If Forever Comes (Take This Regret #2)(4)
Author: A.L. Jackson

Everything.

I rushed to get undressed, kicking off my shoes and socks in the same second I shook my pants free from my legs. Elizabeth was pushing my underwear down just as frantically as I was twisting out of them. I forced her back onto the bed.

She lay there panting, completely exposed.

My groan echoed off the walls when I sank deep into her warmth.

A thrill rocketed straight up my spine, spun my head with a delirious joy. I fisted my hands in her hair, my hips rigid as I rocked into her.

Elizabeth clenched around me, her body fitting me like she was made for me.

Because she was.

“Oh, f**k, Elizabeth.” I pulled back and slammed back into her.

She gasped, lifting her chin with her mouth open wide.

“Nothing could feel better than this,” raked from my throat. “Nothing in this world. Nothing.”

Pleasure fisted me, pulled at the knots that already twisted my stomach in the tightest ball. I kissed her hard, just as hard as I drove my body into hers, determined to lose myself deeper in her than I ever had before.

Elizabeth’s hands were everywhere, impatient, greedy as they sought me out, sinking into my shoulders, digging into my ass. She lifted herself to me in a desperate play to bring me closer, offering up every inch of that glorious body.

I took her whole, fierce, hard, frantic. She was fire and warmth and light. My joy. My life.

My fingers dug into her hips, and I rose up onto my knees. She wrapped her legs around my waist, and I lifted her as I buried myself in her again and again.

Elizabeth was panting, these short, rasping sounds forced from her mouth. Her body rocked with each firm thrust. Her br**sts swelled over the cup of her bra, her hair spread out all around her as she gripped the sheets.

“Beautiful,” I wheezed. “I wish you could see what you look like right now. What I see when I look at you.”

Her gaze met mine, full of meaning that spoke of our hearts, of our pasts, of our futures. “I already see it in your eyes.”

Her legs began to shake.

Forever.

I drove into her.

And I could feel it when she came, could feel her pleasure as she clenched around my cock. That pleasure rose in waves, lifting her back from the bed as she cried out my name.

I slammed into her, devouring her, taking what had always been mine.

Hooking her legs over my arms, I gripped her by the back of the waist, would do anything to get her closer. Leaning back, I lifted my face toward the ceiling and let myself go.

Forever.

Ecstasy hit me. Intensely. Wholly. I throbbed as I poured into her, this bliss that spread out to saturate every cell of my body.

Forever.

Elizabeth was my forever.

I twitched and jerked. Inhaling raggedly, I sucked air into my empty lungs. I attempted to loosen my fingers anchored in her flesh.

Elizabeth gasped for a breath of her own. I slumped down on top of her, feeling an absurd grin spread across my face as I did. But I couldn’t stop it. I was happy. So happy, it contented every cell within me, erased every dark night I’d ever spent without her.

I kissed her on the mouth and leaned up on my elbow to brush back the sweat-dampened hair matted to her forehead.

She smiled, her eyes all alight with the love that would never let us go.

My pulse stuttered.

Elizabeth would never stop stealing my breath.

Because she possessed my soul.

Her brown eyes blinked up at me, and a soft, sleepy smile spread across her full lips.

“What are we waiting for, Elizabeth?” came as an unstoppable request from the depths of my soul. I pulled back. One hand gripped her hip as I searched her face.

Softly her lips parted, her presence invading my space, stealing my senses.

“What do you mean?” she asked. Her expression worked to grasp my meaning, a hunch clearly taking hold in the line that dented her brow.

“Waiting to get married…waiting to add to our family. What are we waiting for? This is what we both want. It’s what’s good for us. What’s good for Lizzie. I know we planned on waiting, but…”

After everything we’d been through in the last year, me making contact with my daughter for the first time in her life, just days before she turned five, the way Elizabeth and I had struggled through the months as she’d tried to shut me out, the disaster we’d created in the wake of this passion that could never be contained. And our reconciliation that had finally cut through all the shit that had held us back. We’d thought it best to wait. To give ourselves time to adjust to this new life, to learn how to be the family we were always meant to be.

But that’s what we already were.

A family.

I wanted it in name. I wanted it in reality.

The words rushed up my throat, flooded from my mouth. “I want it all, and I want it now. I want it with you, Elizabeth.”

“Christian—”

“Please, don’t say anything right now. I just want you to think about it.”

She grabbed my face. “I don’t need to think about it. I’m ready for this. I’m ready for you. I’m ready for us. There are no questions left.”

Then she smiled, a twist of her mouth that said it all.

Relief and joy escaped me in a throaty groan. It was all I wanted, to spend my life with her, to spend it with our daughter, to live for my family, to watch it grow.

Loving fingers trailed down my back, before she wrapped both arms around me in a tender embrace.

Rolling onto my back, I grabbed for her and tugged her flat onto my chest. Everything thrummed between us, the spastic beat of our hearts, our love, the trust that had once again bonded us together.

And I silently swore I’d never do anything to break it again.

I gentled my fingers through her hair, and her breath left her in a contented sigh. We laid like that for what seemed like hours, both of us silent as we stared out the window at the blanket of winter that held in the city lights. Snow still flitted across the sky, and the deepest calm settled over us.

Elizabeth’s fingers played at my collarbone, and she ran lazy circles over my skin as her heart began to slow and find rest with mine. “I’m so happy, Christian.” Her voice bled into the dimness of the room like a declaration, a profession made.

Her confession took root somewhere deep inside me and swelled within my chest. I cupped her face and tilted it up so I could look at her, my tone tightened in emphasis.

“You make me happy. You always have. There’s something about you, Elizabeth, just being in a room with you, that brings me joy.”

She trembled an impassioned smile and ran her fingertips along my bottom lip. “I get to spend my life with my best friend.” That smile strengthened with emotion. “There’s nothing more perfect than that.”