If Forever Comes (Take This Regret #2)(15)
Author: A.L. Jackson

Guess he was anxious, too.

He kissed me until I was breathless, until I was panting and my heart was pounding, knocking at my ribs.

“Ugh…Christian,” I begged. I lifted my hips. “Please…need you…need you,” came as tiny pleas in between the desperate bid I made to get him closer, because I could never get him close enough.

I quaked as Christian slowly slid my shirt up and tugged it over my head. He tossed it to the floor on top of his and sat back on his knees and took me in.

Redness swept like wildfire just beneath the surface of my skin, heat and need and this passion I held only for him rising up to tint my flesh.

I pressed my thighs into the outside of Christian’s legs, squirming, loving when he looked at me this way, knowing my expression reflected exactly what I saw in his.

“Fuck, Elizabeth, do you have any idea what you do to me? Look at you,” he said low as his gaze cut a path of fire over my body. His eyes flitted away from mine, his attention dropping to caress the black lace that covered my br**sts and down my body to land on my waist.

Even the pass of his stare left a trail of chills in its wake.

Christian’s tongue darted out to wet his lips, his agile fingers tugging at the waist of my jeans. He slipped off the couch and pulled them off, then made quick work of my panties and bra. Watching me, he unfastened the button of his slacks and slowly lowered his zipper. He pushed them down, stepping from his slacks and boxers, revealing every inch of this man’s perfection. My eyes traveled his length. The lust that curled in my stomach sank, pooled as it throbbed between my legs.

Pulling the soft fleece blanket from the back of the couch, he flung it out and wrapped it around his shoulders. Slowly he slid back over me and completely draped us with it, the light fabric concealing us in its cover, enveloping us, our bodies and spirits caged.

I writhed.

Christian prodded my knees apart as he settled back over me, his face intense, the blue of his eyes all afire in this passion that would never let us go.

“I love you, Elizabeth,” he whispered with his attention locked on mine.

In the same second, he locked his grip on the outside of my thigh. His erection slipped along my center, teasing, taunting, tempting.

“Love you more than you’ll ever know,” he said again as he tormented me, skimming his length along my folds.

Desire pulsed, coiled in my stomach and shook my legs. I whimpered, arching my back as I crushed my chest to his.

“I love you, Christian. Always. There is nothing that could make me stop loving you. Nothing that could make me stop needing you. You are my start and you are my finish, the one who’s going to be there for everything in between.” The words came as a solemn oath, my commitment to him.

Christian was my forever.

A pained smile edged his mouth as he held himself in restraint, his voice hoarse. “I will never let you go…never.”

Heat sweltered between us, a fever of need building to a boil within the confines of the blanket, our bodies seeking, hunting for the other.

Above my head, Christian rigidly held himself up with his hand on the arm of the couch, the other digging deep into the flesh of my hip. He clenched his jaw as just the tip of his erection pressed into me.

“Fuck,” he groaned, gritting his teeth. “It’s been way to long.”

I lifted my hips, taking more of him, but not enough. My fingertips dug into his shoulders, biting into his skin, imploring.

Christian dropped to his forearms, his face an inch from mine. “You,” he whispered as he drew back, retracting what I had taken. Then he rocked into me with one solid trust.

My mouth dropped open with the overload of sensation. It was something I would never get used to, the way Christian felt when he filled me. As if I were complete. Whole. And entirely desperate at the same time, because I would always want more.

“Shit,” he whispered, the word thick, heavy as he held himself in check. Still, a satisfied smile spread across that gorgeous mouth. “That is never going to get old.”

Agreement rumbled as a hoarse groan at the base of my throat.

No, there wasn’t a chance. Christian’s touch would forever be familiar, but never, ever would it be routine.

Christian pulled back and filled me again, decisive and firm, though still conscious of the child, a deliberate caution with each roll of his hips. This man…no…there was no question that he was my all. He spun me up and turned me inside out. Made me feel as if I was walking off a ledge in the same second I felt most protected within the safety of his hold. I wrapped my arms around him, buried my face in his chest as he worked and strained over me, and I completely let go. The blanket covered us, Christian’s body dancing with mine as the soft glow of the fire crawled up the walls, wrapping us tight.

Comfort surged, spun with the knot steadily building in my core.

Even though I could tell he was trying to hold them in, harsh grunts kept rising and escaping his mouth. His heart thundered and matched with the frantic beat of mine. Christian pulled back and stared down at me, his blue eyes shining with eternity.

Then he smiled that smile that was only meant for me.

We were one.

There was no greater joy than this. No greater joy than being in his arms. The life I’d spent so many years longing for had been found in the devotion of this man. A connection that could never be severed, even in all those lonely, isolated years we’d spent apart.

“You are my life,” he murmured, his eyes unwavering as they watched down on me. He grabbed my left arm that was wrapped around his neck, brought it between us as he tenderly kissed the ring that I wore proudly on my finger.

I stared up at the man who possessed my heart, the one who owned my spirit, and whispered, “And I’m going to give you mine.”

Chapter 7

Present Day, Late September

Awareness surged into my consciousness. I fought to hold onto the darkness, to press my eyes shut so I could remain in the sanctuary of sleep. Reluctantly my eyes fluttered open in the dense fabric of the pillow I had my face buried in. A groggy haze clouded my senses, and my mind reeled as I struggled to make sense of what it was that had jarred me awake.

Lying on my stomach, I lifted my head. I blinked as my sight slowly adjusted to the muted light bleeding in from the heavy drapes I had pulled over the window. I squinted in the direction of my door. Knocking continued to resonate from downstairs. I rammed my face back into the refuge of the pillow, willing whoever was pounding at my front door to disappear.

I should have known that would never be my luck.