Page 2 of Promise Me This

“I like the sound of that. Forever.” His smile is an apparition. A trick of the light. “Can it start right now instead?”

“It started the moment you walked into that kitchen. I was a goner.”

The tears spring forth once more, filling his eyes to the brim. He closes them, causing a tiny rivulet to spill over the swell of his cheek. It stalls in the hollow beneath, and I brush it away with my lips, tasting salt on my tongue.

His head falls forward, landing against my chest. The heat of his breath easily slips through the thin silk of my dress, warming my skin and sending zings of electricity right down to my core. His hands move away from my hips, brushing the tops of my thighs where my dress has ridden up. Slowly, painfully so, his fingertips travel upward. Beneath the hem of my dress and then the waistband of my thong. He’s tugging at it and pulling soft cries of want from my lungs with the movement.

“Promise you’ll come back to me.” He mouths the words against my collarbone. He can’t have spoken them aloud. How could he when I felt them in my soul?

“I promise.”

One hand joins the other on my right side, confusing me for a moment until I hear a distinct snap of fabric. The elastic waistband of my underwear falls against my thigh, now torn in two. He quickly does the same on the other side, freeing me from them in the only way that would keep us from having to part for even a moment.

He glances up at me, and I seize the opportunity, covering his mouth with mine. The familiar taste of him, mixed with the bitterness of the red wine he drank with his dinner, is enough to sober me up completely. Every detail comes into focus. Our tongues brush against one another, sending a thrill of delicious heat all the way down to the apex of my thighs.

A whimper forms on my lips, vibrating against his. He reaches between us and fumbles with the button and zipper on his pants. I lean forward onto my knees to give him space to free himself, and he takes advantage of the position by biting my nipple through the thin fabric of my dress. “Bull’s-eye,” he mumbles, grinning.

I scoff. “You are a child.”

“Am I?” His hand moves between us, two fingers curling into me while he uses his palm to put pressure on my clit. “Because I feel like a grown man.”

“Quit ruining the moment,” I breathe, riding his hand in search of more of that exquisite pressure.

“Your body is telling me I haven’t ruined anything.” One wicked eyebrow quirks, and he grazes my nipple once more. Without the added layer of a bra, the rough scrape of his teeth cuts right through my dress, and the resulting jolt of pleasure settles somewhere in my abdomen.

“My body is an idiot,” I say. At least I try to say it. It comes out a little more strangled than I’d like, proving his point rather than mine. His fingers slip out of me, leaving me hollow, and I have no control over the disappointed sound I make.

Then I feel him pressing against my entrance, and I forget about the argument I definitely wasn’t winning. He’s teasing me, just out of reach. The heat of the moment mixes with the remnants of alcohol in my bloodstream, making me languid and overconfident. “Get a condom.”

He shifts his weight, retrieving the wallet from his back pocket and flipping it open. In the space where he usually keeps them, there is nothing. An expression of abject disappointment flashes over his face before his hand scrubs it away. “I forgot to replace it after last time.”

Even the memory of last time—a week ago, in the little cottage in Cahersiveen, with the scent of hydrangeas floating through the window on the summer breeze—is enough to make me shiver. I shake my head. “It’s fine; just pull out.”

I don’t miss the shock that passes over his face. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah.” I lean forward, reach beneath me, and guide him back to my aching core. “I can’t wait, Callum. I need you now.”

“I’ll pull out.” He nods along with the words, confirming it with himself.

“You’ll pull out,” I echo. I lower myself one torturous inch, feeling my body stretch to allow him in. It’s the first time I’ve ever felt him like this, without barriers. “It’ll be fine.”

His eyes are heavy-lidded, and he nods in that hazy way that feels like a dream. “You’re right.”

Grabbing firmly to my hips, he holds me still as he thrusts upward, filling me and drawing a moan from deep within my lungs. Tears prick at the backs of my eyes and I think I cry out his name, but he captures it with his mouth as it covers mine. We move in sync, giving as much as we are taking. I try to hold on to this feeling, to impress it upon my heart, because without it I don’t know how I’ll survive tomorrow.

I don’t know whose tears fall first, but soon there is a mixture of both on our cheeks. His hands travel up my spine and weave into the hair at the base of my skull, clinging to me as we build higher and higher toward the precipice.

I roll my hips against him, that glorious pleasure building in my chest until it hurts so badly that I’m afraid I might burst. Forget the other people on this mountain, in this city, in this world. I cry out loud enough for every one of them to hear me, and I can’t be bothered to care.

Before I’ve completely returned to myself, I feel Callum lift me off him as he shudders through his own release. His arms encircle me and pull me tight against him. My lips are level with his forehead, and I press them there, inhaling the familiar scent of freshly fallen rain mixed with the sweat that slicks his skin.

“Promise you’ll come back to me,” he says once more.

I cling to him, squeezing with all the strength I have left. “I promise.”

Chapter One

Leona

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