Page 64 of Lovers in Lockdown

And by some miracle, I catch her, wrapping my arms around her and plastering her to my chest so tightly that neither of us can breathe properly, because it’s been weeks since I’ve held her and my hands have been cold without the warmth of her skin beneath them.

‘Can’t. Breathe,’ she giggles, and fuck if that sound isn’t music to my ears.

She takes my face between her dainty hands and assaults my face with kisses, to my cheeks, my nose, my eyelids. And then finally, her lips find mine and our tongues tangle together, her kiss conveying everything she’s too overwhelmed to put into words.I’ve missed you so much. I forgive you. I love you too.

She mews into my mouth and wraps her hands around my neck, tugging at the top of my t-shirt to pull it over my head. I grip her ass tighter and carry her through to the bedroom, which thankfully appears to be the only place in the entire apartment that isn’t covered in flour, and I lay us both down on the bed.

I crash my mouth down on hers once more, kissing her like she’s the sky, the Earth, the fucking milky way. Because she is. She’s all of it. She’severything.

And she’s all mine.

Mine.

‘You’re really staying?’ she asks, breaking the kiss and tracing my jaw with her fingers like she’s trying to memorise my face in case I disappear again.

‘I’m really staying.’

‘You won’t leave again?’

‘Never.’

‘And you love me?’

I brush my lips over her forehead, ‘So much.’

‘I love you too.’

And then she’s kissing me again and tearing off her clothes and exploring every inch of my skin with her hands and gripping my hips and guiding me inside her andfuck,this is it.

This is where I belong. Here. Making love to Honey, feeling her shudder beneath me, showing her how much I love her in the best way I know how.Thisis where I’m supposed to be.

I may not know what’s going to happen tomorrow, where I’m going to work, where we’re going to live, but I know that I don’t care. Because as long as I’ve got Honey, I’ve got everything.

As long as I’m with Honey, I’mhome.

EPILOGUE

Honey

Two weeks after Noah came home, Reid rings to say that he’s sorted us a place to live. Here. In the very same apartment we have spent the last few months, the place where we fell in love.

I fought against it, of course. Told him that he couldn’t do something like this for us, couldn’t justgiveus his apartment, but he told me in no uncertain terms that there’s no way in hell he could sleep in that room knowing it’s where his best friend had done the dirty on his little sister. And, you know what, that’s fair enough.

But when I asked him where he was going to live now, all he said was that he has options. I don’t know what that means and he didn’t expand on it further. There’s clearly a lot I don’t know about my brother.

And, surprisingly, I’m completely okay with that. Because if he really is supplying narcotics to senior government officials and world leaders like Noah seems to think he is, then it’s probably for the best that I’m not associated with it. Ignorance is bliss and all that.

Since Noah came home two weeks ago, he has made me more delicious dinners and given me more mind-blowing orgasms than I can count. He keeps going above and beyond to make up for leaving me the way he did and even though I’ve woken up a couple of mornings terrified to find the bed beside me empty, I’ve forgiven him.

Noah’s thumb brushes over the skin on my knuckles and I look up at him and smile. As fun as it is shagging the days away, there’s very little breathable air left in the apartment, so we’ve ventured out of the house for the first time in fourteen days and gone for a walk around the neighbourhood.

The sky is already dark, the stars are out and the moon is glowing softly. It’s a beautiful evening and yet all I can think about is the man who is walking beside me, one hand resting on my shoulder, the other stuffed into the pocket of his faded jeans.

Noah pulls me into his side and presses a kiss to my temple. ‘Feels like we’re the only two people in the world right now.’

‘I know what you mean,’ I grin.

‘Kind of wish it was true.’

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