A whole month. It isn’t right that I’ve been away from my daughter for that long. “I thought I could do it, but not seeing her has been killing me.”
“I knew it was going to be hard on you.”
“I expected to miss her, but I didn’t know that being apart was going to be this hard.”
Leighton gets up from the glider. “Sit. You need to hold her in your arms.”
It’s true. I need to feel her baby-soft touch. But I also need to hold Leighton.
I sit in the chair and cradle my daughter in my arms. I drag the back of my fingers down her soft cheek and chuckle aloud when I realize how much fuller her face has gotten.
“You need time with her. I’ll be in my room, but call out if you need anything.”
I’m disappointed that Leighton is leaving; I want to be with her too. But there’s time for that after I’ve held Scarlett for a while.
I spend the next half hour doing nothing but simply holding my sleeping daughter in my arms: watching her chest rise and fall as she breathes, listening to the air move in and out of her lungs, and feeling her occasionally squirm in my arms.
After I’ve gotten my fix, I kiss the top of Scarlett’s head and place my girl in her crib. The transition from my arms to the mattress stirs a light fret from her, but she quickly settles again and slips back into a deep sleep. “I love you.”
I’m still standing over her when Leighton returns to the nursery to check on us. She places her hands on the crib’s railing and leans over to look at Scarlett. “She has started sleeping through the night since you left. And sleeping late. She won’t wake in the mornings for her bottle until seven-thirty. Sometimes even eight.”
“I can’t believe how much I’ve missed her while I’ve been away.” It’s like she isn’t the same baby she was when I left.
“Babies change by leaps and bounds, and I’m sure that it must seem multiplied because you haven’t been here to watch it happening daily.”
“I don’t like not being here.”
“I don’t like your not being here either.”
I step closer and take her hand from the crib railing. I place our palms and outstretched fingers against one another and then lace our fingers together, forming a tight clasp. “Scarlett isn’t the only one that I’ve missed.”
The sound of an oh-so-soft gasp leaves her perfect pink lips. The sound emits a sweet, wholesome tenderness, while simultaneously oozing a seductive allure that sends a rush of blood to my cock. Makes me want to glide my wet tongue over every curve of her smooth skin, deep and shallow, until my mouth has tasted all of her peaks and valleys.
“Did you miss me, Leighton?”
“More than you can possibly imagine.” Her voice is so soft, barely more than a whisper.
Standing here with our fingers weaved together and our eyes connected like this… every feeling I’ve had for her these last few months suddenly makes sense.
Her breath was intended to be stolen by me. Her lips were intended to be kissed by mine. My body was intended to fit perfectly inside hers.
“I haven’t touched another woman while I’ve been gone. You’re the only one I’ve even looked at since the first of the year. The only one that I’ve thought about. And trust me, I’ve thought about you a lot.” I squeeze her hand. “Tell me that you believe me.”
“I believe you.”
Leighton Mitchell was made to be mine. And the sweet sigh I hear when I move my hands to her waist and pull her body against me tells me that I’m not wrong.
“I’m going to kiss you… unless you tell me not to.”
Her lips part and her tongue darts out to wet them. “I want you to kiss me.”
She watches my eyes as though she’s waiting to see if I’ll actually do it or not. She has no idea that I’ve been wanting to kiss her for months. Fantasized about it night and day.
Her eyes are locked on mine when I cup her jaw with my hands. I lick my lips and lean forward to press them to hers. Just the surface of lips on lips until we simultaneously open and our tongues taste each another.
Our firstrealkiss is slow. Seductive. Sultry.
And holy fucking hell. My body is instantly on fire. I cradle the back of her head and pull her closer, deepening our kiss, making me want her more than I dared to dream possible.