She’s so earnest I can’t help but give in. I’m overcome with tenderness and affection, and I step close, cupping her jaw with both hands as I stare into her eyes.
“I never want to give you a reason to be scared of me. I need to know I can manage that anger. If I can’t, then I can’t trust myself around my daughter.”
“I believe you can. But if you’re that worried, then there are ways you can overcome it. You can get help.”
I heave a breath and nod because I know she’s right, and when she closes the distance and slips her arms around me, I feel like everything is right.
“God, I never fucking want to let go of you,” I murmur into her ear.
“Then don’t.”
31 Mason
I hold her as tight as I dare through the kiss, then lift her into my arms and carry her up the stairs. She combs her fingers through my hair, trailing them down the sides of my neck and staring into my eyes the entire way.
I didn’t miss the little thing she let slip during her impassioned speech, but I’m afraid of drawing attention to it, afraid she’ll deny she said it. But the words echo inside my head all the way to her bedroom until I can’t stand it anymore. When I lay her down on the bed and she moves to start stripping my shirt off, I stop her with a hand around her wrist.
“Callie, I need to say one more thing first, because I have no idea what happens after tonight.”
She withdraws her hand and leans back on her elbows, staring up at me with those big blue eyes and a half smile curving her mouth. “I’m listening.”
It’s impossible to keep my voice from cracking. My chest feels like it’s coming open with the confession, that my heart is being bared to her entirely. “I’m in love with you too. I think I have been this entire weekend. This isn’t something I admit to easily, but I needed you to know I felt the same . . .”
She surges up and flings her arms around me, kissing me so fast and hard I lose my breath.
I curl my arms around her with a groan, sinking into the kiss and easing her back down to the bed. My bruised torso protests the strain, an uncomfortable twinge spiking through me from one of the myriad minor injuries I’ve sustained today, but her fingers are back at the hem of my pullover, sliding beneath to my belly, and I no longer care about anything but being naked with her.
She pushes my shirt over my head, and I peel it the rest of the way off, then take my time with her. I hold her gaze in between removing each garment, trailing slow kisses over each section of skin revealed. I don’t take off my pants until she’s fully naked, staring up at me with wide, adoring eyes and parted lips. I’m already half-hard and stroke myself to full-mast before settling between her legs again.
“You’re so goddamn beautiful,” I murmur, sliding both hands down her soft belly, then parting her folds and stroking two fingers through her wet heat.
“Mason, I need you,” she says, reaching for me. I lower myself over her, supporting my body on one hand while I guide myself into her depths. She lets out a sigh of pure pleasure and wraps her arms and legs around me, tilting her hips up to meet the first slow thrust. The tight friction sends a rush straight to my head, and I savor it, desperate to hold onto this feeling for as long as possible.
I brush my lips over her bicep, drifting my mouth across her collarbone, then her jaw before finding her lips. I draw the kiss out, enjoying the slide of her lithe legs across my hips and the way her heels dig into my ass, urging me with a slow rhythm as we fuck.
When I pull back to look into her eyes, they’re glassy and she’s smiling. She raises a hand to brush fingers over my cheek, her nails rasping against my stubble.
“God, I never knew it could be this good,” she breathes.
I smile back. “So good. Fuck, I’m going to miss you.”
She curls her fingers at my nape, pulling me down until our foreheads are pressed together. With a pained look, she shakes her head. “Don’t think about it now. Just make love to me.”
“My pleasure.”
I ignore another twinge in my back as I lower myself and twist my hips in a way that makes her moan my name right into my ear. The sound drives me onward until her cries get louder.
She’s still far more subdued than usual. We both are, and I think—no, I know—it’s because neither of us knows whether this will be the last time for us, or if we’ll get another chance.
My legs start to quiver from the strain, which is odd, but it’s been a long, harrowing day. I curl my arms beneath her back and roll, enjoying the small gasp of surprise that fades into another moan of pleasure when she sinks down onto me.
She takes over, back arching as she rides my cock and I gaze up at her, enraptured. It’s fully dark but the lights that illuminate the snowy park outside cast her in a silver glow, her fair skin luminescent and her light hair a pale cascade around her shoulders.
“You’re a fucking goddess, you know that?”
She bites her lip and rocks her hips a little faster. I attempt to bend my knees and brace my heels for better leverage, but lack the energy, so I just enjoy the view instead. I lazily slip my hand between her legs to feel where we’re joined and tease around her stretched opening and up to where her swollen bud protrudes, just begging for attention. I press my thumb against it and stroke in gentle circles, my focus sharpening when
