Page 117 of Break the Ice
“Elijah…” The moan escapes me with the forceful tug of his hand in my hair, freeing it completely so that it cascades around us, trapping the heat between us when I trace my lips down to his jaw all the way to the top of his chest.
“Oh God,” I cry loudly when his grip on my hip tightens, his short nails claw into me, threatening to sink through my skin when my hands knot in his shirt and pull it all the way up his chest.
Pressing a kiss over his heart, I hold my lips over the frantic thrum as it pounds harder and faster in contrast to the stark stillness of his body. His pulse is so loud, I can’t hear past the heated patter of mine rushing through my veins.
Everything about Elijah is so gorgeous, so strong, so perfectly contained that I have to steal a glance up at him just to check that this is real. That we are tangled together. In our need.
All the breath leaves my lungs at the sight of him with his head thrown back on the couch, his eyes screwed shut while his teeth blanch his perfectly chiseled lip.
I’m in awe.
Overwhelmed by the instant clench of my chest around my heart as it pangs for him endlessly.
I love you.The words coil around my ribs, weaving up my throat until they’re eager to blossom on the tip of my tongue.
I’m dying for him to look at me. To see the way I have pined for him so long and still yearn for his love over every other dream I have. I’m so enraptured that it takes a moment for the picture of him to fully sink in.
The flare of his nose and the tightly clenched set of his jaw. The bulge of his muscles thickening the curve of his neck along his collarbone.
He looks…pained…and tortured.
Overcome by the impulse to make him feel good, I brace myself on his biceps, holding on to him as I lower my lips back to his heart and deposit another kiss. Another. And another.
I swear he whimpers when I drag a trail of my affection back to his neck and pour all the love I have for him over his strained muscles. It doesn’t matter how much I give him, there’s always more.
My pecks morph into open-mouthed desperate kisses while my hands curl tighter around his muscles. I'm burning, aching to move, to feel the friction of his body beneath me as my thighs close around his hips.
When I lower, his hard length strokes over my core. I can’t contain my moan as I circle his stiff nipple with my tongue and he shudders.
“Slow down,” Elijah chokes out the words breathlessly. “Please… please… Stop… please.”
His hand twists in my hair, and with a harsh yank, he sits me on the coffee table in front of him. His face is flushed and beautiful and conflicted while he roughly tugs his t-shirt back into place. His eyes never meet mine as he pulls the blanket over his lap like if he hides his reaction then what we just did, didn’t happen.
“I can’t…” Elijah shakes his head down at his bare feet as though he’s trying to come up with something that will ease the heaviness and the hurt hanging in the air around us. When he peers up at me, his stare is glassed over, distant as he tells me, “I can’t do this. I’m… Fin…”
“Why? Elijah…” Desperation pitches my words so high that I flinch at myself.
He shakes his head. “I…Fin…you and…it’s…Finley…”
“What?” The questions tumble from my lips with an angry grate as my disappointment sinks in deeper, twisting with the insecurities whispering in my head.
Stupid girl. You’re not his type.
“You deserve better.” Throwing the blanket on his lap to the side, he stares down at his lap.
“But I wantyou.” I wipe at my stinging eyes before my stupid tears drip down my face.
“And Jayden?”
I freeze, bracing my hands on the edge of the glass table, focusing on the way his feet are grinding into the long pile of the cream rug.
Jayden.
My chest squeezes tight at the mention of his name. I can’t lie. I can’t tell Elijah that I don’t want Jayden.
“He’s…sweet.”
“Yeah.”
