Page 88 of Don’t Go Breaking My Heart

My muscles tensed and pleasure washed over me in waves. Kannon hit a spot deep inside of me and I screamed out his name. My body convulsed and the force of the orgasm knocked me down. I fell across his chest unable to stay upright. Kannon kept moving until he joined me in sweet, sweet ecstasy.

His breath came in hot, heavy gasps against my neck. His heart pounded under my palm, nearly as fast as my own was beating. The room felt suspended in time around us as the aftershocks of our pleasure washed over us in waves. We lay there together, not moving for a long time. When I finally lifted my head to look at him, he was staring back at me with an expression that made my chest tighten.

“Did I hurt you?” I asked, remembering the bruises.

He chuckled. “No.”

I moved off of him. My legs felt like jelly. My body was still twitching. He traced a hand gently down my spine, coming to rest at the small of my back. I didn’t think I was tired, but the sex had put me into a state of languidness that made it impossible for me to even move.

I let myself drift on the cloud of bliss I was floating on.

35

KANNON

Well, that was intense. And incredible.

It was the kind of night that made you rethink everything you thought you knew about yourself, about her, about what we were doing here, in this bed, tangled up like there wasn’t a single reason to let go.

Merritt’s breath was soft against my chest, her head resting just below my shoulder. I ran my fingers through her hair, trying to let the moment sink in, trying to savor it. But before I could slip too far into the haze of euphoria, her voice pulled me back.

“I’ve been thinking,” she said softly.

I opened my eyes and looked down at her. She was propped up on one elbow now, her messy hair spilling over her bare shoulder. She looked at me like she was trying to decide whether to trust me with what was on her mind.

“Tell me,” I said.

Her gaze dropped for a moment, like she needed to gather her courage before diving in. Then she looked back at me. “I’ve missed you,” she admitted. “I’ve missed you so much, and it scares the hell out of me to admit that. I can honestly say there hasn’t been a day since I left Dallas ten years ago that I haven’t thought about you.”

“Yeah?”

She nodded. “Yeah. I cannot tell you how many times I picked up the phone to call you.”

“Why didn’t you?”

“I was afraid,” she admitted, her voice barely louder than a whisper. “Afraid that you would reject me, that you had moved on or—or that you’d ask me to come back.”

The raw vulnerability she displayed moved something deep in my chest. I touched her cheek gently with my fingers. “Merritt,” I whispered, trying to quell the storm of emotions in her eyes. “You should have known I’d never be able to move on from you.”

“You did,” she countered. “You built a life without me.”

“I existed,” I corrected her.

“Still.”

“Tell me,” I said again.

She took a deep breath. “I already have enough regrets, Kannon. I can’t carry the weight of more of them. And that’s exactly what I’d be doing if I went back to work on Valentine’s Day without giving this a real shot.”

“This?” I asked, tilting my head and forcing her to spill it out.

“Us,” she said, her lips twitching into a small smile. “You know what I mean.”

Us.

That sent me reeling in the best way. I traced my thumb along her cheek, down to her lips, enjoying the softness of her skin. “Us,” I repeated, my lips curving into a grin. “I like the sound of that, Buttercup.”

She didn’t roll her eyes or tell me to stop calling her that, which was new. Instead, she leaned her cheek more firmly into my palm and closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them again, there was a vulnerability there that I wasn’t used to seeing from her. Merritt was a fierce woman that had proven time and again she was not afraid to conquer the world. But in that moment, I saw a hint of fear. It made me want to pull her into my arms and shield her from the world.