“Oh,” she groaned, arching into his fingers as they teased her clit. “Oh, fuck.”
“Shh. You have to be quiet, remember?” He thrust slowly inside her and she cried out. “Shh.”
But she cried out again and again, and he urged her on, telling her how beautiful she looked, telling her how she drove him crazy. “I need to feel you come for me, Eve. I need to feel that. I need to see that. Come for me.”
She couldn’t believe Brian was saying these wicked things. Couldn’t believe how rough and dark his voice was. He’d always been so careful with her. Always so circumspect. And now his voice was in her ear, telling her to come. Come.
He drove her crazy with the same slow thrusts, but his fingers stroked her clit faster and she was screaming now. Screaming as she felt everything in her body draw tight and heavy and huge. And then she broke apart with a wild cry, her hips bucking against him, forcing him to fuck her harder, faster.
“Yes,” he growled. “Yes, Eve. Jesus...I can’t...” His words ended on a strangled growl as he shuddered and pushed himself deep inside her body.
She slipped her hands down his slick back, thrilled that she’d made him sweat for her, thrilled at the way his breath tore from his throat. And thrilled with the unbelievable pleasure that had nearly broken her in two.
It was too much with him. Everything always had been. And though she’d told herself that he’d never live up to her fantasies, that it couldn’t possibly be that good... God, it had been.
How the hell was she going to leave?
But she didn’t have to think about that now. Not for a few minutes. He was still inside her, after all, still naked and pressed against her. He put his forehead to hers and opened his eyes. “You’re beautiful when you come,” he murmured.
“So are you,” s
he said, meaning it despite the way he laughed and shook his head. When he rolled off her to grab a tissue, she blinked in shock. He’d left her body too quickly. Didn’t he know she’d never get to feel that again?
He lay back down with a sigh. “I didn’t think that could feel better than I’d fantasized, but Jesus...”
She smiled despite her sadness. “Yeah. I know.” When he tucked his arm behind her head, she turned toward him. It felt like the most natural thing in the world to lay naked against him, her knee on his thigh, her belly against his hip. How could it feel like resuming her normal place when she’d never done this before?
“Did you fantasize about this?” she asked as she laid her cheek against his warm chest.
“Yes. A thousand times. Did you?”
“Yes.”
“I was never sure. Not until the very end.”
She brushed her hand lightly across the dark hair of his chest. “I didn’t want you to know.”
He nodded. “I know. We were friends. It felt too important to risk, especially since...” He let the words die, and Eve didn’t fill them in. “It got so bad I could barely be around you sometimes. And when I realized you felt the same, it made it better and worse all at the same time. I had to go.”
She stroked her hand down until she could skim her fingers over his stomach. His muscles drew in. She touched his hipbone, his thigh. She memorized the shape of him under her fingers. Because two years ago, he’d had to go. He’d had to leave her. And she couldn’t forgive him for that.
“How long have you planned to come back?” she asked.
“When I left, I knew I’d come back if I could. And six months ago, Julia and I decided it was over. There were loose ends that needed tying up. Details to work out. But it was over.”
“What if I’d met someone? What if I’d gotten married?” she tried to ask it lightly, but his chest rose beneath her cheek on a deep breath.
“I couldn’t ask you to wait. Everything was up in the air. I knew I was taking a big chance, but I had to go back to Raleigh one more time.”
She nodded, but she wanted to scream. She wanted to hit him and tell him he could stuff his morals where the sun didn’t shine. Because what he meant was that it had been worth the risk. Worth the risk of giving her up forever. Worth never knowing if everything he’d wanted was right there in front of him. Worth breaking her heart.
She hadn’t been able to talk to anyone. She’d had to carry on as if she were happy to have this new business, this new life.
“I had to remodel the gallery, you know.” She closed her eyes and listened to his heartbeat. “I had to spend money I didn’t have to change everything, because I could see you there. Every day. In every corner.”
His arm squeezed her closer. “I’m sorry.”
“Everything I’d ever worked for, all those years in banking and finance, working with people who didn’t understand anything about me... All those years of saving up and dreaming, and I finally had a place. My own place in the world. And it meant nothing without you.”