Page 32 of The Life We Left Behind

Trace chuckled at the look on my face. “You always did know exactly what you wanted.”

I grinned. I had been like that. I wasn’t so sure that I still was, but none of that mattered anymore.

This wasn’t about looking at the past and trying to find all the ways we’d changed. This was about reaching for one more night of the happiness we used to share together and parting.

My hands came to Trace’s shoulders as I helped him push off his shirt, and I was powerless to resist stroking them down his front. The teenage boy I’d once fallen in love with had become a man, and what a man he was.

My fingertips trailed over his pecs, my nails catching his nipple as he watched me with those stormy eyes I’d never been able to resist. I traced the muscles across his stomach, enjoying the way it made him suck in a breath as I slowly made my way down to the waistband of his slacks.

I could already see the evidence of his arousal straining against the material, and I was eager to get my hands on him.

Trace crowded closer, and I lost my balance, falling back onto the mattress as he grinned down at me.

I wanted him so much I could almost feel a constant shiver moving across my skin. My body ached for the feel of him, the memories of a simpler time teasing me with the possibilities of what would come next.

As my hands came to the button on my jeans, Trace tutted and batted them away. I squinted in annoyance, and his smirk just grew larger.

“This is my present, Delaney. I want to unwrap you for myself.”

He sank down closer to me, his hands coming to the waistband of my jeans, pushing the material of my shirt high enough for his lips to drop delicate kisses against my skin.

Just that one simple touch had my breath stalling in my chest. The need inside me made it difficult to think, let alone coordinate the simplest of functions like breathing.

“Lift,” Trace growled as his hands grabbed the denim and started the slow process of peeling the wet material off my body.

I lifted my hips without needing a second command, and it just brought me closer to his mouth. Trace wasted no time in flicking out his tongue to taste my skin as he pulled the pants down over my ass, revealing the dark teal lace of my underwear beneath.

He growled in satisfaction. His lips moved to my lace-covered core as he placed another gentle kiss over the fabric.

Then he began his maddening descent.

Every inch of skin that Trace revealed to himself was covered with delicate kisses or sharp, fast bites that had me moaning in desire. My body was overwhelmed with the need for more.

My hands came up to remove my shirt in my desperation to move to the part I craved, but Trace growled at the sight.“Always so impatient.” He tutted. “Keep those hands by your sides, Delaney. You’ll get your reward at the end.”

I wanted to pout. Hell, there was a part of me that wanted to do it anyway, just to see what would happen if I did. Instead, my hands gripped the bottom sheet with a strength I didn’t want to admit to because I was just as intrigued about what my reward would be.

I lifted my head to stare down my body at the grinning man now kneeling between my legs.

“Good girl,” he whispered, and my stomach flipped in delight.

Damn, that shouldn’t be making me want him even more. I might need to cash in my feminist card after this. Right now, there wasn’t a single part of me that cared.

Trace slowly trailed his fingertips up my thighs as his eyes greedily took me in. I’d never seen that look on his face, but then, the last time we’d been together, it had been the fumbling, albeit fun, experience that most teenagers had. This was the face of a man who was about to get everything he’d ever fantasized about, and I had no idea why he was looking at me that way.

His hands came to the edge of my shirt, and then he paused, looking at me carefully. I nodded, desperate for him to continue.

The corner of Trace’s lips quirked up. But then his attention was completely back on the task at hand as he helped me sit forward and then quickly pulled my shirt up and off. There were no teasing touches or trailing material dragging across my skin. Perhaps he’d finally worn out his own patience.

“You always were beautiful, Delaney, but now you’re divine. Look at you.”

Trace hooked his fingers under my bra straps before he slid them off my shoulders. He gently kissed the crest of each shoulder, and then his fingertips came to my chin as he tipped my head back and stared into my eyes.

“Why does it feel so new and yet exactly the same?”

“Because we’re not the people we used to be,” I told him, reaching and trailing my hand across his cheek.

A sadness reached his eyes for a second, but then he kissed me, and we both forgot what it was that had taken us out of the moment because all that mattered was that he was here, with me.

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