"It's you, Tony. It's always been you."
My breath rushes out of me in a swell of relief. "Damn right it is. Fuck, Libby. If I'd known…This whole time I've been holding back."
"What..?" Surprise lights her features, but there's no way I'm letting her pull back from me now. I should have done this weeks ago. I should never have let what her father is going to think get in the way of something so right, so natural. She has to be mine, the charge between us is too strong to be ignored.
"I've been obsessed with you since your graduation party. Why the hell else do you think I come into the bakery every morning?"
Libby looks stunned, but there's a small smile tugging at the corner of her lips. "I don't know. The muffins?"
I let out a grumble, stepping closer even as she takes an instinctive step back. "I'll give you muffins…" I say.
There's not a thing I can do to stop myself from pressing forward until she's up against the wall and her mouth slips open, her chest rising and falling in time with her shallow panting. She has to be able to feel my cock pressing against the soft heat of her inner thigh and there's nothing I can do to stop the grinding roll of my hips. I have to be near her. I want to make her lose her mind.
I claim her mouth with mine in a breathless, artless kiss that tells her just how much I wanted this. Her lips on mine - I can barely restrain the urge to tear at them with my teeth, to ravage her completely like some kind of possessed beast. There's a rumble like thunder in my throat, warning her of the storm of passion she's unleashed and I barely have the control to let her pull back enough to breathe.
"Oh Tony, I never thought you'd ever want me-"
"None of that." I cut her off, self doubt is the last thing I want to hear from her. I'll make her see how perfect she is for me, and that's the only thing that matters. "I'll always want you. And now I ain't ever going to let you go."
Her breathing shudders against mine as I slide my hands around her hips, pulling her in more solidly against me so she knows exactly where she belongs. The little whimper she lets out is the sexiest damn thing I’ve ever heard and when her hands start roaming over my chest I know there's no way I can hold back. I've waited too long already, burning with the need to claim her, to make her mine and today's the day it's going to happen.
She tilts her head up, going on her toes to keep on kissing me and she lifts her leg like she's trying to find a way to climb me like a tree just to get closer and my hand clamps onto her thigh to hold it up as I kiss her all over again. A thousand times I've stayed up thinking about this moment, but reality is so much sweeter.
"Oh Tony, I want you so much."
"I want you too, Libby. Forever."
There's a little gleam of tears in her eyes when she blinks up at me that only makes me crush my lips to hers harder all over again. "You really mean it?"
Once I get inside her and plant my seed, she'll know exactly how serious I am. She will milk my body dry without even trying. I can't find the words to tell her that it's my other head that's doing all the thinking right now. "Bedroom. Now."
Libby's eyes widen, but I can read the thrill in them as I duck to scoop her up into my arms.
The sound of a key in the door is the only thing that halts me, and somehow I set her on her feet and she pulls away before Kyle, her father, swings it open.
Libby steps away from me like she's been burned and it takes everything I have to let her even that far away from me.
"Tony! I thought I saw you come up!" her dad says.
I grit my teeth, tense against the urge to tell him to get the hell out of his own home, because I want to take his daughter and claim her on every flat surface in the apartment.
"Hey." Conversation is not something I'm in the mood for. "It was Libby I was after actually."
"Oh yeah?"
I feel Libby look from me to her father and I can sense the swell of panic in her rise. She doesn't have a thing to worry about. No one is getting in the way of us, not even Kyle.
"Dad, what are you doing up here? Who's looking after the shop?"
"I closed it for five minutes. Honey, don't worry about it, we're in the pre-lunch lull. Would you listen to her, all responsible now that she's graduated? Taking the family business to heart. That's my girl, huh?"
I feel my jaw pop under the pressure of my clenched teeth. Does he even know his daughter at all? From what I can see, she's always been more responsible than him and he doesn't even do her the credit of realizing her heart is absolutely not in that bakery downstairs.
"Well, you're going to have to figure out a way to do without her for a bit, Kyle."
"What you talking about?"
Maybe it wasn't true a second ago, but it's true now - I'll make sure it is. "That gallery space up town needs someone with Libby's photography experience. They're doing an exhibition of local artists. And they want her stuff headlining."
Libby's eyes widen so much I think they might just pop out her head and Kyle looks more than a little stunned.
"Wow.
