AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Only if you want to. I’m content like this.”
She turns into me more and presses her hand over my heart. I suck in a breath when her weight covers a portion of my new tattoo. Her eyes widen at my expression. “Are you okay? What’s the matter?”
I sit up a little and kiss her forehead. “Yeah, baby. I’m okay. Just got a new tattoo today.”
Cora perks up next to me. “You got a new tattoo? Can I see it?”
Eventually, I knew Cora would see my new tattoo. I just had no idea it would be tonight. Not that I fear her seeing it. Only curious how she will react.
I scoot forward a few inches and tug my shirt over my head, tossing it aside. The moment she sees it, all air leaves the room. “Gavin,” she gasps. “I… I don’t know what to say.”
As I sit back against the cushion, she shifts closer to me. Her fascination with the ink is cute. By the way she studies it, I know she wants to run her fingers over it. “It’ll heal over the next week,” I inform her.
Her eyes well as she peeks up at me. “You know that’s forever, right?”
“You are my forever, Cora. No other name will brand my skin. No other woman will have my heart. It has belonged to you since the first day of high school. The day I joined you under that tree and you drew me beside you on a sketch pad.”
Tears spill from her eyes. “You’re my forever, too. I tried to move on for so many years. Tried to care for another person. God, how I tried. But it never happened. Even when I tried to force it. Because I could never imagine life with someone other than you. So, I tucked you away for safekeeping in the hopes you would return.”
I pinch the ends of her hair and play with it between my fingers. Fuck, I want to kiss her. But I promised I wouldn’t kiss her until she initiated the kiss. And fuck if that isn’t the most difficult vow to keep right now. Because everything about this day, this moment, cries out for me to lean forward and press my lips to hers.
She brings a hand to my other pec and skims over the flesh. Electricity shoots through every atom, cell, and molecule in my body. I swear to god, if she doesn’t kiss me soon, I will break my promise. Because as patient as I am, this is pure torture.
Just as I am ready to cave on my desires, she leans forward and presses her lips to my left pec, an inch above the tattoo. “I love you,” she says, breath hot on my skin.
And a switch flips inside me. Fire heats my blood, scorches my skin, has me panting for breath. I become a starved man and Cora is what my body needs to survive.
Twenty
Cora
The moment I kiss Gavin’s chest, a ticking time bomb detonates beneath my lips. As if my lips on his skin is the invitation he has been waiting for. The key to solve a riddle.
Before I grasp what is happening, Gavin scoops me up in his arms and walks toward my bedroom. A moment later, he tosses me on the bed and crawls over me. His lips brand my navel as he shoves my shirt up my torso and over my head. Every press of his lips is kindling added to a raging inferno inside me. An inferno that has always been there, but faded with his absence.
He peppers kisses across my collar bone and up my neck, nipping and sucking. His forearms press into the mattress on either side of me and cage me in. I knead the sides of his ribcage and around his backside, digging my nails into his bare flesh.
“Oh god, Gavin,” I gasp, tipping my head back.
His lips graze my jawline and finally land on my mouth. Liquid heat swipes across my lower lip and begs me to open up for him. The second his tongue brushes against mine, I lose all coherent thought. Gavin is everywhere. The saltiness of his lips on my skin mingles with my taste buds. His fevered skin heats up every inch of my skin. The piney-beach scent only Gavin has seeps into my senses. Fuck, it’s
too much.
He hovers above me a second. “I want you, baby. To be inside you.”
“God, yes.”
As soon as I grant him permission, Gavin’s hands travel to my waist and unfasten my jeans. He jostles them down my hips and yanks them to my ankles before depositing them on the floor. The pads of his fingers graze the tips of my toes and slowly descend over the tops of my feet. “Do you know how long I’ve waited for this?” Heat dances over my ankles and ascends my shin. “How long I’ve waited to see you?” Tingles play over my knee and tease the distal end of my thigh. “To touch you.” Sparks ignite in my quads and I squirm beneath him. “To love you.”
His hands reach my hips and I am ready to explode from anticipation. But he remains idle, his fingers toying with the bands of my panties. I pant and wriggle beneath him. “So, what are you waiting for now?” I tease, egging him on.
A smirk tugs at the side of his mouth. “Baby, I’m just reveling in the moment. I won’t take you or us or our lives for granted. Never again.”
“Gavin…” I whisper into the darkness.
He lowers himself and presses a sweet, earnest kiss to my lips. Packed with intensity and longing and hope. “I love you, Cora. I have loved you for as long as I can remember. And I will love you for the rest of my days.” We kiss as if the past thirteen years never happened, as if time was never stolen from us, and the world rights itself again. Stars burn brighter. Planets align. And everything goes back in its rightful place.
As our lungs gasp for air, Gavin breaks the kiss and his lips trace my ear and down my neck. He massages the sides of my torso as he lavishes kisses down my sternum, between my breasts, and stops at my navel. Fingers skirt around my backside and unhook my bra. Heated breaths paint my navel for three unshakable beats before his hands glide out and slip the black barrier from my breasts.
