Page 55 of Feels Like Coming Home

“Sorry,” I panted between breaths. “Too far?” I looked at her quickly, and her eyes flashed between mine and my lips. My hands shot away and were back to caressing her spine like I had been before, where I knew it was safe.

“No.” She kissed me a few times, still breathing heavily, her hips grinding down on my lap. “Not far enough.”

Her eyes lit up from within and I could see the fire behind them, begging me for more. Without wasting another second, I stood from the couch, grabbing under her ass as she wrapped her legs around my torso. She looped her arms around my neck as I walked us both from the couch into the bedroom and leaned over the bed to set her down gently. She didn’t let go of me when her back touched the top of the mattress, so I held her where she was, bent over at my waist, and waited for her to release me.

“You know, Jones”—my words were coming out between heavy breaths—“we can’t go any further if you don’t let me go.”

“What if I never wanna let you go?” Her voice was low and heavy with desire.

Using one of my hands, I grabbed her face and forced it to the side to expose her neck. I pressed my lips to it gently at first, then started to bite and suck the soft skin. She groaned in my ear and I could feel her grip starting to loosen. “I promise, Haley, you’ll never have to let me go if you don’t want to. I’m not going anywhere.”

She blinked a few times and looked at me, taking a break from trying to force her tongue down my throat for the first time. Her arms were still around my neck and her legs were still wrapped around my torso. I had both of my hands pressed into the bed to prevent myself from falling on top of her completely.

“You promise?” Her question hung in the air between us. I knew she was recalling a time when we had been in a similar position that we are right now, and I made her a promise I didn’t end up keeping. This time though, I was going to do anything I could to prove to her that I meant it.

I took her face into my hands, cradling it as if it were a precious piece of art because, to me, it was.

She was something so precious and I knew that if I dropped her, she would finally break for good. I closed my eyes and pressed my lips into hers, hard and with a purpose. We kissed deeply, both equally pushing into one another. I pulled away and in one breath muttered two words that I vowed to myself and Haley that I would never turn back on.

“I promise.”

28

HALEY | NOW

Ipromise.

Two words I heard him say and as he did, a warm feeling in my core seemed to explode. It was a promise I’d heard before that had been broken, but something about this time felt different. Even if there was a nagging voice in the back of my head screaming, ‘Stop! You’re going to get hurt! You’ve been here before and he let you down. Don’t you remember?! Hello?!’There was a louder one telling me that I could trust him.

As soon as the words left his lips, I let him put me down on the bed completely and frantically grabbed at the buttons on his shirt. One by one, I unbuttoned them quickly and tore his shirt off. His chest was exposed to me for the first time since we were eighteen and I discovered he now had a full shoulder tattoo that covered the arch of his right shoulder and peck. I traced the outline of it with my finger and had to reel my tongue back into my head, practically drooling at the site of it. The tattoo was stunning. A mix of fine lines and abstract shapes that sucked you in and made your brain run a million miles a second.

“This is new…” My fingers ran across the front of Cam’s peck, my eyes unable to look away from the tattoo and Cam’s muscular chest. He was still holding himself up with his arms and leaning over the bed, looking down at me as I discovered new parts of the tattoo every second.

“I got it after I was drafted to play in the NFL and got my first paycheck. I’d always wanted one but never had the money, so once I did, I booked the appointment and had it done.”

“I–I like it,” I panted. My brain was starting to get fuzzy from how turned on I was by Cam, his tattoo, and his body.

He smiled down at me before whispering, “I like you.”

His lips were on mine again, his tongue pushing its way into my mouth. He tasted as good as he smelled. I was still lying on the edge of the bed and as Cam finally lowered himself down on top of me, I couldn’t ignore the strong force that was pressing itself into my pelvis. His hands explored every inch of flesh they could find as I continued to rope my fingers through his hair. My whole body shuttered when his hand met my breast again, playing with my nipple which was hard and showing through my dress.

He chuckled into my mouth, clearly proud of how my body reacted to his touch.

“Now, Jones,” he started, pulling up the hem of my dress so that it was just above my hips. I was suddenly very happy I had decided to wear the lacey pair of underwear to dinner. “It can’t possibly be fair that I'm down one article of clothing, and you aren’t.” A mischievous smirk started to spread across his face, like how I imagined the Big Bad Wolf looked at Little Red before he ate her.

“I didn’t realize there was a level of fairness at play here.” I was still grabbing at his hair and trying to avoid breaking contact with his lips.

“Haley, please, I'm a professional athlete and as a professional athlete, I only play when things are fair and even.” His hand pressed down on my chest, pinning me down to the edge of the bed, then leaned over and whispered into my ear, his lips brushing against it as he spoke. “And when you play with me like this, everything is a one-for-one.”

Then, in one fell swoop he wrapped his arms around my legs, yanked me closer to the edge of the bed, and ripped off my lace panties. Before I could even process what was happening, he spread my legs wide and reached one hand up to play with one of my breasts while the other found itself deep between my legs. My head slammed against the mattress, my senses completely overwhelmed by what he was doing to my body. It wasn’t enough for him to play with my nipples on the outside of my dress, so Cam slipped his hand under it to find my exposed skin.

“You aren’t wearing a bra?” he groaned, using his fingers to flick and rub my nipple.

“Backless dress, remember?” I responded between breaths.

“Holy shit, that is so fucking hot. Come here.” He pulled me up from the bed and forced my dress up and over my head. I watched as he threw it to the other side of the room.

He took in the full image of me, naked and exposed, for what felt like a hundred hours. It turned me on even more when he licked his lips and slowly dragged his eyes from my face all the way down the full length of my body. Then, after taking every piece of me in with his eyes, he commanded, “Lay down.”

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