Page 94 of The Vow

Then.

Now.

Always.

And I would remain on my knees for the rest of my life for her if that was what it took to earn her forgiveness.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Robyn

As Damon’s mouth covered mine, my entire body stilled like a wave reaching its crest. Should I fall? Should I tumble into the tide of his truth and let it sweep me away? Sink under the surf of his desire and let it finally consume me?

Would I survive if I did?

I didn’t have the answers. I didn’t know anything except that I needed his kiss. His touch. And the pleasure he’d promised. I needed something to release the tide of emotion his confession had set free.

All this time, he’d thought I was dead…believed I wouldn’t be safe…and had never left me for another woman.

And all this time, I’d only ever wanted him.

That was my concession to him. And it was one I gave with the furtive clutch of my hands around his neck, the wordless, wanton part of my lips, and the covetous yearning that spilled from my tongue.

Like I’d let him off some invisible leash, Damon devoured me. His tongue plunged deep, licking every recess, lashing my tongue into a frenzy with his, and then swallowing every morsel of my throaty moans. He poured his hunger into me with a kiss that ate me alive.

And I offered more because I was intoxicated. A beggar who pleaded to be consumed by his power. His dominance. His need. A beggar who starved for the embrace of her estranged husband.

There was no resistance. Not tonight. His mouth had destroyed it all. A weapon of mass destruction. First with his truths that broke down all my walls and then with his tongue that lashed stroke after stroke of lust until there wasn’t even a pretense left of restraint.

Shackling his palms to the sides of my face, he held me to the mercy of his hunting mouth until it was impossible to tell where I ended and he began.

It was jarring to know just how rapidly my anger—my hate for him—dissipated. Ramparts of resentment I’d meticulously crafted for over a decade. Fortifications that dissolved like sand against the tide of his truth.

Maybe the thing I’d hated all along was that I’d been left with two puzzle pieces that didn’t align. For fifteen years, I’d been forced to fit together how Damon promised to love me with the way he’d disappeared. But the pieces didn’t fit. They’d never fit. And now I didn’t have to force them together any longer.

With a heavy groan, Damon deepened the kiss, his tongue sinking farther and claiming even more of my turbulent senses into his hurricane of desire.

Even though I was sitting and Damon was on his knees, there was no space between us. Our chests were flush and my dress parted wide enough at my hips that the hardflat of his stomach pressed against my core.

I wanted to pull him higher. I wanted to feel the hardness of his cock pressed right where I wanted him. So much so, my body began to make a plea of its own, pushing and rocking against him, aching for more. Yet Damon wouldn’t budge.

He remained on his knees before me, his mouth and hands promising to blur the lines between worship and torture.

“Damon.” The plea mutinied from my lips as he began nipping along the edge of my jaw. All I could do was tip my head back, and hope, as his palms slid down the column of my throat, that his touch would anchor much lower at the source of my ache.

“God, I’ve missed you, Robber,” he rumbled low, tonguing the spot where my pulse feathered the side of my neck as his fingers teased the top of my dress.

How many times had he said those words to me? How many times had I resisted them?How easily did I now welcome them all the way into my veins?

“I can’t—” He broke off, heaving a lawless growl as he finished, “get enough of you.”

A swift tug of the soft fabric pulled it beneath my breasts, the rush of cool air drawing my nipples into even tighter peaks.

Moaning, I arched toward him at the same moment his big palms cupped me, a lightning storm of pleasure cracking through my unstable nerves. I whimpered and dug my hands into his shoulders, needing more but unable to say it.

“Fuck, Robber.” He sounded as tortured as I felt, his hot breaths pooling against the corner of my neck. “You’re so perfect. So beautiful. God…it kills me.”

His thumbs found my aching nipples, rubbing and rolling them until my skin seemed bound to combust.

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