Page 108 of Stay for Me

I couldn’t do this. Not again.

“Stop,” I rasped, holding my hand up.

He did, three feet from me, drops falling from the brim of his hat. “Where the hell are you going, Diana?” he demanded, his voice hard, chest heaving, nothing but heat in his eyes.

My tears mixed with the rain as I shook my head, my hair sticking to my face.

He took another step, his presence alone making the world around us look small. “Wherethe fuckare you going?”

“It doesn’t have to be this way,” I tried, my voice cracking. “If I leave now, maybe in the future, we can work on our friendship.”

“We wereneverfriends, and you fuckin’ know that,” he seethed, taking another step forward.

I swallowed the glass in my throat before I rasped, “I don’t belong here, Mags.”

My words rocked him so much, he jerked back. Then, time all but stopped when he growled, “You’re exactly where you belong.”

In a flash, his hand shot out, hooking the back of my neck, pulling me to him as the rough pads of his fingers dug into my flesh. Our bodies collided, and a gasp left me as he bent his neck, his eyes ablaze. His other arm banded around my waist, hold me tight against him, the heat of his touch spreading across my skin as my heart shouted for joy.

“You’re exactly where you fuckin’ belong, my sweet firefly.”

Then, God,then,his fingers slid into my hair and yanked my head back as his lips slammed down onto mine. My soul whimpered, my heart cried out, and my body crumbled against him.

Eleven years.

Eleven years, three hundred and fifteen days.

That was how long I’d waited for him.

My knees nearly gave out as I latched onto him, a moan climbing up my throat as my arms anchored around his neck. His lips commanded mine, his beard scraping my skin as his tongue stroked against the seam of my lip, begging for me to let him inside. Another small sound left me as I opened for him, my fingers weaving into his long hair at the base of his neck, feeling its softness as his taste—a mix of cigarettes and mint—flooded my senses, his tongue dancing with mine.

“Mags,” I rasped, gasping for air.

A growl climbed up his throat, forcing our lips back together as he drank from me, consuming me. My back was against my car then, his hands cupping the sides of my face now as he slanted my head, taking control, kissing me with abandon as the rain pelted down around us.

Thunder clapped in the distance, but neither of us cared.

We’d waited long enough for this, the storms around us be damned.

My hands slid up further, pushing his hat towards me as my fingers held on, my body finally coming alive. His body was against mine, caging me in and chasing away the cold as the brim of his hat shielded our faces from the rain. His hands dropped down to the sides of my neck, his thumbs hooking underneath my jaw, forcing my head back.

He pulled back, and my eyes fluttered opened. Suddenly, I was drowning in his darkness. “My beautiful little light,” he murmured. “My Diana.”

Before I could respond, his lips were back on mine, stealing my logic as well as my breath.

Seconds, minutes, years, decades, centuries later, who knew—he pulled away with a low grunt, our foreheads pressed together.

“Stay for me, Firefly,” he begged in his jagged voice, his eyes holding mine. “Please fuckin’ stay for me.”

Stay for me, Firefly.

Stay for me.

I kissed him again, my hands sliding down over his shoulder to his chest, my fingers gripping the wet fabric of his shirt. With a growl, his hands left my face, gliding over my arms, snaking around my waist and down, cupping my ass. I broke away, gasping as my body ignited. My nipples pebbled as my core constricted, wet for him, needing to be touched, to be filled.

“Christ,” he grunted, lifting me up.

Without a thought, my legs wrapped around his waist, my hands coming to cup his face, his beard wet but still rough. “Mags,” I breathed, feeling the bulge against his zipper, the buckle of his belt digging into my leg.

---