Page 61 of Come A Little Closer

I considered the question for a moment before I smiled again. “Do I forgive you for paying off debt that would’ve taken me years to clear just because you love me? It seems silly now that you even feel like you need to ask me that question.”

“Even so, I need to know, Tallulah.” Those eyes flicked from one of mine to the other. “Do you trust that I would never, ever do anything to undermine your control over your own life?”

“Yes,” I said without even having to think about it this time. “I also promise to try not to question everything every time you do something nice for me.”

“Good.” He pressed another hard kiss to my lips. “Because I plan on spoiling you rotten, my love. Please don’t take this the wrong way, but money doesn’t mean very much to me. I know it’s a luxury to be able to say that and I don’t take it for granted. It’s just that I’ve never had anyone who truly meant something to me to spend it on and I’m kind of excited about it.”

I looked right into his eyes, fighting the immediate instinct to say no. This was going to be a give and take. A compromise, and if I couldn’t find a way to accept that, Niall and I were both in for a world of pain and heartache.

“How about we take it slow?” I suggested, tightening my calves around his ass and rolling my hips a little. “For today, let’s stick to buying whatever we want from the food trucks that are already here and spoil each other with love and kisses.”

“I can do that,” he promised against my lips, sealing his over them again and sweeping his tongue into my mouth.

I moaned as I returned his kiss, my body melting under his expert touches as he ran his hands lightly over me. Niall, for all his tailored suits and hard-edged looks was an incredibly passionate, expressive lover. He was open and communicative, never hiding how turned on he was or how much he liked what we were doing.

It was so damn hot to know that I was the only one seeing him like this, and while it still bothered me a little bit that he was so much more experienced than I was, I wasn’t about to let that stop me.

Making out with him had fast become one of my favorite pastimes, and as his tongue dominated my own, my entire body filled with need for him. I hung onto him tighter, kissing him harder as I started writhing underneath him, the festival I’d poured all my energy into for so long just about forgotten.

28

NIALL

It took everything I had in me, but I finally managed to tear myself away from Tallulah. My cock hated me for it, weeping as it strained against my fly, but I was insatiable when it came to her. This would have to wait until we had more time or else I was afraid we’d miss the festivities entirely.

Which was okay by me.

I’d seen how it’d turned out and I’d attended every festival since I’d taken it over, but this was Tallulah’s first and she’d put her heart and soul into it. I didn’t want to be the reason she didn’t get to enjoy it at all.

As I wrenched my mouth away from hers, she took one look at my face and then started shaking her head, pulling me closer to her as she widened her eyes. “No. No. No. No. No. We’re not stopping now, mister. I know what you’re about to say and my answer is no.”

I groaned and pressed a kiss to each of her eyes, staring down at her beautiful face and honestly not believing that I was fighting her on this. “Trust me, if it was up to me, I’d tear your clothes off right now and keep you here until Sunday, but it’s not up to me.”

“Yes, it is,” she argued, arching her hips to grind against the iron rod in my pants and whimpering as her lids fluttered closed. “We don’t have to go right away.”

“We do, my love. If we don’t, we’ll miss the whole opening and I know you don’t want that.”

“What I want right now, is you,” she said, her voice soft and her tone pleading. “We can hear the bands. Why do we need to be able to see them, too?”

“It’s not the bands we want to see,” I murmured, easing myself off her before I gave in. “It’s the people. I know you want to see them enjoying what you’ve put together.”

She let out a groan of protest and closed her eyes, covering her face with her hands and drawing in a deep breath. I sat up on the couch, running a hand lazily up and down the length of her shin before I turned to look at her again.

Her hair was tousled from rolling around with me and her cheeks were flushed, her chest rising and falling fast as she tried to catch her breath. Meanwhile, my cock was still trying to punch its way out of my dark blue jeans and my heart was racing.

It was weird to be so torn between my emotions and my libido. Before Tallulah, those two things hadn’t coincided very often, but in this case, as much as I wanted to take her to bed, in my heart, I knew it was more important for us to go out there.

I leaned over and gently wrapped my fingers around her wrists, lifting her hands off her face. “Look at me, love.”

She finally blinked open her eyes, smiling when she saw me hovering less than half a foot away. “Hi.”

“Hi.” I slid my fingers between hers and held her gaze firmly. “As soon as we’ve had our fill of the festival, I’m going to bring you back here and I’m going to make love to you all night long. We’ll make up for this and then some, okay?”

Twinkling lights went on behind her eyes. “That sounds really good. Will you stay?”

“Wild horses couldn’t drag me away,” I promised as I stood, keeping hold of her hands and pulling her up with me. “I love you.”

She grinned, falling into my arms and humming as she wrapped hers around my neck. “I love you. Now let’s go before I change my mind.”