There was a pause. A long one. One that frayed the nerves I was trying so hard to hide from my voice.
Then he moved. His mouth crashed onto mine, and I surrendered, submitted easily. There was no point fighting this. No reason to struggle about the years between us. The things that had changed. And many things had changed, that much was obvious.
But what hadn’t changed was the magic between us. The fire.
It was hotter than ever before.
It was an inferno.
And I let it devour me.
Let Cody devour me.We were naked on my bedroom floor.
After fucking against the wall, we’d moved to the bed. Fucked some more. That’s what this was. Fucking. It was primal. Urgent. Desperate. Carnal. Maybe there was still love in there somewhere, but this wasn’t making love. It was something else entirely. It was like I was losing my virginity to him all over again. No one had ever touched me like this. Cody had never touched me like this. It awoke something different inside of me.
We ended up tangled in blankets on the floor
Well, Cody was on the floor. I was mostly on top of him, relishing the feel of my skin on his. The need I had to be close to him was bordering on desperate. Like I had to make sure he wasn’t going anywhere. At least not without me attached to him.
We’d been quiet for a long time. He wasn’t asleep, though. I knew that because of how tight he was gripping me. Bordering on pain. Hinting at that same desperate need I had to have him close.
He’d missed me too.
Sure, I’d had my moments when I’d convinced myself it had all been fake. That Cody had never really loved me and that he was never coming back.
Those moments usually involved some kind of liquor or a romance movie.
But for the most part, I’d had hope. Maybe not hope that he was coming back, but that wherever he was, he was thinking of me. Missing me. Yearning for me like I was him.
And four orgasms had totally proven that.
Was this the part where I asked him about where he’d been? Who’d he been with? If he’d made good on his promise to murder the man who had ruined his childhood?
Maybe it was. Maybe a strong, independent woman would demand those kinds of answers, those kinds of specifics.
But I already knew the answer to a lot of those questions. Knew that Cody would not have spoken of murder lightly. And he wouldn’t have come back if he hadn’t done what he’d promised himself he was going to do.
He’d killed.
Perhaps done other things to change the core of him.
But I didn’t care.
However right or wrong that was. I didn’t care. He was still Cody. To me, at least.
“So I’m going to need you to do something if you’re really here for good,” I said, my voice raspy from crying out his name the past few hours.
His arms flexed around me before his fingers moved in lazy circles across my bare back.
“Anything, baby,” he murmured.
My heart jumped with that. With those two words. A promise.
“I’m going to need you to marry me,” I said.
His hands froze, his entire body going stiff. “Come again?”
I moved so my forearms rested on his pecs and my eyes locked in on his. “I know you’ve been gone these past years because you needed to be gone. I hated every moment of it, and sure, I wanted to hate you too. But the problem is, I just love you too much.” My eyes ran hungrily over his face then his neck where a heart hung from a chain. My heart. The one I’d given him five years ago.
“I want to make sure it’s harder for you to leave,” I said. “Now, I know that marriage isn’t a guarantee that you’re not going to leave, but I also know that you’re a man of honor. Of your word. So if you give me your word on forever, I’d be much happier.”
Cody stared at me for a long time, his eyes moving over me with hunger, with reverence, with a love that hadn’t dimmed over four years.
“Just to clarify, you’re askin’ me to marry you?” he asked.
I nodded.
Suddenly I was then I was no longer on top of him, Cody moving so I was entirely on the floor, and his body was entirely on mine. He didn’t give me his full weight, though. If he’d done that with all his new muscles, my ribcage might’ve been crushed.
His hand moved to push my hair from my face then he cupped my cheek. “You know I’m meant to do that, right? With some kinda fanfare. A ring?”
“You can give me all of that after. I just need your word. Just need you to give me forever,” I whispered.