“Yes.” I force myself up a little more, reaching for her, ignoring the white-hot pain in my arms. “Yes, Noelle, a thousand times yes. I am—” I struggle to force the words out, my lips dry and cracked, my throat hurting. “I am so sorry. I will spend my life trying to show you, to tell you, how sorry—”
My voice breaks again, tears rising to my eyes, and I hear Noelle’s soft gasp as she takes my hands in hers, leaning forward.
“Don’t cry,” she whispers softly, kissing my cheeks where the tears have started to fall. “I’m here, Alexandre. And I forgive you—everything. We’ll start over together. We’ll go slow.”
Her lips slide down my cheek as her hand cups my face, her mouth brushing over mine. It feels cool and dry compared to the heat of mine, and I wouldn’t have thought my battered body capable of arousal just now.
I quickly find out just how wrong I am.
My cock hardens instantly as Noelle kisses me, the touch of her hands and mouth sending a burst of heated lust through me that rivals the fever as my cock throbs, aching for her. I groan against her lips, reaching for her despite the pain in my hands, and she grabs them gently, sitting back.
“You have to be careful—oh!”
She catches sight of the thick ridge of my cock, hard and straining against the fabric of my pants, and her eyes widen. “How—”
“I want you,” I say simply, my voice low and hoarse. “But as you said, we will go slow—”
She closes her eyes briefly, breathing in long and slow. “When I said slow, I meant—”
“The relationship,petite?”
She opens her eyes to see me smiling at her faintly, teasingly. “Can you even—”
“We could try.”
I see her pulse leap in her throat, her breathing coming faster, and I know intimately how her body is reacting, how wet she is between her thighs, the flushed heat of her skin. Under other circumstances, I would have recoiled from having so much heat close to me right now, but I want her too badly to care.
“Here, Noelle,” I whisper hoarsely. “In your favorite place. Make love to me in your library,petite, and we will begin that new start tonight.”
“My library.” She smiles, leaning down to kiss me again. “I like the sound of that. And the rest of it, too.”
Her hands slide under my shirt, over my bare chest, and as her lips meet mine again, I know that whatever it takes, I will make sure that the monster in me died that night, just as she said.
I cannot lose her again. My love, mypetite, my Noelle.
Mykintsugi,my golden miracle.
27
NOELLE
Ican hardly believe we’re doing this. I wouldn’t have thought he evencould, as weak as he is, but the evidence is right in front of me that he’s more than able—at least if I’m the one in control. And after everything, that feels right—that I be the one to take the lead.
To make love to him here, in the room where I felt safe, my favorite place in this apartment.
It means something that he came here last, that this is where he’d ended up when he had no strength left. I know exactly why.
He wanted to be close to me, at the end.
I kiss him softly, slowly, almost afraid I might break him as I slowly strip off his shirt. My heart is beating wildly in my chest, and it feels hard to hold back. I want to devour him with kisses, hold him tightly, ride him hard and have him return the same passion, but at least for now, we have to be careful.
“This is my first time,” I whisper, brushing my lips over his. “I—”
“I know,petite,” he murmurs. “Go as slowly as you need. All I care about is that you will be mine, at last.”
Just like that last night before I left, I want to kiss him more than almost anything else. I savor the feeling of his mouth against mine, soft and eager all at once. This time he’s able to touch me at least a little, his hands brushing over my waist and my thighs, nudging up the skirt of my dress to drag his fingers over my skin. “You are so beautiful, Noelle,” he whispers between kisses, his lips caressing mine, and I feel tears prick behind my eyelids. “MyNoelle.”
“My Alexandre.” My hands slide down his chest, down to his hips, my fingers curling in the waist of his pants. I drag them down, revealing bare skin, my body clenching with need as his thick cock comes into view. I want him more than anything, and I move slowly downwards, kissing his dark-furred chest, the grooves of his abdomen, and the flat, heated flesh just above his cock, before dragging my tongue along the length of it as he lets out a moan of pleasure.