Lessons of the Heart (25 page)

A moan escapes me when his mouth latches onto the curve of my neck near my shoulder and samples the skin with his tongue. Goose bumps erupt across my body and I dig my nails into his back. We haven’t even left his entryway and I’m ready to throw us both to the ground.

He pulls back and strokes the messy tangles away from my face. I smile at him and blink several times as he draws me in deeper to his spell.

“We should move inside. As much as I enjoy my front entryway, I’m sure there’s a more comfortable spot for us to say hello.”

I nod as he threads his hand into mine, pulling me gently into his house while carrying my overnight bag in his other hand.

“I’m just going to go ahead and put this in my room. Make yourself comfortable anywhere you’d like. Are you thirsty?” he asks, heading toward the hallway that I assume leads to his bedroom.

A sudden rush of need pulses through my bloodstream. If he’s going to his bedroom, I have to follow. I slowly shake my head and take several cautious steps toward him. “Nope. Not thirsty.”

James licks his lips and my body reacts with pure carnal instinct. Putting one foot in front of the other, I slowly make my way to him from across the living room. The air changes around us, crackling with a white hot intensity of need and lust. It’s been months since I’ve envisioned this scenario, being alone with him without fear of being caught. Months of longing and wanting from a distance, wondering if he’s felt anything remotely close to how I feel about him. Now with the knowledge that he does, I can’t wait any longer to be with him, join with him in every way possible.

“You want the five cent tour?” he asks huskily. I nod and give him a lascivious grin. He looks around the living room, gesturing with his hand. “Living room.”

I laugh quietly. “I’ve seen this room before. Take me somewhere I haven’t been yet.” My soft footfalls close the distance and find myself standing next to him. I place my hand in his. James kisses the corner of my mouth, creating another flurry of emotions to run wild through my system.

With a jerk of his head and a tug of my hand, I follow him down the hallway in silence. It’s quiet and clean with several pictures adorning the walls. Black and white stills of various larger cities with the occasional family portrait hung in between.

I stop at a picture of him with his parents and sister when he was younger. I run a finger along the photo and smile at his cute, cherub face. He stands beside me and watches as I take in the scene captured in time.

“How old were you in this picture?”

“About seven, I think. It was our first trip to New York and I desperately wanted to see the lions at the Central Park Zoo. My mom and dad had initially told me there wasn’t much time to sightsee because we were so busy with everything else, but then they surprised us with a whole day at the zoo. We walked around for hours to see each and every animal and they bought me as much junk food as I could possibly stuff in my face.” He smiles as the memory flashes in front of his eyes.

“I’ve never been to New York,” I murmur. He squeezes my hand and wistfully smiles at me.

“I’ll take you one day. Just you and I, and it will be the best day of your life.”

“Promise?” I ask.

He nods. “Promise.”

“You know if we keep promising things to each other we should maybe write them down.”

James laughs and taps his head. “I’ve got them written down right here. I’ll remember all of our promises and make sure each and every one comes true.”

My fingers trace his jaw and he leans into the contact. “You’re too good to be true, you know that? Sometimes I have to pinch myself to make sure you’re real or that what we have is real. I don’t want to wake up one day and have it all vanish without a trace.”

“I ask myself those same questions and come up with the same answer every time. You are real. What we have is real and no one is going to take it away.”

“Five more months,” I breathe. He nods and kisses the corner of my mouth.

“Less than five months until we’re free,” he corrects. Our foreheads touch and the heat of his breath beats against my lips.

“This weekend, I want you to show me what we’re going to be like after this whole mess is done with.” I bite my bottom lip and look up at him through my lashes. Heat explodes through my veins when our mouths connect and seal over each other.

My bag drops to the floor and he picks me up with both arms, cradling me against his chest. I throw my arms around his neck as he carries me down the hall and into his bedroom, kicking the door closed behind him.

“We’ll finish the tour in the morning. Tonight I want to just focus on you.” He sets me down at the edge of his bed. There’s moonlight streaming in through his bedroom window, casting a soft, romantic glow into the room. Only I can’t focus on anything other than the intensity behind his eyes as he looks at me, peeling away every worry or fear that may lie dormant inside me. No one else will exist this weekend. It will be just the two of us finally getting the chance to be ourselves without judgment or repercussions.

James grabs the hem of my shirt, his knuckles trailing across my heated skin as the material is removed from my body. Every sense is heightened, every nerve on edge as we stand in his room, basking in each other’s presence.

Not wanting to be the only one shirtless, I run my hands up his taut stomach, letting the shirt bunch above my wrists as I run up the full length of his torso. He lifts his arms to help me pull it off him altogether. Smooth skin covers his extremely toned body and the hints of a defined six pack tease my fingers as they continue their journey around the newly exposed flesh before me. His biceps and forearms garner my attention, leaving nothing untraced by my curious fingers.

“You like what you see?” he asks. Even in the dark I know his brow is raised and a smirk is gracing his lips.

“Very much,” I reply, not feeling the need to elaborate anymore.

His fingers trail between my breasts and down to my fluttering stomach then move around behind me, exploring my back before working the clasp of my bra free. It falls effortlessly to the ground, leaving my full, aching breasts exposed to the cooler air.

“So beautiful,” he murmurs before trailing his lips down the column of my throat, licking and sucking a path to the swell of my breasts. My head falls backward, exposing more skin to the ministrations of his lips and tongue as he pays rapt attention to every inch of me. I pull him closer, wanting the skin on skin contact until it feels like we are a single person instead of two individual ones. For he is my match in every way and I was made especially for him.

Once we’re fully naked, our eyes travel over the planes of our bodies between deep kisses and soft caresses. James lifts me up onto his bed, guiding me to the middle as he climbs over me, taking his time to admire my body beneath him.

“I’ve waited a long time for this moment,” he says, trailing his lips down the column of my neck again.

“Me too.” I run my fingers through his hair. I can’t get enough of it and he seems to enjoy it by the soft moans and gasps I hear as I play and pull at the silky strands. But my grip loosens as his fingers run between my legs, finding the warm and wet heat of my aching core. The first contact steals the air from my lungs and with each retreat and entry into my body with his skilled fingers, a new pressure builds inside me. My fists clutch his sheets as the first wave rolls through my body, causing my legs to tense and release as I soar high into the atmosphere then gently fall back down from the clouds.

He leans over to open a side drawer on his nightstand and tears into a new box of condoms. With the foil wrapper in his hand, he leans over me again and runs his nose along my jaw line.

“Can’t be too careful,” he says before ripping open the wrapper and sheathing the condom over his straining erection.

“Agreed.”

James cups my face between his hands while propping himself up on his elbows to keep his weight off me. The greens of his eyes glow in the muted light as shadows dance in the background. I trace his sculpted cheekbones before pulling his lips down to meet mine.

I gasp audibly as he enters me slowly, carefully, lovingly. Our foreheads press together as he pushes himself inside me. The feel of him is exquisite, like nothing I’ve ever experienced before. Our fit is nothing less than perfect as he slides fully into me. My muscles grip him tightly and adjust to his length.

“God, James, you feel so good.”

He doesn’t move yet as his eyes search mine. Nothing has made me feel more beautiful than in this moment with him. The way his eyes search my face and lighten when he gives me his special smile causes my heart to skip a beat. I couldn’t love him more if I tried.

“You’re perfect, you know that? Nothing has ever felt this right before.”

He slowly begins to move in a steady rhythm, eliciting a round of soft gasps and moans as he glides in and out of my body, dragging every ounce of pleasure to the surface with ease. My legs wrap around his narrow waist until my heels dig into the small of his back, urging him to go deeper and faster. But he won’t have any of it. His pace is still slow and steady, worshipful and reverent as he holds my gaze with each stroke inside me.

“Faster.” I pull his upper body onto mine and trace the shell of his ear with my tongue. Another moan escapes him with a sharp thrust of his hips.

“I want to take my time, but you’re making this hard.”

“That’s the idea,” I say with a small smirk. Another thrust of his hips has the smirk completely gone from my face, replacing it with one of pure and utter ecstasy.

James moves faster as a thin sheen of sweat appears on his brow. My hands cling to his shoulders as my hips move in tandem with his, lifting and meeting him thrust for thrust.

“Too good,” he says through gritted teeth. I try to speak, but nothing comes out except gasps and soft mewling sounds. His lips cover mine, swallowing each sound as we breathe through each other until another orgasm spreads through me like wildfire, stealing all the oxygen from my body with its flames.

“Yes,” James cries out against my mouth. His movements become more erratic, thrusting harder and faster until his body jerks and pulses inside me. I cling to him and take in each shudder with the knowledge that it was me who gave him this pleasure, me who extracted this intense orgasm from his body. It’s me that he is giving his heart and soul to through the most intimate of acts.

And I know, with one hundred percent certainty that I could never live without him. I will do whatever it takes to keep him by my side for the rest of my life.

James lifts his head up from my shoulder, our chests still heaving while trying to drag the precious air back into our lungs after our intense lovemaking. Because that’s what we did. He didn’t fuck me and we didn’t have something as meaningless as sex. We made love. We transferred a piece of our souls to each other.

He brushes back a damp lock of hair from my face.

“I love you.” He kisses me softly.

I melt into his kiss while still clutching him tightly. “I love you too.”

“Why did we wait so long to do this? That was incredible.”

“I don’t know, but we’re going to have issues now trying to keep our hands off each other.”

With a groan, he rolls away from me and slides the condom off, tying the end of it before tossing it into the wastebasket next to his nightstand. My eyes roam over his body since I wasn’t able to fully do so before. Hard muscles beneath soft skin tease my eyes and make my fingers want to roam around just as before. But I don’t get the chance because he pulls me to his side and I lay my head against the steady beat of his heart. When the sheets are pulled over our bodies, I sigh into him, teetering on the edge of consciousness. Fingers trail lightly over my cheek, pulling me back to reality.

“I’m so glad you’re here with me.”

I kiss the corner of his mouth and smile. “There’s nowhere I’d rather be than right here in this moment with you.”

His lips find my forehead as he wraps his arms around me tighter. “Let’s get some sleep. We’ve got a busy weekend ahead of us.”

I hum my agreement before closing my eyes and drifting off into a blissful sleep in the arms of the man I love.

T
HE EARLY MORNING SUN SHINES
through the bottom of the shade, hitting my face at just the right angle to make me squint at the intrusion of brightness into the extremely pleasant dream I was having. Visions of last night play over and over again in my mind as if it’s set on a never ending replay. The only thing I can hear is our combined cries of passion as they echo through my brain.

Now, blinking against the light, I force myself to open my eyes, unwilling to leave the shroud of darkness for fear that what I experienced was only a dream. My arm reaches over to where I know James should be but I’m met with an empty space. If it weren't for the dip in the mattress to let me know that he was recently there, I would have convinced myself that I imagined the whole scenario. Except I know it was real because this is not my room and I am most definitely not clothed.

I stretch my arms above my head, feeling the delightful soreness from the strenuous activities of last night and then again early this morning. Waking up to his sinful lips trailing down the valley between my breasts was definitely a surprise. As well as the pressing erection against my hip as he continued to tease my body into consciousness, urging it to wake with a wild hunger that only craves what he can give me.