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“Eating out my woman is the best fucking meal I’ve ever had,” he whispered against my sensitized skin. “My God, how perfect you are.”
How perfect he was, I wanted to echo back, but I no longer had the capacity to speak.
The caress of his breath on my pulsating clit was the only warning I had before his mouth closed over it completely and sucked,hard. An airless scream, no louder than a whisper, escaped my clenched throat as my hips bounced off the bed to grind mindlessly into him. Pleasure grew like a hurricane, so wild and intense it swept away every thought in my head save one—to find that ultimate rapture just beyond my reach.
The tension in my core folded in on itself again and again, building up to an orgasm so powerful it would undoubtedly shatter me. Then, as the room went airless and every muscle and tendon in my body grew as taut as piano wire, that magnificent tension finally,finally, broke.
A world of brilliance exploded, not just in each and every one of my cells, but in every part of my soul. Joy danced with rapture, and heaven was its playground. I writhed with the immensity of it, sure I’d never forget that moment, that perfection, that unbelievably selfless gift Luke had given me, but even as I floated along that river of bliss, I knew I still needed more.
I neededhim.
“Inside me,” I breathed, still so awash in ecstasy I could barely put the words together. “I need you, Luke, oh God, Luke, I need you…inside me.”
His groan vibrated against my skin as he sucked hard once more and I came again, my body bucking against a pleasure so deep it was burying me alive. I loved it. I was still caught in the throes of rapture when he came up on his knees, slung my feet over his shoulders and entered me in one powerful thrust. I cameagain, but I couldn’t even be shocked about it because he was filling me, filling me, and oh God, he felt so good when he merged into me and I finally had him where he belonged.
I didn’t know I’d said those words out loud until I heard them, shaken and reverent, echoing in my ears. A harsh growl ripped from him before he surged into me like a wild man bent on impaling me all the way to my soul. I wrapped my legs around him and gave him everything I had, cherishing the feel of every plunging thrust and retreating glide until his head flung back and he groaned out my name like it was the only word holding his life together.
Of all the memories I was sure I’d never forget, watching him come, seeing the pleasure I could give him, was the greatest memory of them all.
Minutes, or maybe eons, slid by before he stirred just long enough to tug the comforter over our heated, tangled bodies. “Baby, if you can’t sleep after that,” he murmured, gently easing out of me to curl my limp body into his side, “I’m going to need a few minutes before I can try again. But trust me, one way or another I’m going to get you all the sleep you need.”
“All I need is you,” I whispered, already drifting off. “Just you, and nothing else.”
“Then you’ll always have everything you need,” I thought I heard him promise before sleep came to claim me at last.
Chapter Seventeen
What Will You Tell the Kids?
“Long before I made my way to New Hope and I hadn’t been able to land any tricks for a day or two, I’d hang out in an alley across from Don Won Chinese restaurant so I could scrounge whatever food they’d thrown away. To this day, my stomach turns whenever someone even mentions Chinese food. But this,” Kels said, flapping a soggy, cold French fry around like a limp noodle before dropping it onto his cafeteria tray, “issomuch worse. I get why hospital food has to be gross for patients on restricted diets, but does it have to be gag-worthy for everyone?”
“Obviously they’ve got a diabolical plan going on here,” I said, delicately sliding the wettish, underdone meringue off an equally wettish lemon pie, then stared at it in despair. “They make everyone sick with this slop so they can make money off those who need to have their stomachs pumped. I say we let them know we’re on to their scam and squeeze them for every penny they have.”
“Once a Steadfast, always a Steadfast.” Giving up on trying to ingest said slop, Kels pushed his tray away, gave it a nasty look for existing, then leaned his forearms on the table with a confidential air. “The question is, does your new beau actually know what a Steadfast is, or are you still in that ‘I’m a sweet little baby angel’ phase of the relationship?”
“Oh, he knows.” I gave up as well, placing my partially dissected pie on his rejected tray. “In fact, he knowseverythingabout me, including about the night my mother died.”
Kels’s eyes bugged. “Everything?”
“Everything.” I nodded, amazed at the gentle flow of peace coursing through me. “For once, I held nothing back and I fully expected him to bail after seeing the real me, but he didn’t. In fact he did the opposite, Kels. I don’t think anyone has ever held on to me so tightly I couldn’t help but feel like… I don’t know. Like I was the most necessary person in the world. I’ll never forget it.”
“Wow,” he said just above a whisper, and it was a genuine sound of awe. “That’s incredible.”
“Tell me about it.”
“And incredibly romantic.”
That made a brow lift. “Um, what?”
“You heard me.”
“Kels, romance is a dozen roses and sex on a rug in front of a fire while Barry White croons in the background. It’s not telling your lover you became a murderer at the age of eight.”
“Stop letting facts get in the way of reality,” he said, impatiently waving my words away. “Eden, you showed the man in your life the ugliest, most terrible side of you, and what did he do? He welcomed it with open arms, without judgment or recrimination. My God, there’s nothing more romantic than someone accepting you for who you really are. Don’t you see that?”
“I… don’t know,” I said, though that wasn’t quite true. The peace I’d found in Luke’s arms had been so overwhelming that at the time I’d simply put it down to the old adage of confession being good for the soul. But Kels was right; Luke had accepted everything I’d told him without a blink, and even supported me and my long-ago actions. That was more precious than all the gold in the world. “Luke’s unlike any man I’ve ever met.”
“That’s for sure.”
