If Forever Comes (9 page)

I sighed into his mouth and let my fingers
work into the rigid muscles of his back as he drowned me in the
upsurge of his passion. He was gentle, so gentle, as if I might
break, my fragile body safe in the security of his arms.

He groaned as he pulled back, his mouth at my
jaw, nipping at my chin. “God, it’s been too long since I’ve been
inside you, Elizabeth.” Rough, ragged words dropped from his mouth,
his muscles ticking, twitching, begging for my touch.

I’d been so sick that I didn’t think we’d made
love but three or four times in the last few months.

And this…I wanted this. Needed
this.

Christian grew hard and thick between us. The
heavy weight of him rubbed against my belly. No question, the man
needed this, too.

“Christian,” I mumbled, yanking at the shirt
tucked into his slacks. My palms found the bare skin of his back,
and I flattened them against the sinewy muscle that rippled and
twisted, jerking beneath my exploration. My grip demanding, I drew
him nearer.

Did he have any idea how desperate I was to
have him? How badly I needed him to possess me?

Christian hissed as I raked my nails down the
smooth skin of his back to his narrow waist.

It would seem impossible, but just touching
him seared me, scorching me in places that only existed with
Christian. I trembled in anticipation. He intensified his kiss,
forcing my surrender. His tongue played against mine. Desire
pierced me when he sank his teeth into my lower lip.

A deep moan echoed through the sanctuary of
the room, a sound I almost didn’t recognize as it rolled from my
tongue.

My head spun with his assault, and I found
myself struggling to make sense of how much I loved this man. He
was everything, beauty and light, my rock, the other piece of my
soul.

And so incredibly beautiful. Sexy in every
way. The fire in his blue eyes and strength of his body were
something I would never get enough of. I would never get my fill,
and the flame that he lit in the deepest places within me would
never go dim.

He was my all.

“Shh…” he murmured, kissing me more as he
lowered his onslaught, letting his hand flutter down my neck and
glide to my breast.

His flicked his thumb over my nipple. Another
shock of desire belted me and I moaned a little more. Christian
inched back. Never breaking our kiss, his firm hands roamed down my
sides, digging into my ribs before he grasped me by the hips. For
one second, he severed our connection and glanced up toward the
silence radiating from upstairs, then looked back on me with a
cocky grin lifting just one side of his mouth.

“You need to be quiet because I’m going to
take you right here, Elizabeth.” His voice came low as he uttered
the command close to my lips. He reached between us and jerked the
button on my jeans free.

With his words, chills pebbled along my arms,
lifted as a flush that rushed up my chest.

“Please,” was all I could manage.

I was shaking as I blindly hurried through the
buttons of his shirt. Christian edged back so I could get to the
ones mashed between our chests, pressing both hands into the
cushions on either side of my head.

He smirked against my mouth. “Are you anxious,
Elizabeth?” he murmured, the question dripping from him as the
slowest seduction. It vibrated through me.

“Yes,” flooded from me as I pushed his shirt
back from his shoulders.

The man had no idea.

He twisted out of his shirt, shaking one
sleeve free from his wrist. He threw it to the floor and dove back
for me as if I were his Promised Land.

My entire being hummed, relishing in his
urgency as he flattened himself on top of me.

Guess he was anxious, too.

He kissed me until I was breathless, until I
was panting and my heart was pounding, knocking at my
ribs.

“Ugh…Christian,” I begged. I lifted my hips.
“Please…need you…need you,” came as tiny pleas in between the
desperate bid I made to get him closer, because I could never get
him close enough.

I quaked as Christian slowly slid my shirt up
and tugged it over my head. He tossed it to the floor on top of his
and sat back on his knees and took me in.

Redness swept like wildfire just beneath the
surface of my skin, heat and need and this passion I held only for
him rising up to tint my flesh.

I pressed my thighs into the outside of
Christian’s legs, squirming, loving when he looked at me this way,
knowing my expression reflected exactly what I saw in
his.

“Fuck, Elizabeth, do you have any idea what
you do to me? Look at you,” he said low as his gaze cut a path of
fire over my body. His eyes flitted away from mine, his attention
dropping to caress the black lace that covered my breasts and down
my body to land on my waist.

Even the pass of his stare left a trail of
chills in its wake.

Christian’s tongue darted out to wet his lips,
his agile fingers tugging at the waist of my jeans. He slipped off
the couch and pulled them off, then made quick work of my panties
and bra. Watching me, he unfastened the button of his slacks and
slowly lowered his zipper. He pushed them down, stepping from his
slacks and boxers, revealing every inch of this man’s perfection.
My eyes traveled his length. The lust that curled in my stomach
sank, pooled as it throbbed between my legs.

Pulling the soft fleece blanket from the back
of the couch, he flung it out and wrapped it around his shoulders.
Slowly he slid back over me and completely draped us with it, the
light fabric concealing us in its cover, enveloping us, our bodies
and spirits caged.

I writhed.

Christian prodded my knees apart as he settled
back over me, his face intense, the blue of his eyes all afire in
this passion that would never let us go.

“I love you, Elizabeth,” he whispered with his
attention locked on mine.

In the same second, he locked his grip on the
outside of my thigh. His erection slipped along my center, teasing,
taunting, tempting.

“Love you more than you’ll ever know,” he said
again as he tormented me, skimming his length along my
folds.

Desire pulsed, coiled in my stomach and shook
my legs. I whimpered, arching my back as I crushed my chest to
his.

“I love you, Christian. Always. There is
nothing that could make me stop loving you. Nothing that could make
me stop needing you. You are my start and you are my finish, the
one who’s going to be there for everything in between.” The words
came as a solemn oath, my commitment to him.

Christian was my forever.

A pained smile edged his mouth as he held
himself in restraint, his voice hoarse. “I will never let you
go…never.”

Heat sweltered between us, a fever of need
building to a boil within the confines of the blanket, our bodies
seeking, hunting for the other.

Above my head, Christian rigidly held himself
up with his hand on the arm of the couch, the other digging deep
into the flesh of my hip. He clenched his jaw as just the tip of
his erection pressed into me.

“Fuck,” he groaned, gritting his teeth. “It’s
been way to long.”

I lifted my hips, taking more of him, but not
enough. My fingertips dug into his shoulders, biting into his skin,
imploring.

Christian dropped to his forearms, his face an
inch from mine. “You,” he whispered as he drew back, retracting
what I had taken. Then he rocked into me with one solid
trust.

My mouth dropped open with the overload of
sensation. It was something I would never get used to, the way
Christian felt when he filled me. As if I were complete. Whole. And
entirely desperate at the same time, because I would always want
more.

“Shit,” he whispered, the word thick, heavy as
he held himself in check. Still, a satisfied smile spread across
that gorgeous mouth. “That is never going to get old.”

Agreement rumbled as a hoarse groan at the
base of my throat.

No, there wasn’t a chance. Christian’s touch
would forever be familiar, but never, ever would it be
routine.

Christian pulled back and filled me again,
decisive and firm, though still conscious of the child, a
deliberate caution with each roll of his hips. This man…no…there
was no question that he was my all. He spun me up and turned me
inside out. Made me feel as if I was walking off a ledge in the
same second I felt most protected within the safety of his hold. I
wrapped my arms around him, buried my face in his chest as he
worked and strained over me, and I completely let go. The blanket
covered us, Christian’s body dancing with mine as the soft glow of
the fire crawled up the walls, wrapping us tight.

Comfort surged, spun with the knot steadily
building in my core.

Even though I could tell he was trying to hold
them in, harsh grunts kept rising and escaping his mouth. His heart
thundered and matched with the frantic beat of mine. Christian
pulled back and stared down at me, his blue eyes shining with
eternity.

Then he smiled that smile that was only meant
for me.

We were one.

There was no greater joy than this. No greater
joy than being in his arms. The life I’d spent so many years
longing for had been found in the devotion of this man. A
connection that could never be severed, even in all those lonely,
isolated years we’d spent apart.

“You are my life,” he murmured, his eyes
unwavering as they watched down on me. He grabbed my left arm that
was wrapped around his neck, brought it between us as he tenderly
kissed the ring that I wore proudly on my finger.

I stared up at the man who possessed my heart,
the one who owned my spirit, and whispered, “And I’m going to give
you mine.”

Present Day, Late
September

Awareness surged into my consciousness. I
fought to hold onto the darkness, to press my eyes shut so I could
remain in the sanctuary of sleep. Reluctantly my eyes fluttered
open in the dense fabric of the pillow I had my face buried in. A
groggy haze clouded my senses, and my mind reeled as I struggled to
make sense of what it was that had jarred me awake.

Lying on my stomach, I lifted my head. I
blinked as my sight slowly adjusted to the muted light bleeding in
from the heavy drapes I had pulled over the window. I squinted in
the direction of my door. Knocking continued to resonate from
downstairs. I rammed my face back into the refuge of the pillow,
willing whoever was pounding at my front door to
disappear.

I should have known that would never be my
luck.

A key rattled in the lock. The front door
unlatched and it slowly whined open.

My pulse stuttered. Not in fear, but because I
didn’t think I could handle this today.

Every time, it was the same.

“Liz?” traveled up the stairs on a direct
pathway to my unwilling ears.

Natalie.

I didn’t respond. Instead I gripped the
pillow, forcing my face deep into the fabric. Maybe if I bored into
it hard enough, it would swallow me whole. Maybe…maybe I could just
disappear.

Footsteps creaked on the stairs. “Liz?” she
called again, quieter this time. I squeezed my eyes tighter when I
felt her presence emerge. My bedroom door sitting half ajar slowly
swung open all the way.

Tension hovered as a thick silence between us
before, “Elizabeth,” finally flooded into my room on a troubled
breath.

Gathering the energy, I forced myself to turn
toward her. I rested my cheek on the pillow, blinking over at my
cousin who stood in my doorway with worry etching every line on her
young face.

She’d grown her hair out a bit, the dark
blonde locks curling in a soft wave just over her shoulders. She
wore her normal—a thin, over-sized sweatshirt with the neck cut out
so it hung loosely off one shoulder, short-short cutoffs, and
flip-flops. She turned up a soft smile.

Casual and kind. She always was.