She steps closer to me, angling her body toward mine, and I take the invitation and pull her in close, wrapping both arms around her.
“I’m so fucking sorry. I fucked everything up. I can’t promise to never fuck up again, but I will promise that I’ll never leave without talking to you again. Is that good enough?”
With a sniff, she nods, looking up into my eyes.
“I’m going to get therapy too,” I promise, “so you won’t have to bear the brunt of the mindfuck my parents did to me.”
She chuckles at my phrasing. “Okay. Maybe you should send me the therapy info too. Because you’ve been right all along that I need to do a better job of setting boundaries. I’m trying. I’ve been trying. But it’s so hard sometimes.”
“I know,” I whisper, pulling her in tight. “We’ll work on it together.” Putting just a little bit of space between us, I reach down and tip her chin up, making sure she’s looking me in the eyes before I say the next thing. “I love you, Viola. When I thought you might be leaving the tour, when I thought you didn’t really want me after all, my heart shriveled up in my chest, and I didn’t know how I’d get through the next day, much less the next month, without you. I’m so glad you came back, and I’m sorry I didn’t come to you sooner.”
“No more apologies,” she whispers, and then she reaches behind my neck and pulls my head down to hers.
Chapter Forty-Five
Viola
His lips meet mine and time stops. The world exists only as sensation and emotion. The leftover fear and anxiety of coming here, the catharsis of admitting everything, the relief when he apologized and said he loves me too.
All of those other feelings are overshadowed by that last part.
Love.
He loves me.
I love him.
And right now that’s what matters the most.
He gathers me against him, his hands moving over my torso, under my shirt, pulling my hips tight against his. “I’ve missed you so fucking much,” he whispers against my lips.
“I’ve missed you, too.” The words are cut off as soon as I finish speaking them, his tongue once again slipping past my lips, taking everything I have to offer.
But then he pulls back, pushing me away at arms’ length and looking me over. “I’ve fantasized about having you here so many times. Both while we were still on tour and I invited you to stay, but also since I’ve been back. This almost feels like a dream. You sure you’re real?”
Laughing, I reach out and pinch his bicep.
He flinches and lets out an indignant, “Hey!”
I give him a cheeky grin. “Convincing enough?”
With a low growl, he yanks me against him again, grinding his hardening cock into my belly. “If it weren’t, I think this is.” Then his hands fall to my ass and he hoists me up.
I cling to him as he carries me through the condo to his bedroom and drops me on his bed. It’s unmade, the sheets and comforter a tangled wad at one end. And best of all, it smells like him.
He crawls on top of me, settling between my legs, bracing his arms on either side of me. Dipping his head, he fuses his mouth to mine once more. It’s like we’ve both been drowning and we’re now finally able to breathe again. Our kisses are oxygen, and we’re both gasping.
Soon, though, it’s not enough. I want more than just the slide of his tongue against mine, more than the friction of his hardness grinding against my center. I want the soft skin of his cock in my hand. The scrape of his stubble on my nipples. The firm muscles of his back under my fingernails.
I want him inside me. Now.
I yank up his shirt with my fingers and start pushing on the fabric of his joggers with my feet, needing to get him naked right this minute. When his shirt is bunched under his armpits and his pants are starting to slide down the curve of his ass, he stops kissing me long enough to pull his shirt over his head.
“I need you,” I whisper.
He groans and rolls off me, shoving his pants down and kicking them off while I sit up and pull my own shirt over my head. He wins the race to get naked first and rolls back toward me, his hand cupping my breast through the soft lace of my bralette. His thumb flicks across my nipple, bringing it to a hard point, and then his mouth closes on it, sucking hard through the fabric.
Paralyzed by the pleasure shooting through me, my back arching involuntarily as I let him have his way with my body. “Unghh,” is all I manage to get out.
He lifts his head and chuckles, pulling the fabric aside to expose my nipple to the
