Page 57 of Only for Love

“I’m not sure.” She blinks slowly but then rushes forward, falling into my arms. She wraps around me, a sob escaping her lips, which are pressed against my neck. “Oh my God. I missed you.”

We’re locked together. My skin tingles where her mouth brushed it. Her shampoo and faint perfume tease my nose. Her back, her hips, the way she hugs, it feels familiarly perfect. I breathe as I haven’t before. As if I haven’t been capable of taking in a deep enough or strong enough breath. Nothing’s felt right since the moment I left her. Three years of unsettledness gone in a hug. “I’m home.”

“Home.” She nods against me, sweetly, innocently rubbing her body against mine.

Sweet mother of friction, her moves do good things to me. “Yeah.”

Home in her arms has nothing to do with where we stand. This is where I’m meant to be, holding the girl I should never have left. She sobs, and I hold her tighter. My side wound aches, and I couldn’t care less. Nothing would stop me from holding her. There was never a second that I didn’t love her. She’s my everything.

I drop my chin. My lips touch the top of her head and press. It’s not a kiss. More of a claim. This woman is mine. I’ll beg and plead, do whatever it takes. I’ve been a dead man walking for years, hurting and hardened, looking for an outlet and suffocating on my mistakes. I’ve been wrong. Been scared. Been a motherfuckin’ fool. The answer to my problems has always been right here, with her.

“Baby.” I stroke her hair.

She holds me tighter. “You feel… different.”

I’ve packed on weight, filled out. I’m definitely bigger and stronger than when she saw me last. I let go and step past her. Her eyes watch me take in the barren room. Time has passed, but there’s heat coming from her. Need. Want. Arousal. Whatever it is, it’s thick between us.

“Wow. So. You’re—” Her gaze lingers on my shoulders then my chest. “Like G.I. Joe or something.”

A grin tugs on my cheeks. Shit knows I haven’t smiled for a long time. “Or something.”

Because what am I anymore? I’m not Army. My time was up after I was released from Walter Reed, and I didn’t want to go back. Maybe I can do something different. Maybe I can figure it out as I go.

I focus on what’s in front of me. The girl I’m never leaving again, her sparse furniture, and cardboard boxes. She’s all alone, and I can’t stay away. The need to take her mouth and have her body kills me. But more than that, I’d die to know what she thinks.

“What are you thinking?” she asks, her voice hesitant.

“Just wondering the same about you.” I leave out the part about her rockin’ body making me think dirty things. That’s nothing that I’m going to let her in on yet. “You did just move in.”

She fidgets. Her eyes catch mine and jump away. “Yeah, not all our, my stuff is here. It’s just boxes.”

“You look uncertain.”

She bites her lip. “I’m a million things. Maybe nervous.”

“Don’t be.” I catch her hand and study her. Her obvious unease fades. “Missed you, Ems.” My heart beats faster. This feels right.

She stares up through her eyelashes. “Maybe there’s more.” Tension envelops us, and I drag my thumb over her knuckles. “I’m just caught off guard.”

“More?” I step closer. My boots sound heavy on her barren wood floors as I erase the inches between us. There’s a tightness in my chest and a need in my blood. I’m starved for Emma, so hungry that it makes me lose my mind. I came here to win her heart, not jump in her pants, but my mouth’s watering like a starved addict’s. Everything I’d remember is back, but a thousand times stronger than I imagine. One thing is clear: we’ve never been over.

“I can’t explain it.” Her lips part as she retreats, backing into the wall. The quiet thud echoes around us. “It’s just you.”

Her breasts rise and fall behind a shirt that molds to her curves. She’s sexy, sultry, and sweet. I swear to Christ she does it without even trying. My cock’s throbbing. The only girl I’ve ever wanted is this one.

“Can’t believe you’re here, Gray.” Arousal coats her voice, urging me on.

“Feels like I never left.”

“I know.” She’s breathy and quiet, but an intense fever lights her perfect brown eyes.

A scrap of space remain between us, and she presses her palms flat against my stomach. It’s soft, not to stop me but to feel me. My head falls back. I take that second to own her touch, memorize the heavy power she holds over me, and I pray that I have whatever it takes to win her back. I need more than the carnal, primitive, possessive explosion that’s happening this second. I need Emma in order to survive. I need Emma as mine.

“Baby, say back away if you’ve got some reason to stop. I have to hear the words because what your face says… ”

Her cheeks flush pinker. With parted lips and wild eyes, her head tilts back. “Please,” she whispers.

The slope of her neck screams for my lips. “You can say no, Ems, if you don’t want me with you tonight. But I’m giving you everything I have inside me, making up for every second apart.”

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