Page 64 of Resurrection

“Maybe my mom.” I grimace. Remembering her is a sharp thorn in my side. “She was murdered when I was five, so I don’t recall saying it.” I dig my hands into my pockets. “Donagheys never say it. Not out loud. Never occurred to me you might need to hear it.”

She searches my face but doesn’t come back to me. Her hands are linked, and she stares at them. One of her rings goes around and around. “Sometimes I felt it or thought I felt it. Maybe youdid.” A sad smile flits across her face. “You were hard to read.” Her smile vanishes. “You’re still hard to read.”

“Are you sure about this?” I shove my hands deeper into my pockets, trying to keep the rational distance until she’s decided.

Letting her go last time was almost impossible, but I did it because I was standing in the way of her getting the things she wanted. Once we fall back into each other, could I pull myself out? Walk away? I don’t know. I don’t want to find out.

“Yes.” She closes the space between us and places her hand on the side of my face. “I want to be happy. Being with you, around you, makes me happy.” She rises on her toes to mold herself to me. In my ear, she whispers, “I’ve loved no one else the way I love you.”

The heaviness in my chest eases. I draw her tighter to me. “I love you too.” Those words, from her, from me, crack me open, lay me bare. I’ll do anything to make her happy and, whether or not she wants it, to keep her safe.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Carys

Finn’s hands cup my face, bringing my lips toward his. I meet his kiss, driving my fingers into his hair, pressing myself as tightly to him as I can manage with our clothes on. His tongue massages my mouth, and he skims the hem of my shirt, easing it up, circling my back. At the skin-to-skin contact, I shudder with pleasure. He grips my ass, molding me to his erection.God, I love the way he feels.

When his mouth leaves mine to seek the most sensitive places along my neck, I moan and clutch onto him, afraid my legs might give out. My adrenaline spikes. His declaration of love is a drug coursing through me. Impossible to believe someone like him could love me.

“Say it again,” I murmur.

Finn chuckles against the curve of my shoulder. “You going to make me say it all the fucking time?”

“Consider it the price of admission.” My voice is breathless, and I’m already reaching for the button on his jeans.

He sucks on my earlobe and nibbles. “I fucking love you, Carys. Just you. Always you.”

His gruff voice is like another shot of desire.

Is there anything better than hearing those words from him? I’ll never tire of being important and precious.

“Promise me.” I tug his shirt over his head. Our lips barely break apart, and he makes short work of my clothes as I strip him bare. “It’ll only be me and you. I can’t do that again.”

He grabs my hand and presses it to his heart. His lips trail a line from my jaw to my collarbone as he speaks, “What’s in here”—he drags my hand from his heart and settles it over top of the prominent bulge in his underwear—“and what’s in here are yours and yours alone.”

I circle his cock and squeeze. He groans, and his lips find mine again as he disposes of my bra.

“You think you can do that?” I say.

I’m practically panting as his hand slides into my panties, his finger gliding across my folds.

“I did it last time without you asking.”

His words are muddled by the sensations rushing through me. I’m drunk with need, with love, and his fingers slipping inside me only intensify those feelings.

“What?” I bring my hands up to cling to his shoulders, to hold myself steady.

“You heard me.” He lifts one of my breasts to his mouth and tugs on the nipple with his teeth.

I gasp.

“Then why did you—oh,God, do that again.”

His thumb grazes my clit a second time with the right amount of pressure to make every nerve ending spring to attention.

“Because…” He picks me up and carries me toward the bed. He tosses me on top, and I shriek as he follows me. “I was young and stupid. Then I was old and cynical.”

His eyes, such a pale, pale blue, examine me with such intensity my breath stalls. “I didn’t want to ruin your life a second time.”

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