Come to Me Softly (Closer to You #2)(53)
Author: A.L. Jackson

His heavy breaths panted out into the night air, filling up my senses as I drew him in. As I rested in his warmth.

“Mmm,” I managed through a small moan. “Perfect.”

So maybe I was a little cold.

But I wouldn’t trade this moment for anything.

Like he’d just read my thoughts, he bundled us tighter in the blanket to deflect more of the cold.

“I can’t believe how beautiful it is up here.” I’d told him before, the first time he brought me to this place.

I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised we’d return, that this was the spot Jared had chosen for us to ring in the New Year.

South Mountain.

It overlooked the breathtaking expanse of the sprawling city below. But more important than that was the fact it was the place that had meant so much to him as a child, an integral piece of those memories.

The same place he had ventured to bring me all those months ago.

Again, he wanted to share it with me.

Of course, we had to sneak up here tonight. Jared had parked my car off the side of one of the dirt roads at the base of the mountain where it was being developed, the main park closed off for the night.

I’d felt light as he’d wrapped my hand in his, both of us giggling and feeling so free as we stole our way up the mountain to find the deserted path Jared had scoped out a few days before. I loved knowing we’d be completely alone, loved the feeling of Jared whisking me away to a place he’d reserved only for us.

I ran my fingers over the backs of the hands that held me close. Night had taken hold, deep and dark, the half-moon barely enough to illuminate the sharp lines of his face. “Do you remember the last time you brought me up here?” I asked.

He snorted a little. “How could I forget?” He snuggled closer, his nose weaving through my hair as he breathed me in, as if it was the breath that sustained his life. “You on my bike . . . those legs wrapped around me . . .” I felt the affected grin push to his mouth. “One of the best f**king days of my life. God, Aly, I wanted you so badly I thought I was going to lose my goddamned mind.”

I rolled my head back on his shoulder, looking up at him. His eyes glinted in the faint light, all soft and affectionate, lost to those days that had been so unsure.

“You had me the next night.”

He nuzzled my temple, chuckling beneath his heated breath. “Now that was the best f**king day of my life.”

I giggled and snuggled closer.

“I never stopped wanting you . . . not for a second . . . never gonna stop, either,” he mumbled out on a flood of words he whispered against my skin.

Tingles spread.

I bit at my lip, a rush of joy speeding through my veins, infiltrating every cell. “Good, because I’m not going to let you go.”

A sharp bite of cold air blew across the desert rim, and he hugged me, like he was affirming the statement I’d just made. Silence overtook us, the extreme beauty of the night not coming close to the beauty Jared and I shared.

A roll of agitation curled through Jared. “I wanted to bring you up here for a reason, Aly. So much has changed since the first time we came here.” He shook his head against all the doubts. I could feel them, like an unseen plague, festering. But as strong as they were, I could feel Jared fighting them. Fighting for us.

“God, I was so confused. Always in this f**ked-up war with myself, hating what I felt for you. Trying to pretend like you and I weren’t meant to be together. All I knew then was I needed to see you in this place. Some of the best memories of my life were made here and I somehow wanted to make you a part of it. Now I know why I needed to bring you here the first time.”

His chin dug further into my neck, his face pressed right up against my jaw. He ran his cold nose along it. Chills slipped down my spine. Comfort and unease. Like I could feel it, the inundating well of emotion that had built inside of Jared.

I knew he was getting ready to pour it out on me.

And I ached for it, for more, for him to press his mouth there instead, to lay me down and to love me under the stars.

Mostly I ached for his words, for him to open up to me, to show me more.

I knew the man still hid so much pain inside.

I clenched his hands in mine, clinging to him, begging him silently to continue.

“There was no stopping it . . . the way you worked yourself right into my heart. You took it over, Aly. You made me feel something real again when I believed all I could feel was hate.” Jared’s tone shifted just the same as his demeanor, almost desperate in its emphasis. “I can’t live without you, baby . . . can’t sleep without you . . . can’t breathe without you.”

My pulse escalated with the palpable rise of his. His heart beat erratically where it pounded against my back. He sucked in a shaky breath and unwound himself from the blanket. Cautiously, he stood, never releasing my hand. He looked out on the blackened horizon, over the vast sea of lights. “It’s getting close.”

An uproar echoed from afar, horns and the faint shout of voices, the pop of small fireworks being lit from backyards, the rise in excitement.

Jared helped me to my feet, making sure to keep the blanket secure around my shoulders. Wrapping me in his arms, he brought us cheek to cheek and turned to face us out over the city that harbored so many of our memories.

The place where we were building more.

Jared dug his phone from his pocket and swiped the screen.

The countdown rolled on, this past year that had changed the direction of my life coming to an end.

He gathered me up tight. His voice came as a soft rasp, like a promise at my ear. “Five . . . four . . . three . . .”

With each number that fell from his tongue, his voice dropped lower, the tone twisting through me with a frenzy of anticipation. With all our hopes and dreams.

“Two . . .”

Jared dropped his phone to the ground. He rested his forehead against mine and framed my face in his big, gentle hands.

“One.”

I jumped with the loud boom.

I was sure I felt it all the way in my soul, the flare of firework colors that flashed, climbing toward the sky. The ripples of energy vibrated all the way to my bones the second Jared’s mouth overtook mine.

He kissed me passionately, with all of him, demanding all of me. Lips tugged at mine, suckling at the top before turning to the bottom, making a firm pass over the top again. He just teased me with his tongue, the faintest whisper of wet.

Jared’s hands held fast.

The sky lit in a barrage of color that reflected against our skin, beating at the lids of my closed eyes, like flashes of our future, like a vow had been spoken between us.