roam across every inch of skin he can reach, my name spilling from his lips between groans when words fail him.
“Darling,” he rasps, “I’m holding on by one tiny thread of control.”
“I’ve always wondered how far I could push you before that restraint finally snapped.”
