Page 240 of Time Stops With You

Cullen shakes his head. “You don’t plan to get married?”

“No.”

“Nardi.”

“It’s not because of you. I didn’t plan to get married before I met you either.”

He contemplates my words and then rejects them. “You’re too beautiful and amazing to be alone.”

“I’d rather protect my peace than choose just anyone.” I roll into him, pressing my chest against his chest. “And whoever tries to date me next will have really big shoes to fill. The last guy bought me a building.”

Cullen doesn’t smile. Instead, he eases back. “I don’t want you to be stuck grieving me for the rest of your life.”

“I won’t.” I stare into his stern eyes. “Cullen?”

“Mm.”

“I love you.”

He stares down at me with a bittersweet smile. “I love you too.”

“Meeting you was the best thing that ever happened to me. I mean that sincerely.”

Cullen looks touched. He leans down and presses his lips to mine. I feel something wet trail down my cheek and I can’t tell if it’s his tears or mine or perhaps, a mixture of both.

Cullen’s hand press into the pillow beside my head and the mattress dips as he rolls over me. My head tilts back to accept the change in angle. The weight of his body pushes me deeper into the bed.

My hands slide around his slim waist and I arch my back, meeting every motion of his mouth, falling deeper into him.

He eases away and hovers over me for a second. Silver eyes peer into mine, pulling me into a galaxy of stars and moonlight.

His love for me is a literal fire burning in his gaze. I feel the warmth of it, the steadiness of it. There are no walls here.The dam has broken and everything he’s been holding back is gushing out.

“I love you, Nardi,” he whispers. “Dead or alive, that will never change.”

Cullen kisses me again and I expect this kiss to be hungrier and more demanding, but it’s not. He keeps the same, breathless cadence. His hand settles on my hair and traces down my cheek, touching me with such exquisite tenderness that I barely feel the brush of his thumb along my cheekbones.

My hands run down his back and up his sides. They tighten behind his neck and then brush his shoulders. I don’t know what to do with myself. I’ve never been held like this before. There’s something so… intentional about it. So final.

Cullen captures my wrists, traps them on either side of my head and keeps kissing me like I’m his everything.

His caresses are impossibly slow and painfully tender. I feel like I’m drowning, helpless against the rush of unbridled, unrestrained love.

After claiming my mouth so thoroughly that even the seam of my lips rings with the taste of him, he makes his way down my neck.

“C-Cullen,” I come back to myself when I feel him start to unbutton my shirt and press kisses on every inch of skin that’s revealed, “your chest pain. Can you do this?”

“I took enough pain killers. It won’t hurt for a while,” he promises. And then his mouth falls down a bit and I gasp as he sucks at a sensitive spot.

My heart is pounding in my ears. I force myself to remember the time we’d gotten hot and heavy in the car. He’d seemed to be in total agony back then. I know what overdoing it can do to his health.

“Cullen,” I try again, but he moves his attention to another sensitive spot.

I groan.

My back arches.

I can’t remember what I was going to say.

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