Page 114 of The Fate Of Us

I let a laugh slip out. “Even if I’m on Mars?”

“I fell in love with my best friend… travelling to Mars would be nothing compared tothat journey.”

And then… smiled like a woman who’d finally figured out what she wanted to do. “Take me to yourhotel room.”

Chapter thirty-one

Nate

Ifyou’dtoldmethat this was how the night was going to end, I would have said… well,nothing to you, probably. Then, once you’d left, I would have laughed to myself, realising that the likelihood of this happening would have been useless even overthinking.

The way Addy's fingers danced over the muscles in my neck forced me out of my thoughtsand back into the elevator, leading to the room I’d checked into that morning. Our mouths hadn’t left each other for a while now, reality a distant memory and something I didn’t want to remember. Not when her body was pressed against mine, the swell of her breasts lighting my chest on fire in a way that made all my senses burn.

As her arms wrapped around my neck, I let my hands fall to her waist, her dressscrunching under my grip. The way her skin felt under my touch upset my balance, the nearness of her, of what we’d never done before, made my heart hammer between us.

In the moments when we remembered to breathe, I hovered my mouth over hers for asecond longer, shaking my head against hers as I breathed,“Adaline Moore, you are—”

“What?” she breathed against my lips, the word spiralling to my soul.

Another part of me ached at how low and commanding her voice was, that primal surgeunearthing the daydreams I’d had about this moment.

I dropped my head, a smile I only let her see spreading across my face, before meetingher sultry eyes. “Mine.”

And before she could say anything else, I crashed my mouth onto hers, the ding of theelevator forcing my steps to move us backwards into the room. And she followed.

Somehow we’d made it through the drive home without a hitch, the roof of theconvertible I’d rented down, the star-dusted sky watching us as my hand remained on her thigh, her hands coursing through my hair, holding the back of my neck. I don’t think I wanted to question whether this was the right thing to do, and I got the feeling that neither did she.

We were ignorant of our past. As though it had never happened.

The end table colliding with the backs of my legs thrusts me back into the moment, theinside of the room now nearly as dark as what lay beyond the windows. Part of me wanted to find a lamp to switch on, to see every part of her, see how unravelled she could become. Remember every detail of what was happening, in case I woke up tomorrow morning and had to guess whether I’d dreamt the whole thing.

But part of me wondered whether the dim glow from the hotel lamp would shine lightonto everything that we kept unspoken. Everything that needed to be addressed before we undressed each other.

I swept her legs, weightless, up in my arms until they were wrapped around my torso,walking her until her back met the wall. Her hands fell down the muscles of my back, clawing until my shirt was practically over my head. I tugged the thing off and cast it to the floor, enjoying the way Addy’s eyes drank me up, in a way they never had before.

“Eyes on me, Firefly.” I reminded her, and with a delicate tug of her chin, her mouthcrashed back onto mine, each swipe of her tongue like striking a match, igniting something that had never had a chance to be lit.

I dropped my hands to the curve of her ass, barely gripping it before those wantingbreaths laboured through her.

There had always been something about Addy, something that I’d always foundattractive. The combination of her features and the soul that lay beneath her curves was what drew me to her, what made the rope I felt synched around my waist drag me to her, as though not a force on earth could separate us.

The way her soft curves contoured my body was proof enough that we were made foreach other. It was proof that this must have been right. How could something feel so fucking good if it was never meant to happen?

As though she could hear my thoughts, her head pulled back, her eyes doing that thingwhere they asked me everything she didn’t have the voice for.

Do you want this?Her fiery stare asked.

I’ve never wanted anything more.My eyes replied, holding hers before dippingto her swollen lips.

My mouth was back on hers in a heartbeat, as I pulled her away from the wall and placedher in the centre of the bed. Her legs still clung around my waist, allowing my body to mould over hers, her hands raking through my hair as we fell deeper into each other.

Her gasps and breaths mingled with mine as our mouths reacquainted, those subtle moanslike siren calls. I loved kissing her. I loved the familiarity of it all. My mind ticked back to the first time I kissed her, how I remembered the way it always felt like her mouth was hung open into a smile when she kissed me.

Thinking about that evening made me smile too, and I knew she could feel it against herlips.

I felt her head pull back when she noticed it. “What are you smiling at?” she asked methrough bated breaths, her hands tracing the lines on my chest.

I let a laugh flow in the space between us. “I think I’m trying to convince myselfthat this is really happening.” I kiss her again, my hands raking past her jaw and gripping the base of her neck. “And I’m remembering how right it felt.”

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