57

LAURA
I had the distinct sense that I was being moved, but my eyelids felt too heavy to lift.
The thing was, I couldn’t remember my bed ever feeling this comfortable.
Snuggling deeper, I realized that my blanket seemed to…tighten around me?
That was odd.
But then warm lips pressed to my forehead and I knew that was definitely not the bed, so I forced my lids open and found startling green eyes staring into mine. My breath caught.
“Am I dreaming?” I breathed.
I’d wished for him to come back so much that I must have started dreaming that he did. Perhaps I was hallucinating? It wasn’t entirely impossible. You’d be surprised what desperation and longing could do to the human mind.
Dream/Illusion Alex shook his head. “No, you’re not, love.”
I wasn’t entirely convinced, but I kept my mouth shut just incase. I didn’t want to risk saying something that might cause this hallucination–or dream–to come to an end. Not when I was enjoying it so much.
Cocooned in his warmth, I simply stared at him like I had all the time in the world.
His dark hair glinted under the low light, the standing ends adopting a purplish hue. He was facing straight ahead so that meant I was staring at his features from underneath. His lashes had never looked longer than they did right now, his lips full and supple, and that straight nose, almost aristocratic.
God, he was so beautiful.
And I must have said it out loud because his head dipped and he looked down at me, something like surprise entering his features. At finding me awake or because I’d given him a compliment, I wasn’t sure.
“I–” he shook his head abruptly. Then he smiled, and it wasn’t a smile I was used to seeing on his face. This one was strained around the edges, like it physically pained him.
Frowning, I lifted my hand and brushed it across his face, wondering at that smile. Wondering at the fact that he felt very, very real.
Maybe this wasn’t a dream after all?
But if I wasn’t, then that meant he was actually here?
I sucked in a sharp breath. “You came back?”
Alex said nothing as he kept on walking. We entered the room and he kicked the door shut before dropping me on the bed. I sighed as my back met the sheets. It was soft, but nowhere near as comfortable as his arms had been.
He shucked off his jeans before he climbed into the bed after me, moving so fast I didn’t get the time to appreciate his muscular thighs bared in briefs. Sitting with his back to the headboard, he gathered me into the space between his legs and I settled with my back to his front, his arms wrapped lightly around me.
“I’ll always come back to you, Laura.”
It took me a minute to process his words. To realize that he was responding to the question I’d asked him.
I cleaved.
It could have been the words or the tone with which he’d said them, but it suddenly sent everything that had happened crashing back into me. Me trying to go to work, him stopping me, the text, what it said, his reaction to it, our fight, and how he’d walked out on me.
I’d curled up on the sofa and cried myself to sleep. He must have come back while I was still sleeping because I hadn’t heard him come in and I was pretty sure it was the movement of him picking me up from the sofa that had woken me up.
He came back.
Of course, he did. It was his house.
But he was holding me. That had to mean he’d forgiven me–or that he was willing to forgive me, at least.
I turned in his arms until I was facing him, sitting cross-legged with his legs bracketing mine. Then I took his face in my hands and looked him in the eyes, wanting him to see how much I meant the words I was about to tell him. “I’m sorry, Alex, for not telling you–or anyone–about the messages. I see now that it was wrong and that maybe if I’d done something sooner, the accident could have been avoided.”
He pressed a kiss into my palm. “I’m sorry that I raised my voice at you.” I flinched slightly, remembering how hurt I’d been when he’d done it. Regret flashed in his eyes when he noticed, and dragging his knuckles down the side of my face, he continued, “I’m also sorry that I walked out on you. I won’t ever do that again.”
I shook my head. “It’s fine. You needed it.”
“Still. After finding out that you’ve got a stalker, it wasn’t the smartest thing to do and it wasn’t until later I realized it.” He said. “Came back as soon as I did and saw you–” He shook his head, leaving the sentence hanging. “Were you crying?” He asked softly.
Frowning, I was about to ask him how he knew this, then I figured there were probably tear streaks on my face.
Oh no.
My eyes found a spot on the headboard over his shoulder. “I don’t know.”
“Laura…”
Ugh. When he called my name in that tone, I had zero defenses against him. “I may have cried for a bit. I don’t know.” I shrugged like it was no big deal. “I fell asleep.”
A shudder travelled through his big frame and because I wasn’t looking at him, I felt more than saw it.
He dropped his face into the space between my neck and shoulder and said into it, “It kills me to know that I made you cry.”
I said nothing simply because I didn’t know what to say to that. But I also didn’t want him to feel guilty. Couldn’t stomach it. So I ran my fingers through his beautiful, luxurious hair in a bid to soothe.
He shuddered again. I didn’t stop my slow stroking.
We stayed like that for a bit. With me sitting between his legs facing him, his arms around me, mine in his hair and his face in my neck. It was the most vulnerable hug, filled with unspoken words of forgiveness and acceptance.
A few minutes later, Alex broke the silence. “When I think about the fact that there’s someone out there who wants to hurt you–” His voice broke. “The thought that you’re in danger, even right now, sends me to a dark place, Laura.”
The rumbling of his voice against my skin sent a wash of heat pooling in my stomach.
I tried to ignore it. Talk about terrible timing. We were literally talking about a man who wanted to hurt me. Nothing about this conversation should turn me on. But despite my best efforts, I couldn’t fight the shiver that went down my spine.
Fighting the urge to squeeze my thighs together, I cleared my throat.
As if that could possibly distract me from my own thoughts.
Since the accident, we hadn’t had any form of action at all, other than chaste kisses that never progressed into more. He hadn’t initiated sex and I hadn’t either. It was almost like we’d started walking on egg-shells around each other.
The accident had really spooked him–maybe even more than it had spooked me–and maybe he felt like if he touched me, I would break?
Well, the thing was I hadn’t really been suffering. At least, until now. And I didn’t know if it was because of the fear I’d felt earlier combined with the lack of action recently.
Add that to the fact that he felt so good right now–big and warm–with his bare legs hugging my leggings-clad one… yeah, I was definitely one hot and bothered woman.
Alex lifted his head abruptly. “We’re going to report this to the police. Show them all the texts he’s been sending you. But until then, you need security.” A muscle worked in his jaw. “Since you’re going to resume work soon, we’ll need someone who will be with you always. At least, until you come back home.” I tried to speak but he didn’t let me. “You need security, Laura. Please don’t fight me on this.”
“I wasn’t going to,” I told him.
I saw the look in his eyes. And as stubborn as I might be, I wouldn’t dream of fighting him on this. Not when it meant that I would be safe and that he could rest easy.
I also didn’t fail to notice how he referred to his place as my ‘home’, but I couldn’t dwell on that at the moment.
Someone had somehow managed to tamper with the brakes of Alex’s car in front of my building without anyone seeing them. That was terrifying. I wasn’t sure if my building had cameras at all, but if it did, then we needed to go over the feeds to check if we’d see anything.
Alex looked unsure. “You’re agreeing to me getting you a bodyguard?”
I bit my lip, nodding. “Yeah.”
His eyes dropped to my lips and I caught the unmistakable flare of heat in them. “Thank you,” he breathed as he lifted his hand and freed my bottom lip from my teeth, stroking his finger back and forth.
My lips burned from the contact.
The air grew charged, desire thrumming through it.
Slowly, oh-so slowly, he lowered his head and kissed me.
I moaned loudly; he grunted.
His hands slipped under my shirt as our tongues danced, lifting my shirt up and off. Next was my bra, and when my upper body was completely bare, he pulled me closer with his hand around my waist so that my front was completely flush with his. My nipples rubbed against his shirt and it was like there was a direct link from my nipples to my core because that was exactly where I felt it the contact.
Moaning into his mouth with abandon, I dragged my nipples across his shirt, seeking that friction, and oh God, yes. If my eyes weren’t closed, I was pretty sure they would have rolled into the back of my head.
In a flash, Alex had whipped his shirt over his head, guided me backwards until I was laying on the sheets, then hooked his fingers into the band of my leggings, tugging them down. He didn’t stop until they were off.
My g-string met the same fate.
“Fuck,” Alex breathed, eyes hot on my body.
I watched him through heavy lidded ones, damn near coming on the spot when he rubbed himself through his briefs, the movement absent, like he wasn’t aware he’d done it.
I was content to lie there and simply watch as he took his briefs off, my mouth watering when he stroked himself once, twice, as he stared at the space between my thighs, eyes dark with predatory intent.
Settling between my thighs, he lifted my legs and hooked them over those broad shoulders, before he dropped his head and inhaled, shivering. “You smell like you were made for me,” he groaned.
My mouth fell open in surprise at the words, and whatever response I might have been cooking up died in my throat when I felt his hot tongue lapping me up.
He ate me like a man starved, like he was a man who’d been stranded in the desert and I was the first drop of water in sight, and considering I’d already been strung tight, it didn’t take long before my thighs were shaking with the force of an incoming orgasm.
I threw my head back, my hand tightening in his hair, legs going every which way as my orgasm crashed into me.
Alex moved up my body, his tongue plunging into my mouth as he wedged his hips between my thighs. I whimpered as my essence hit my taste buds, wrapping my legs around him when I felt the thick head of his erection prodding my entrance.
With just one movement, he’d be deep inside me where I needed him the most right now. I couldn’t wait.
Perhaps he was just as impatient as I was because he canted his hips and pushed in, my walls clinging to him like a second skin, because, fuck, it had been so long. Too long.
I sighed at the fullness of him. The rightness of this.
When he thrusted, I lifted my hips, meeting him right there. Each stroke of his cock inside me sent tingles travelling down my spine, rekindling the flame of my orgasm so quickly, it was almost embarrassing.
Struggling to hold it at bay because this just felt so good and I wanted it to last, I looked up at Alex and realized that I wasn’t the only one who was struggling not to come.
The lines of his face were tight, his skin flushed and lips slightly parted like he couldn’t get in enough air and had to resort to breathing through his mouth.
To know that this was so good for him too that he was fighting not to come…
My eyes fell shut as I was swept under once again, and Alex fucked me right through it, drawing it out. In no time, his movements became jerky.
“Look at me,” he whispered right next to my ear and I did. Holding my eyes, he said, “I love you.”
Emotion clogged my throat, and I pulled him down for a kiss, holding him as he groaned deep and low into my mouth, coming.
Sated, we remained like that for a while before he pressed a kiss to my forehead, rolling to his side and taking me with him.
We still had a lot to talk about. But for now, we were okay.