Page 81 of Midnight Wishes

‘If I’m your boyfriend,’ he said, with another nip, this time at her collarbone, ‘before we go upstairs, we’re going back into that dining room. It’s been a shit day, and I want to dance with my girlfriend at my brother’s wedding. I want to kiss you in front of my family. Maybe let my mother grill you a bit.’

He supposed it was a test. If she said no, if she was still determined that this be a dirty little secret, maybe he could still walk away. But then she said, ‘Sounds fair,’ and he could hear her smile, could feel it lift him up.

And this—holding her, kissing her, being with her—was enough to wipe away the pain of a full day spent watching her, hating himself for wanting her.

Ten minutes later, when Alex saw his brother stare lovingly into his new wife’s eyes, it didn’t send any hurt or envy or disgust through him. Because he finally had it. The thing they’d found that he’d been desperate for. The woman in his arms—appallingly bad at waltzing, which he hadn’t thought was possible, but found tremendously endearing—was his. And he wasn’t letting her go.

Chapter 39

SARAH

PILLOWTALK | ZAYN

Alex was goingto drop her. They still had a hundred metres of hallway before they got to his room, and his arm under her ass, keeping her hoisted half over his shoulder, couldn’t possibly last the final stretch.

Of course, she was wrong.

Her feet only touched the floor when he’d got them through the door, which he then pressed her against, fisting the satin of her dress in both hands.

‘This fucking dress,’ he groaned. ‘Remind me to send the bride a thank you note.’

‘Aleksander.’ Her voice was barely a rasp of its normal self. ‘Appreciate that you love the dress. But the situation underneath is not sexy. Let me get undressed in the bathroom.’

‘If you think you’re going to deny me the pleasure of taking you out of this, I’d think again.’ His words were muffled, vibrating into her skin.

‘You don’t understand,’ she said, but her resolve weakened with each flick of his tongue against the pulse point below her jaw. ‘There’s some intense shapewear going on.’

A deep sigh blew across her neck before he stepped backwards, cupping her face firmly. ‘No,youdon’t understand.Youare the situation under this dress, so fuck yes, it’s sexy. Besides, if I’m seeing you in your underwear for more than thirty seconds, I’m doing something wrong. Now can I get back to making you feel good?’

Yes.Because every moment with him proved to make her feel incredible, as her skin ignited under his touch. But she wanted to feel him too. Wanted more of his warmth pressed against her. Wanted to see the ridges of muscle she’d once mocked him for. So when he stepped in to kiss her again, pushing his knee between her legs in the way he now knew she adored, she squeezed her hands between them to unbutton his shirt.

‘Uh-uh,’ he breathed into her mouth. ‘Ruin it.’

Her thighs clenched at the memory of the last time he’d said that to her, and his responding laugh—low, raw,her Aleksander,through and through—was like honey pouring into her mouth. She wanted to gorge herself on it, a magical treat that was decadently sweet but she’d never be sick from.

‘I’ve missed that, Princess.’ His hands fisted in her hair as she continued to work her way down his chest. The trousers had been bad enough; she wasn’t about to destroy what was surely another obscenely expensive piece of clothing. Especially when she considered how good he looked in it. ‘I’ve missed you. Your hair and your skin and your smile and the way you give me shitand how you’re so fucking stubborn you won’t rip my shirt off me.’

‘It didn’t even take long, calm—’ She broke off, an astonished, garbled inhale taking over as Alex shrugged the shirt off, his chest appearing in full. There, embellishing the skin directly on top of his heart, was his new tattoo—a spread of the wildflowers depicted in the painting he’d bought. The same species he’d given her the night he’d picked her up before the gallery. She hadn’t connected them at the time, too focussed on controlling her own heart. Stopping herself from falling too fast and too hard. Reminding herself it was all an act. ‘It’s… That’s…’

Tenderness softened his face as he reached for her hand, pulling it to his chest. ‘I told you I love your work,’ he whispered.

Love,she thought. That was the word. The answer to the all-consuming throb of him that filled her body, her thoughts, hersoul. She’d almost said it outside, the word bubbling up to burst out her throat.

‘When I got this,’ Alex went on, dimple popping on the side of his soft smile, ‘it was with the hope that we’d become more, but even after I gave up on that, I was glad some tangible part of you would be with me forever.’

‘Alex, you can’t just say things like that when we’re halfway through taking each other’s clothes off,’ she breathed, emotion tugging at her insides.

He hummed, nuzzling into her chest before continuing his journey down her body, fingers trailing achingly slowly over her sides. ‘I don’t think you’re quite grasping what you mean to me.’ When he reached the hem of her dress, his hands dipped underneath the fabric before he reversed his path, pushing thesoft satin over her skin. ‘This isn’t mindless fucking anymore.’ That smile turned feral as he interpreted her parted lips, on the cusp of correcting him. ‘Not just that, anyway. If we’re together, you’ll need to get used to me adoring you all the time, Princess.’

‘I don’t think it’s been that for a while,’ she murmured, her very soul pinned in place by his eyes, much like his hands pinning her hips to the door. ‘Not for me.’

Then that breathtaking smile was pressed into her thigh as he kissed a path up her legs. ‘I’m never going to stop wanting you,’ he whispered against her, a confession breathed in the language they’d been speaking for six weeks, the one he knew wouldn’t send her running. The language of desire, of need, of desperation.

Butnever.

That held a promise, a key translating his words into the real thing he’d asked for in the garden. A promise that had her blurting, ‘I love you,’ and hoping to hell she hadn’t misread things the second her brain caught up to her mouth.

Cold air whipped across her damp skin as Alex drew back, eyes now sparkling up at her. ‘You what?’

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