Page 92 of The Reborn

Now it was his turn to frown. “Hey. What’s wrong? I never said anything about babysitting. Why am I sensing...?” He waved a hand in my direction as if he didn’t know how to finish his question.

“What?”

“A change in the force?”

A laugh bubbled up from my throat before I slapped a hand over my mouth as I took in the serious look on his face. Slowly, I dropped my arm and tilted my head. “Okay. So... you’re the first man with the emotional intelligence outside of my family to read me, and after everything that’s happened between us, you’re offering me space?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

His frown grew as if he sensed there was no right answer to this one. “Things got a little emotionally heavy tonight, and I figured you might want time to process it.” He shrugged, looking deflated. “I don’t want to crowd you, Liv. Not when we’re barely a thing yet.”

I blinked at him, processing as some of the things he’d said about his failed marriage now clicked into place. “I’m not her, you know,” I said softly. “I’m not going to push you away.”

Something on his face changed in that moment. It was as if peace began to rain over his features and soak in his pores. “You swear?”

I reached over and traced his stubbled jaw. “I swear.” I let him pull me into his arms and I didn’t even try to keep my heart out of my eyes as I stared up at him. There was no point. “I don’t care if this thing between us is new. I’m Team Justin, all the way, and that means I want you around all the time. During the fun times, the emotionally heavy times, and all the in between times. I’m scared of getting hurt again too, and I have no idea what’s going to happen, but I do know that I trust you implicitly, and I’m willing to take the leap and see where this goes if you are.”

His fingertips trailed up my spine to tangle in my hair. “Sorry, Liv...”

What?

That sexy, dimpled smirk nearly killed me when I glanced up. “...I’ve already leaped. Team Olivia for the win,” he murmured as his lips descended to mine, sealing it with a kiss to end all kisses, taking ownership of me, mind, body, and soul.

We moved together, ripping at each other’s clothes, as we stumbled out of the kitchen and to my bedroom, where we fell to the bed. He worshipped every inch of my body with his fingers and his lips before he made love to me. There was no other way to describe it as there were new emotions arcing in the air between us. Softer touches, tender glances, soft sighs. I’d never experienced anything like it.

He held me afterward, curled around me in a tight spoon, our fingers interlaced at my stomach, lit up by a small moonbeam.

After several minutes, his breathing was slow and deep, and I thought he was asleep, but he kissed my shoulder. “I wish I could go back in time and have met you instead of her. Everything would’ve been so different.” His warm breath fanned across my flesh as he spoke of a different life for both of us.

I squeezed his fingers. “Same,” I said, letting him know I wished I would’ve met him instead of Christoph. “But we wouldn’t be the people we are today without the scars they caused.” I turned to look at him over my shoulder. “So I’m okay with that, if it brought you to me now, just as you are.”

I’d swear I saw the shimmer of tears in his eyes, but he squeezed them shut just before he leaned in and kissed me. Slow and emotional, full of everything he had no words for in that moment, yet I felt him loud and clear.

Eventually, the kiss turned from emotional to heated as his tongue slid along mine and his palm moved between my breasts. I turned to face him, hiking my thigh high over his hip, opening myself to him as we continued to explore each other’s mouths and skin. He pressed into me with his cock in a smooth thrust, using his hand at my backside to guide my hips.

I gasped into his mouth and adjusted myself to get him deeper as we sank into a slow lovers’ pace. We weren’t in a hurry, simply enjoying the feel of each other as he thrust in a steady beautiful rhythm.

Eventually, he began to move faster, his grip on my hip tighter as he thrust deeper and propelled us closer to the edge. He shifted his hand between us to find my clit and I began to buck against him as sensations swirled in my core.

“Olivia,” he gritted.

I opened my eyes and what I saw reflected back in his rocked me. He was a wide-open book, there for me to see. The tough guy who would do anything to protect me had been set aside and was letting me know, in that moment, I could hurt him. I bit my lip to keep from spilling out any love words we may not be ready for yet, and instead poured myself into him.

“Justin,” I whispered back, nipping the cords of his neck. “I’m here. I’m not going anywhere.”

That seemed to be enough to send him over the edge. He grabbed ahold of me like he’d never let me go and began to thrust like a madman. This tipped me right over the edge of the universe, making me come so hard I was nearly crying as he growled out his own release.

I flopped to my back, and he got up and went to the bathroom. He returned a minute later with a warm washcloth and helped clean me up before climbing back in the bed where we naturally assumed our position with me snuggled up into his side with my head on his chest.

“You’ll need to tell me the story behind this sometime.” I traced my fingers over his tattoo, caressing the dove.

“Not much to tell. Doves symbolize peace, and I needed that, so it seemed appropriate. Why? You like it?”

I pressed a kiss to his chest just above the bird. “I do.” Then I told him why. I told him about my sweet cousin, Claire, who was known as her father’s little dove and how she’d gone missing without a trace when she was fifteen, leaving the family with no real answers for over a decade until her body was found, along with several other girls, in the Sam Houston National Forest.

“Colomba is Italian for dove,” I said, caressed the wing on his tattoo, still a bit surprised by the serendipity. “It was my way of honoring her memory.”

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