Page 95 of Moving Forward

“I love you too.” I drag her up until I can fit my mouth against hers. She strokes my hard length, her eyes focused on mine. I let out a long, frustrated groan. Fuck, that is too good to be real. I can barely see straight.

My hands travel down to rest at the top of her butt. “I need you, Peaches. Now.”

I don’t fuck her like I did in the shower. This time, I make love to her. Slow, slow love until she’s writhing beneath me, shouting out my name like I’m a god and not just some screwed-up guy God has long forgotten about. I’d like to live in this second forever. Just the two of us, me and her.

This girl. What she does to me is unreal.

If only time could stand still.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

MAX

The night before the wedding, Cain’s body is lying rigid next to mine. It’s become a routine for him to hold me, even when we’re both asleep. Waking up with our limbs tangled is my favorite way to begin the day. In the rare moments he does pull away from me in his sleep, he thrashes around, mumbling things I can’t decipher. When that happens, I usually nuzzle him awake then curl up against him.

Around three in the morning, he isn’t holding me or thrashing around. He’s just still. Too still. He’s facing away from me too. His breathing is unsteady, making the whole bed shake with every inhale and exhale. His muscles are so tense that with each breath a ripple runs across the surface of his skin like something is trying to escape.

I run my hands up and down his spine, humming soothingly.

When he made love to me tonight, it was different from every time before. More tender and focused. Every moan and stroke and kiss felt like something he was etching into his memory and searing into his skin. He kissed me in places I’d been too nervous to let him kiss before, and he let me have a taste of him too. When he entered me for the final time, it was painstakingly slow, searing the two of us together in the tumultuous climb to what might have been a contender for the best orgasm either of us have had. My mind went blank. The world stopped and time reversed, and we collided with the sun in an explosion. Stars in other galaxies paused to marvel at how exquisite it was.

Now that I’m coming down from my high, the space between us chilled, I don’t want to think about why tonight felt different.

I lightly brush my lips across his shoulder and drape my arm over his hip. “What’s keeping you up?”

He shrugs.

“Is it the same thing keeping me up?”

Another shrug. If shrugs could talk . . .

I lean away from him, still too cold. I pull the blankets from around our feet up over me. “Are you just not going to talk to me?”

No answer.

I really can’t do this. Not tonight of all nights. Not when it’s our last for a while. “I’m leaving tomorrow.”

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