Page 190 of Catch the Sun

No forgetting.

I tug her hair back with one hand and drag my mouth down the expanse of her slender throat, her thighs squeezing me. I harden to steel as she moves one hand to fist my hair, the other gripping my bicep. A whimper falls out of her and I nip her jaw with my teeth, her head dropping backward as her hair blends with the sunny red-orange rays. Ella grinds against me as my tongue laves her throat, tasting her soft skin.

I nip her earlobe, then find her mouth again as we devour each other.

It’s like coming fucking home.

Her hands quiver as she lowers them to my belt, fingers fiddling with the buckle, eager for more. “Max…” She croaks out my name with a desperate gasp. “Please.”

It’s all I need. I spin her around and carry her over to the bed, dropping her on the white linens and watching as she shimmies out of her clothing, her eyes never leaving me. I whip open my belt, unhook the button of my jeans, and tug down the zipper. My pants and boxers hit the floor as I reach for my shirt and yank it over my head, aching to be entwined with her.

Fully bare, Ella doesn’t look the least bit shy inching backward on the bed, spreading her knees wide. Sunlight streams in through the lace drapes, bathing her in golden light.

God, the sun suits her. It always has.

Ribbons of coppery red hair spill behind her when she lifts up on her elbows, her big green eyes watching me.

“God,” I say on a moan, crawling over her. “I’ve thought about you every day for twenty-eight months.”

Ella pulls her bottom lip between her teeth as I situate myself between her legs and sprinkle kisses along her throat and collarbone. “Did you picture me like this?” she wonders breathily, one leg curling around my lower back, her painted toes grazing the arch.

“Sometimes,” I admit. “Sometimes I imagined you just like this.” I cup her between the legs, then slip two fingers inside. We both moan, my jaw unhinging as my eyes flutter closed. “I missed you so much.”

“Max…” Her head tips backward before she collapses fully onto her back, her arms snaking around my neck. “I need you.”

I bite her earlobe again before finding her mouth, our lips slamming together. Our tongues collide, the heat spinning and churning between us as my fingers work her, angling higher, deeper, sluiced with her desire.

Smiling lazily, I waste no time in snatching her by the waist and flipping her over, climbing on top of her until I’m settled between her legs. I slide against her and lower my face to kiss her. Gentle and soft. No rush, no hurry. No inevitable heartbreak looming on the horizon.

The horizon is bright, sunny, and warm.

It’s just us and this moment.

Max and Ella.

I reach down to center myself with her entrance, shivering at the contact. I’m drunk on the realization that I’ll be sheathed inside her, filling her, wholly connected at last.

“Please,” she begs again, grazing her hands up and down the planks of my back. “Make love to me.”

I push her knees to her chest, lift up to mine, then glance down and watch as I slide inside her, slowly, an inch at a time. She fists the bedsheets, her head tipped back with pleasure as I disappear inside her all the way, shuddering through the final push.

The only time I had her was on the precipice of goodbye, both of us soaked with rain and regret.

It felt like an ending. A raw finality.

This is a homecoming. A beautiful beginning.

I shift my weight to my forearms as my face hovers a centimeter above hers. Our gazes hold tight. Even through the shocks of pleasure, her whimpers, our low moans tangling as one, our eye contact doesn’t sever, doesn’t slip. I make sure she’s with me as I slowly move inside her, drawing out the moment, the connection.

When she breaks, a tear crawls from the corner of her eye as a gasp sticks in her throat and she trembles beneath me with her hands clutched around my neck. I follow behind, drinking in her flushed cheeks, her parted lips and glossy eyes, as I find my release. Wave and wave of warmth races through me, filling me as I fill her.

When I collapse beside her, pulling her with me as I remain fully sheathed, I wrap my arms around her and tuck her face underneath my chin. “I love you,” I whisper against her hair, kissing the top of her head. “God, Sunny, I never stopped. Not for a single second. I’ve loved you since the day I laid eyes on you. Seven years old on a school playground, and I knew…Iknewyou were meant to be mine.”

Ella cups my cheeks with both hands and lifts up to kiss me. Her tongue flicks against my bottom lip as she murmurs, “I knew it, too. Even as a little kid, I felt it.”

I smile, swiping a stray tear from her temple. It’s so different this time, the two of us kissed by warm sunlight instead of drowning in rain clouds and cold drizzle. “I don’t want this to be over,” I admit, tugging her closer. “I never want it to be over.”

“I don’t either,” she says, words hitching on a small cry. “God…but what if we’re destined to fail? What if the stars never align?” Terror gleams in her eyes. True fear that we’re never going to find our happy ending. “They say all is fair in love and war, but that’s bullshit. It’s utter bullshit, Max. Nothing is fair about love. Nothing is—”

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