She gave him something to hold on to.
Her.
Chapter Fifteen
The second her lips touched his, all rational thought fled. He’d literally just been to hell and back, and that wasn’t even close to the end of this horrible ride. It was only going to get worse. He’d have to stand in front of a crowded room tomorrow with hundreds of cameras pointed on him, and he’d have to announce to the world that his father, the man who had raised him and loved him was gone. Just…gone.
How the hell was he supposed to do that?
How that hell was that fair?
Growling, he picked her up in his arms and walked toward the bed, refusing to stop to think this through. She’d kissed him this time, not the other way around.
And damn it all to hell, he needed this now more than ever.
Needed…her.
Laying her on the bed, he lowered his body over hers, never breaking off the kiss. Trailing his fingers up the outside of her thigh, he thrust against her warm heat, and buried his other hand in her hair. She wrapped her legs around his waist, holding him tightly against her, and slid her hand behind the nape of his neck as her tongue curled around his.
Her teeth pressed against his lip, and she undid his jacket with shaking hands. As she worked on undressing him, he broke off contact with her lips long enough to yank her shirt over her head, and her tank top, too. Within seconds, her bra and leggings joined them on the floor, and he had her naked before she even had his jacket off.
He shrugged out of it, and then took care of the rest of his clothing before finally taking in her naked body. Never in his life had he seen a more glorious woman, as if she were made especially for him. When he was with her, she filled an emptiness inside of him that he hadn’t even known was there until he held her in his arms again.
Mine.
So many years apart, so many missed opportunities to be together, so much fucking waste. Meeting her eyes for the first time since she kissed him, he opened his mouth, and closed it again. She looked at him as if she felt it, too.
The completion.
They locked gazes, and she bit down on her lip, nodded once, and opened her arms, answering his unasked question. He lowered himself over her perfection, hissing as her bare skin touched his in all the right places. Her eyelids drifted shut, and she buried her hands in his hair as his lips melded to hers. The way she fit against him, softness where he was hard, hollows where he was full, had never been so obvious to him before as it was now. She was made for him, always had been, and if there was a God in heaven, he would never have to lose her again.
“Alicia…” Closing his hands over her breasts, he deepened the kiss as he sque
ezed her nipples between his fingers, rubbing his hard cock against her. She arched her hips up, silently asking him to do what they both wanted—drive inside of her.
But she wasn’t ready.
Not yet.
Breaking off the kiss, he kissed a path down her body, pausing at her breasts. Covering one with his hand, he played with her nipple as he sucked the other in his mouth, scraping his teeth against it ever so slightly. She hissed and pressed his head closer, burying her fingers in the hair at the back of his neck.
He slipped a hand between her legs to slide inside her wet folds. Digging her feet into the mattress, she cried out and gripped the comforter underneath her, bunching it up.
Licking her inner thigh, he teased her, watching as she squirmed and her breaths increased. He cupped her ass and lifted her hips up. “Look at me.”
Her eyes drifted open, and she bit her lower lip.
“This isn’t just sex.” He tightened his grip on her, digging his fingers into her soft skin. She was less than an inch from his mouth, so he blew on her heated flesh. “Right here, right now, you’re mine, and I’m yours, and this connection between us is real. This is us, and you can’t say you don’t feel it, too. Don’t deny me again. Not right now.”
She took a deep breath, her breasts rising high, and nodded. “I feel it, too.”
In all the madness of the day, and all the pain, one thing hadn’t changed.
His feelings for her.
Lowering his head, he flicked his tongue over her, and she strained to get even closer to his mouth. Her responses nearly made him come on the spot. He thrust his tongue inside her, groaning at how damn good she tasted. A small, breathy cry escaping her as he fucked her with his tongue. The second her walls clamped around him and her body went lax, he let her hit the mattress. “Condom?” he asked, his voice strained.
She grabbed her purse off the nightstand, opened it, and pulled one out. He tore it out of her fingers and made quick work of rolling it on. As he did, she trailed her fingers over his abs, going lower and lower with soft, teasing caresses. By the time she closed her hand around him, his breaths were coming faster and harder, and he was seconds from losing control.