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Cora
The momentI 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.
Neither of us moves for a moment. Instead, we lay impossibly still and absorb everything about this experience. The last time Gavin saw this much of my body, I was a sixteen-year-old girl. Although my body hasn’t changed drastically over the last thirteen years, I am not the same. And neither is he. Not just our bodies, but also who we are as people. Yes, I am still that girl under the tree in the courtyard who fell desperately in love with Gavin Hunt. A boy who only wanted to share the shady tree with me.
But now, I am the woman who has fallen in love all over again. The woman who is brave enough to give myself over to him, wholeheartedly. As heartbroken and devastated as I was over the last thirteen years, I forgive him for the things he could not control. Things neither of us could control. For all the moments he wanted to come back to me and was unable to. As much as I tried to deny it, Gavin was always here. Tucked away in my heart. Rooted deep in my bones. Flowing through my veins. Hiding in the corners of my mind. Holding me captive. Telling me to be patient and wait for him. I see this now. All these reasons are why I was never able to truly let anyone else into my heart. Because Gavin had it. Has it.
And he always will.
“I love you, Gavin,” I whisper as I comb my fingers through his hair.
He shudders above me before he feathers a kiss to my navel. The pads of his fingers imprint my back, my sides, my hips. They knead and paw and bruise in the most delicious way. His kisses transition from sweet to hungry and ravenous. I curl my fingers into fists and tug his hair as my back arches off the bed and I gasp at his touch. Gavin nips along the hemline of my underwear until he reaches my hip. He sucks and sucks and sucks, and it is not until a moment later that I realize he is marking me. Claiming me. As his. The notion of his lips and tongue bruising my skin sets me on fire and I moan.
After he is satisfied with his work, he raises enough to peer up at me. “Fuck. The way your soul coos for me, baby. You’re my own personal heaven and I never want to leave.”
“Never.”
“Never,” he repeats.
Gavin slips his fingers beneath the band of my panties, grazes the skin below one, two, three times, then hooks the cotton in his grip and peels it away from my body. After he tosses them to the floor, he stands at the foot of the bed and ogles every inch of me. His steely eyes sear my flesh as he takes in every inch of me.
Normally, I would be shy under such scrutiny. But with Gavin, I crave his appraisal. Long for his eyes to drink in every fragment of my wanton body. Beg for his undeniable need for me.
Over the years, I never allowed this with the few people I’d been with. Never let them that close to me. Hell, I never removed my clothes. I was good with celibacy.
But with Gavin… I willingly bared every aspect of myself to him. Heart. Soul. The good, bad and ugly. He is the missing piece. My forever. The be-all and end-all. And there will never be anything that stands between us.
My eyes lock on his for three panting breaths before he breaks the connection. His drift down the lines and curves of my body, and mine do the same. Down his neck, across his collar bones, the hollow spot at the base of his throat. When I get to his pecs, I groan as I read my name permanently imprinted on his skin. Who knew something so simple could be the hottest display of affection. My heart is a fierce monster beneath my breast bone—pound, pound, pounding to be set free.
In my periphery, Gavin unbuttons and lowers his shorts. Black boxer briefs barely contain his erection, and I unabashedly stare at his groin. Was he always that big? I swallow and know he hears it.
He palms his erection through the cotton. “See something you like, baby?” A hint of sarcasm laces his question.
“You have no idea,” I say, brazen.
