He reached up, caressing my cheek softly as he kissed me. He pulled away, holding my gaze.
“I don’t remember the first time I saw you.”
“What?” I asked, confused.
“You’ve just always been there. A part of my heart. A part of my history. You were my life, Rose. And I owe you the truth. About why I left. Where I went. Why I never came back. You’ve deserved to hear the truth for a long time but I didn’t want to intrude on your life. I didn’t want to do any more damage than I’d already done.”
I nodded. “I’ve needed to know the truth for a long time. But you’re back now. And I don’t know how long you’re going to stay. I don’t even know why you’re here. But all I do know, Blade, is that I have never been happier to see someone in my life.”
He bent his head, kissing me gently again.
“We have a lot of catching up to do,” he said.
“We do,” I replied, winking. “But I’m glad we got started the way we did.”
“Me, too,” he said, his voice thick with lust as his eyes turned hungry again. His lips fell on mine, hot and searching. I opened my mouth, welcoming him in again as I wrapped my arms around his waist, pulling him close to me.
To hell with Derek. To hell with the gossip.
To hell with all the things Blade thought he needed to explain.
All of that could wait. Right now, he was in front of me, right where I wanted him to be.
Endlessly, he kissed me, his body melding to mine with such ease and gentleness. We drifted into the bedroom again, our clothes falling away effortlessly and as easily as he waltzed back into my house, he claimed my body, too.
His mouth moved confidently over my skin, my trembling limbs stilled by his warmth and purposeful movements. He explored every inch of me like a long forgotten landscape, his lips and tongue sliding against me like a teasing ribbon of silk, licking and tasting, whipping deliciously into every quivering crevice as I shuddered under his spell.
We explored each other for hours — until the late afternoon sun disappeared and the moon peeked over the top of the large magnolia tree outside my window. She hadn’t yet bloomed, but she would in a few weeks — and as Blade eventually sank into me again, our bodies connected as deeply as our hearts always had been, I stared up at her dancing limbs and knew I’d be perfectly content to stay in this bed with Blade until she did.
Chapter 37
BLADE
I woke up starving, so I untangled myself from Rose and hopped on my bike, heading into town for donuts and coffee before rushing back to her place before she woke up.
She opened her eyes as soon as I stepped back into the bedroom and she moaned when she saw me.
“Why are you dressed already?”
With the early morning sunshine pouring through the window over her disheveled hair and swollen lips, her bright eyes shining on me left me breathless. I kissed her lips again, now completely addicted to the softness of them.
“Donuts and coffee?” I asked.
“From Shirley’s?” she asked, her eyes lighting up.
“I was so happy to see the shop was still there,” I said.
She pulled the sheet back, revealing her long naked limbs, her breasts that I’d thoroughly enjoyed tracing the curves of all night, and all the rest of her amazing body. I groaned at the sight, straining to control myself.
She jumped up and padded into the kitchen, every single curve on full display as she headed straight for the donuts. She pulled open the box and squealed, pulling out a strawberry jelly powdered mess that she promptly stuffed in her mouth.
It was the most adorable thing I’d ever seen, and yet I’d seen it a million times before.
“How many of these do you think we’ve eaten?” she mumbled, her mouth still stuffed, a sprinkling of powdered sugar smeared on her cheek.
“It’s been a while for me, but I think that I may still outnumber you.”
“Probably,” she giggled, taking another bite. She looked in the box and shook her head. “This is all you got?”
“I can go back?” I offered, chuckling.
“Maybe later,” she shrugged, winking.
“I was thinking we could go for a ride.”
She stopped mid-bite. “On your bike?”
“Yeah,” I said. “I figure we need to talk, but if we stay here, alone, within such close proximity to your bed — well, I don’t know how much talking we’re going to get done…”
She walked over to me, the sugar still on her face as she kissed me. “I think we said a lot last night.”
“I agree,” I said, my hardness growing as she pressed her naked body into me. “But I have some other things to say that I can’t say with well, you know.”
Daringly, she reached down and grabbed my cock through my jeans. “With this?”
I reached down and pulled her hand away.
“Exactly.”
“Fine,” she said, laughing, as she pulled a chocolate donut out of the box. “I’ll get a shower and get dressed.”
“I’ll wait here,” I said, watching her walk away, my eyes drinking in every curve and shimmy.
“We’re gonna need to go by Shirley’s again on the way out,” she called over her shoulder.
I laughed, knowing I’d do anything in the world that woman asked me to.
Chapter 38
ROSE
Being on the back of Blade’s bike was exhilarating. Just putting on the helmet and sliding behind him, wrapping my arms around him, sent shocks of pleasure through my body before we even got on the road.
We’d ridden together on this particular bike so many times, getting back on it was so familiar it was like, well — riding a bike.
I’d felt so wild and carefree back then. After he left, I lost all of that in a sea of misery.
I knew we had so much ground to cover, so much
