Page 85 of Fall Into Me

God, this was fucking ridiculous.

I cleared my throat. “So, there you have it. Waterfall, check!” I made a checkmark in the air, and the second I did it, I wanted to drown myself. “Great, okay. All done.” I don’t even know who I was talking to, but I did know my legs had decided that they would try and save me from myself and march me right out of the water.

I got one step before Fane’s arm wrapped around me and pulled me back to him. I shivered at the press of his chest against my back. At feeling his skin on mine. Every point of contact felt tingly like tiny little chemical reactions were happening, and with every spark, my willpower to walk away from him was dwindling.

My eyes fluttered close when he dragged his nose up the back of my neck.

“This position seems to be a common theme with you,” I gasped.

“Mmm,” he hummed, his smile pressing against the sensitive skin where my neck met my shoulder. “You did always love this position.”

“Fane, what are…” I grappled to keep hold of my train of thought. “What are you doing?”

“I’ve decided.” He said the words with such finality. All the air escaped my lungs when both his hands gripped my waist and in one, swift motion he turned me to face him.

My mouth opened and closed a few times, desperate to say something along the lines of “I’m so happy for you,” or “It must feel great to have made your first decisions at the age of twenty-eight,” but any flimsy sarcastic quip died on my tongue when Fane’s hands dragged up my body. They were so broad I could feel the way his fingertips almost touched at my back where he splayed them along my rib cage.

“When I got here and I said I’d go along with everything, I said I wanted something in return. This is what I want.”

“Fane, I—”

“Mercy, Calista,” he murmured, cutting me off. “Just for a while. I…” His eyelids were heavy, the pupils of his eyes so blown out all that was left was a thin ring of purple, with all his attention totally transfixed on my lips. He held me away from him, and I knew the moment I gave him my answer, the space between us would disappear. “Let me touch you.Please.” There was a desperation in his voice that didn’t match up with all the things I had collected about him in the last few weeks.

Didn’t match up with the person he had become in my mind over the last two years.

It reminded me of when he was mine, and I was his.

“Yes.” The word was barely out of my mouth before he kissed me.

He kissed me in the sort of way that broke people down and then built them back up, piece by piece, leaving them forever changed.

One of Fane’s hands moved from my waist and dragged over the top of my breasts before wrapping around my throat, pulling me closer to him until we were crushed together.

“I haven’t been living without you.” He pushed the words into the spot behind my ear before sucking hard. His mouth tracing and teeth nipping and tongue licking his way down my throat.

I was almost completely useless at that moment. My hands gripped his forearms, and I dug my nails in, determined to remind myself that this was real.

That this wasFane.

His other hand crept up from my waist, toying with the string of my bikini top. He pulled back for a moment, enough to ask me if he could with a single look.

I would do literallyanythingfor him right now.

Tugging the tie that was secured around my neck, he watched as the flimsy fabric peeled off me. My chest was heaving, exposing my tits. Heavy and full and aching.

My nipples were hardened peaks, brushing against his chest with every breath I took. I looked down between us, seeing nothing but skin and water, fascinated by the way we looked together. The way I remembered it so vividly and still I couldn’t remember it feeling likethis.

I looked down, and that’s when I saw it. The words so clearly tattooed on his chest, right over his heart, that I stopped breathing entirely.

My eyes shot up to meet his. I knew he was seeing so much right then, most of all confusion. So,somuch confusion. Panic and uncertainty and more panic.

“Later,” he murmured, shaking his head. “I promise, just let me touch you now.” And then he kissed me again, and it was all over. Whatever fight I had left in me died before it even had the chance to take over.

Being with Fane had always felt so completely intoxicating that it was like it wasn’t me. I wasn’t capable of being able to feel the things he made me feel. Of being touched the way he touched me. I became someone so completely different from who I was that it was like some sort of contact high. I lost myself in him like nothing else I’d ever experienced before him or since.

I felt the way his hands roamed over my body now, how he skimmed the palm of one hand lightly over the sensitive peak of my nipple before massaging me roughly, all while he took the other in between his teeth, biting so hard I cried out. Head tipping back and legs coming up to circle around his hips, I knew I’d been wrong.

I’d never been lost.

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