Page 104 of Unexpected

“That’s so good. I knew you’d be ready for me again, my beautiful, beautiful girl,” he said in a low voice as he pressed a kiss between my breasts. Like he was following a path he’d set for himself, or the path he, not a minute earlier, was drawing with the tips of his fingers, he trailed his tongue over my collarbone to the shallow dips on either side of the bone. He meandered lower to my breasts, teasingly circling each nipple with just the tip of his tongue until they were both mercilessly hard and pebbled. He continued down my body, not forgetting my arms, placing kisses on the inside of my forearms and my palms. His fingers followed the path his mouth set. Sometimes they quickly moved against me, while other times he massaged and traced specific spots, like the birthmark on my hip or the few scars on my legs.

He worshipped my body and didn’t leave one place untouched. Without hesitating, I flipped over on my stomach when he asked me to. His groan made me smile as his touch feathered down my back before he gripped my ass with both hands.

“Do you know what I’m doing, Angel?”

“It feels like you’re worshiping me,” I mewled. The words sounded kind of ridiculous coming out of my mouth, but Luke laughed and continued his worship at my neck just behind my ear.

Feeling his heaviness over me was so relaxing. I knew it was a sensation I’d later crave, like a weighted blanket.

“Yes, but do you know why?”

The moment he asked the question, his teeth sank into my earlobe, and all sense went out the window. My thoughts fluttered away, and all I could think about was the similar intense flutter between my legs.

When I didn’t respond, he continued, “I’m not going to leave an inch of your body untouched. When you look in the mirror or see yourself at all, even if it’s just looking at your hands while writing your book, I want you to remember me. I want you to remember this moment and all of the moments that will come after, because there will be so many moments after this. You’re mine, Angel. And I take care of what’s mine.” He peppered kisses, licks, and bites between his words, and I was a writhing mess underneath him. Trembling with want, I pushed my ass up against him where I could feel him hard and ready.

He chuckled but shifted until he moved down my legs. He didn’t even leave my feet or my toes untouched. And when he was finally done, he moved back over me, nudged my legs apart slightly, and began to press into me.

“Yes, Luke,” I muttered against the pillow. I twisted my head to see him and melted at the beautiful desire twisting his features.

Once he was fully seated, he leaned down, moving all my hair to one side, and kissing my neck. His strokes were slow and languid and hitting all the right spots. Between the weight of him on top of me and how much he’d prepared me, I was already too close to the edge.

So close, in fact, that when he continued speaking and stoking the fire in me with the whipping of his magical tongue, I was lost to all of it.

“I’m going to touch every part of you. I’m going to imprint you with the memory of my tongue, my teeth, my hands, my cock, so that you have no choice but to replace all of the bad shit with me.”

THIRTY-EIGHT

Luke

It wasthe morning sun peeking through the blinds in Hazel’s room that woke me. Without its intrusion, I would have likely slept well into the morning.

I couldn’t remember the last time I’d woken up and immediately been content and excited. The feeling was foreign and had been since I was old enough to remember. There had been moments where I felt like my life had been moving in the direction where I’d feel that hope again: when I graduated college and when I started seeing Valerie. Even when I treated my first patients as a vet. None of those moments compared, though, to the hope blooming in my chest when I woke up with Hazel’s body twisted around mine.

It all felt different for some reason. A reason I hadn’t yet pinpointed, but with one of her legs draped over my waist, her arm curved over my chest and her head nestled into my shoulder, I knew it was different.

Of all the women I’d been with—both before and after Valerie—none of them felt like Hazel did. For lack of a better explanation, I settled that it could have been that our demons looked eerily similar. Whether I’d ever admit it out loud or not, Valerie had been her own version of the monster Michael had been. The effects of which I’d continued to feel long after “enough” time had passed.

But I hoped that our connection was less about our similar pasts and troubling situations—although those couldn’t be completely disregarded—because if that were the case, it could have defined our entire relationship. If our mutual pain was all that pulled us together, there had to be something else that made it stick. In my mind, our relationship would never succeed if all we contributed was the effects of our pasts.

It also didn’t escape me that I hadn’t yet confessed all my past to her; she was still in the dark about my parents and the beginning of everything. I had begun to say it a million times and a million different ways the past several weeks, but I couldn’t make myself do it. With Michael trying to stay in Hazel’s life and Valerie suddenly popping up again like a fucking virus I couldn’t kick, it wasn’t that I was worried about adding anything to our newfound relationship. I just wanted for a while longer to not have someone look at me like I was once a broken teenager who got a shit hand earlier in life.

More past demons meant more our relationship would be based on.

But watching the steady rise and fall of Hazel’s bare back with the sheets twisted around her waist, I knew it was more between us than our pasts, whether spoken or not.

To me, she felt like the fucking sunshine pouring through the window.

With that realization and the constricting feeling in my heart, I kissed the top of her head before I reached over to the bedside table for my phone. Josh had texted that Sadie was out of food, so I made a mental note to stop by the store before heading home whenever that was.

When I slid my phone back onto the bedside table, Hazel stirred, turning away from me and pressing her back against my side. She was still naked, and only her arm covered her chest as her hair tumbled over her shoulder. I folded my body around hers, pulled her closer to me and buried my face in her clean hair.

The floral from her shampoo was still potent from the night before. I’d made her come so many times I lost count (I’d make her count next time so that wouldn’t happen again). And when she was completely sated and only partially coherent at the end of the bed, I carried her into the shower and washed every part of her with the floral soap I craved to smell.

She let me wash her and then dry her when we stepped out of the shower until she dropped to her knees on the mat. With the water still dripping off of my body, it only took a few minutes until I was spilling down her throat.

Back in the bedroom, it was only moments after we curled up under her clean white sheets that I heard the even sound of her breath and knew she was asleep.

I fell asleep with my head in her damp hair, inhaling her floral-scented shampoo, and it was made even better waking up to it and knowing we could do it all over again.

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