“Crystal, stop. Can’t we just talk?”
“We are talking. This is you and me talking. So say what you need to say. If I had come and told you goodbye, what would you have said to me? Huh?”
He advanced on her. “I never would have let you go. That’s what I would have told you!”
“That would have been pretty selfish of you, wouldn’t it?”
Stopping in front of her, he towered over her. “Yeah, babe. I’m a selfish guy. You’re right. But that doesn’t mean you leaving was the right thing either.”
“I had to, Wolf. Why can’t you understand that?” she said in a deflated voice.
“I’ll never understand that, Crystal. Never.”
She turned away. “It’s done. We can’t go back. Too much has happened.”
“It’s not done. Not for me.” He pulled her around to face him as he stared down into her eyes. “Not for me, Crystal. It won’t ever be done.”
“Wolf.” She stared up at him and felt her heart breaking all over again. “Don’t do this. Please. I can’t take it.”
His hands lifted to cup her cheeks. “One thing I know about you, babe. Your kisses don’t lie. They never have.”
With that his mouth came down on hers. Not rough and demanding, like she expected, but gentle, testing, seeking entry, coaxing her to open for him. It was her undoing. And so she did. Because she couldn’t lie, he was right. She couldn’t deny the way he made her feel. The way he always made her feel.
When her mouth opened and his tongue delved inside, his hold tightened as he pulled her close, flush against his body. Her hands landed on his waist, and then slid up under his tee shirt to find the heat of his bare skin. She heard him groan at her touch, one arm dropping to the small of her back to pull her tighter against him.
The long months they’d been apart, the miles she’d put between them, none of it mattered, none of it could dim the feelings they had for each other. It was as if they hadn’t been separated. The rightness of being in his arms engulfed her just like it always did when he held her.
A moment later, she found herself flat on her back on the bed, with Wolf on top of her, kissing her like he’d never stop.
The weight of his muscular body pinned her to the bed, his heat surrounding her. His fingers threaded through her hair, tilting her head back, holding her just where he wanted her while his mouth plundered deep. When he finally came up for air and let her breathe, he murmured, “God, how I missed you, baby.”
She sucked in several gulping breaths, the feelings she had for him rising up to engulf her.
His mouth pressed soft kisses around her jaw, moving to her ear to whisper, “Tell me you missed me, too.”
She swallowed as he continued to nuzzle.
When she didn’t reply, he nipped at her earlobe. “Say it.”
Her arms strayed around his torso, her palms sliding under his tee shirt to the bare muscles of his back. He groaned at her touch, but then pulled back, hovering above her to stare down into her face.
“Say it, Crystal.”
She looked up at the intensity of his expression, the raw need in his eyes. And she couldn’t lie.
“I missed you, Wolf. So much.”
At her response, his mouth came down on hers again as his body slid up, his knee forcing her thighs apart. When she moved to accommodate his body, he groaned his approval, the sound captured by her mouth.
He lifted again to stare down at her, one hand moving to tenderly brush her hair back from her face again and again as his eyes moved over her face. Then they locked with hers. “I’ve missed this.”
“This?”
“You under me. You’re arms and legs wrapped around me, holding me close, making me feel the way only you do. I’ve missed us.”
“Shut up and kiss me, Wolf.” She didn’t want to think about what his words might mean. If they changed anything, or if they changed nothing at all. She didn’t want to know that answer right now. She just wanted to feel. To remember what it was like between them. How she’d never felt with anyone what she felt with this man.
She pulled his head down to hers, lifting to meet his mouth half way. He didn’t stop her. It seemed less talk and more action suited him fine, too.