Page 91 of Miles Apart
Ice hardens around the words she hurls at me. They’re the same ones I told her at the singles’ retreat a lifetime ago. I shake my head at her determination to reduce what we have to a weekend-long fuck.
The shit hurts.
“No.” I shake my head again and push away her hand. If she keeps staring at me like that, I’ll bust in my jeans, but I want her to hear me out.
“No?” Emma hikes a brow. “If you’re not here to share your dick, leave the way you came.”
“I’m trying to apologize, Emma. I’m sorry. What we have—”
“Is over,” she snaps. “Your time in California is up. You made that clear when you packed up and left without telling me.” She huffs out a laugh. “You had the decency to tell Lorezno but not me. Everything you said to me was a lie, because if youtrulycared, you wouldn’t have done that.“ Her chin lifts. “Sex without strings is what we do best, and that’s all I’m willing to offer.”
“Em.”
“Take it or leave it, Miles.” Hurt dances in eyes once full of light, now embers.
I walk Emma across the room until her back hits the glass. Her breath hitches at my palms slamming onto either side of her. I don’t want to scare her, but I will be damned if she doesn’t think there’s more between us. “Zo got a one-line text in the middle of the night before I left,” I whisper to her profile. She refuses to look at me. “I wanted to call you to explain, but everything went to shit, and I had to focus so I could get back to you.”
“One month, Miles.” Emma’s reply is low, tormented. “No phone call or email. Only silence. I let you in, into my home and my he—” She swallows hard to bite back tears I’ll kiss away. “I have enough people in my life who walk in and out of it whenever they need something from me. I wanted you to be different. I wanted you not to let go.”
Shards twist and tug through my heart at having caused Emma pain. “You’re my home, Em.” I kiss her eyelids as they flutter shut. “What we have is real. I care, baby. I fucked up, but I can explain if you let me. Don’t shut me out.”
“Why? You did.”
My lungs give way to the anguish tightening my chest. I’m a problem solver, but I don’t know how to fix this.Iam theproblem, a risk Emma took that proved to be a threat. My throat works to pull in air at the thought of losing her. Ican’tlose her.
“Please.” Her voice retreats to a hushed whisper, trembling her lips apart when I press into her and claim her mouth.
I pull her closer, devouring her with my tongue and every word I’ve yet to tell her. Emma moans into my mouth as my fingers slip under her dress, coaxing her to dig her nails into waves that are now a tiny fro after my weeks away. Her hands drift to my beard and tug. I lift her to wrap her legs around me and revel in the touch of her thighs.
I’m lightheaded from all the blood in my body rushing from one head to the other. I want to fuck her until she can’t walk straight, but I want her trust and heart more. “I’m not them, baby,” I say against her mouth about every person who disappointed her. I’m not a perfect man by any stretch of the imagination, but I want to fix this.
We make it upstairs to her bedroom and stumble onto her mattress in a tangle of clothes and moans. I kiss every part of her as she straddles me.
“You have no fucking idea how much I missed you, kitten.” I grab the back of her neck and pull until our heartbeats touch.
“Condom,” she says and breaks us apart. I frown at her reaching into her nightstand for a foil wrapper but say nothing. She shreds the last sign of her trust with her teeth, sheaths me, and rises to her knees. I widen my legs and shiver as her pussy sucks me into her heat. “Fuck, baby.”
My grip on Emma’s ass tightens, and I spread to encourage the hips she rolls in a circular motion. I’m seconds from busting a nut but squeeze her tight and pump into her anyway.
“Miles!” Emma’s eyes roll to the back of her head, exposing the soft column of her neck, which I suck.
It’s a fight to steady our pace. The thought of being away so long and ruining what we had has me on my feet. I angle Emma’s body, scoop my hands over her shoulders, and drive home.
She is my home.
Sounds of our skin slapping and her cries fill the room. My quads will be on fire tomorrow but fuck if I care. Emma unravels, her hard, pink caramel tips bounding inches from my face. Her stomach tenses as she squirms in my arms.
“Look at me.” I kiss her chin and quicken my pace, grinding my hips to hit her spot.
Pleasure floods Emma’s moss-green eyes. Her lips part on a pant, her legs quivering and her chest heaving.
It’s on the tip of my tongue.
Three words.
Eight letters.
I’ve never told a woman I loved her. It took a minute to figure out that’s what this is, but I love Emma, and I don’t want to go back to a time when that wasn’t my reality.
