Come to Me Softly (Closer to You #2)(90)
Author: A.L. Jackson

Jared’s eyes slammed closed, and he nodded against my hands that were all in his face, on his lips and his nose and pressing into the lids of his tortured eyes.

“It’s okay to cry,” I whispered again close to his mouth. “It’s okay to miss her and be sad and wish she was here. You don’t have to be ashamed of that.”

Jared’s eyes opened to me, the blue raging in intensity. Glassy and transparent.

Desperate but not distant.

Not like the nights when he woke me with fumbling hands.

He pulled me to him, holding me under my jaw as his mouth crashed onto mine.

Every last one of my nerves sparked. Wet heat slipped from his parted mouth. Coaxing. Pulling. Promising.

I opened to him and met his tongue with a tangle of pent-up need, with all the relief that flowed so freely and the desire that flooded my chest, expanding my ribs and slithering down in a hot wave straight to my core.

Tingles spread over every inch of my skin.

Little needy sounds climbed up my throat, encouragement and pride and joy. And all the honor I felt at giving my love to this incredible man.

Jared swallowed them down, kissing me harder. Demanding. Possessive as he led me through this passionate kiss.

I gripped his shoulders, drawing him closer. My legs wrapped around him, high up on his chest.

Jared dug his fingers into my hips, then stroked them down my legs, caressing from my ass to my knees, dragging them back up again.

I wrapped him tighter, the burn of his stomach pressing right between my thighs, right where I felt frantic to have him.

God, he thought he craved me?

“These legs,” he mumbled at my mouth, squeezing into my flesh, taking wild handfuls like he could never get enough. “You are a fantasy, Aly. Please tell me you’ll let me spend my whole life here, wrapped up in you.”

“You,” I murmured. That was all Jared ever needed to know.

Suddenly he pulled back. His eyes flashed to me before he grabbed the hem of my shirt and yanked it over my head. He tossed it to the ground. I sat there with my chest heaving, Jared staring at me for a long beat before he set his hands on each side of my widening belly. He dipped down and placed a tender kiss below my belly button, like the sweetest embrace, like maybe he’d missed our baby as much as he missed me.

I melted.

Then fell a little further for this man.

Impossible?

It should be.

But in that moment I slipped deeper in love with him.

Jared wound his arms around my waist. He pulled me from the counter and against the strength of his body, and I wrapped him back in my legs, hooking them over his narrow waist. He looked at me, his hair a mess, his eyes filled with our future and swimming with his past.

That past he had found the courage to face.

And I could feel his heart, pounding at mine. It thundered in my ears and danced with my spirit, this man that was mine.

Volatile yet pure.

Corrupted yet worthy.

My beautifully broken boy.

Jared hiked me up higher. Neither of us looked away as he carried me to our room. The mass of my hair fell down around us, tumbling over my arms where my fingers were anchored in his shoulders.

Inside, the blinds were drawn, the room darkened, lit only by the late-afternoon sun seeping through the cracks. He crossed to our bed, keeping a firm hold on me while he dragged down the comforter and gently laid me back on the cool sheets.

I sighed, my eyes wide as I watched up at him watching down on me, climbing over me, hovering an inch away.

My fingers pushed through the length of his soft blond hair, and massaged into his scalp. He moaned and leaned into my touch, hungry for it, before he dipped down to kiss along my jaw. “Missed you . . . missed the way you taste . . .” He pressed his nose behind my ear. “Miss the way you smell.”

I lifted my neck, my head pressing back into the bed as I invited him closer. I could feel him breathing me in, his chest expanding as he filled himself with a little more of me.

Jared nuzzled his nose against the lacy black fabric of my bra, slipping a hand under me to free the clasp, exposing me to the cool air.

My ni**les hardened.

Jared groaned as he edged back, flicked open the button on my jeans. “So beautiful.”

I almost cried when he pulled away.

Jared smiled a small, satisfied smile. “Don’t worry, baby. I’ve got you.”

Stepping off the bed, he pulled my jeans from my legs and took my panties with them.

Then he slowly began to undress himself. My eyes never left him, just trailed his movements, watched as he peeled his shirt over his head to reveal every toned muscle that rippled over his stomach and chest, his story screaming out from above it.

A story that had robbed him of so much.

But a story that had yet to tell its end.

I wanted to be a part of the rest of it. To add a million new chapters. Ones filled with laughter and smiles and soft caresses.

And an uncountable number of moments like this.

“I love you, Jared.”

A soft breath left him, and he slowly climbed back over me, taking one of my hands with him. He pressed it over his hammering heart. “Since I was just a little boy, this has beat for you. Even before I knew what it meant. Now I know it means everything.”

“You can’t imagine how badly I missed you,” I admitted, splaying my hand wide over the wilted rose.

Regret and blatant lust swirled through his longing eyes. His expression burned me, boiled in my blood and throbbed between my legs. His voice cracked. “I knew every second where I belonged. Nothing in this world is right unless I’m here with you.”

He stared down at me, pain drawing his brow into a severe line.

I lifted my hand and smoothed it out. “Please, don’t look at me like it hurts.”

“Right now it does . . . looking at what I could have so easily let slip away. I can’t do it, Aly. I can’t run from any of it. Not anymore.”

My heart swelled, overflowed in my chest.

Rejoiced.

But still I understood all Jared had to overcome.

Softly I nudged him. For a moment, he appeared confused, before he allowed me to lead him to roll onto his back.

I straddled him and dipped my head down to kiss along the outline of the rose, that piece of him that had died too soon.

He sucked in a strangled breath, before he twisted his fingers in my hair, chills sliding over me as he caressed my head and allowed me to pour all my love into him, all this belief I’d held for him all along.

I leaned back. My gaze moved along the defined planes of his body.

“You are beautiful,” I whispered low as I reached down to take his thick erection in my hand.