Page 86 of Keep This Promise
“Well”—he chuckles—“maybe not, but I want to worship you, beautiful girl. I’ll go as slow as you want.”
He moves his hand up over my breast, pulling my bra down so I spill over. When his thumb brushes against my nipple, my knees buckle. I don’t fall, though, not when his other arm holds me up.
“And what about what I want to do with you? Since this is our first time?” I ask, my head falling back on his shoulder.
“What would that be?”
“I want to see you too. I want to touch you, feel you on top of me and beneath me. I want to kiss you and have you inside me.”
“Turn around,” Holden instructs as his hand falls away.
Once I’m facing him, his fingers move to the hem of my shirt, and slowly, Holden lifts it up over my head. My blonde hair cascades down, just brushing the tops of my breasts. Without a word, he slips my straps off before unhooking the back of the bra.
My first instinct is to cover myself, but I don’t. He wants to see me, and I want the same privilege with him.
“You are stunning. God, you’re perfect.”
I am far from that. I have a rounded belly that refused to go away no matter how hard I tried. There are stretch marks on my sides from my pregnancy, and my boobs aren’t nearly as perky as they were four years ago.
My head begins to shake, but he tenderly takes my face in his hands. “Don’t tell me you’re not. Don’t tell me you don’t agree because it doesn’t matter what flaws you see, sweetheart. I see beauty. I see strength. I see resilience, and I see someone who I very much want to make love to. You are perfect, Sophie Armstrong.”
My heart is racing, and my thoughts are a riot. I can’t make sense of what I’m feeling because it’s everything at once. He says these things, and it’s as though he has some kind of magic that allows him to reach into my heart and say exactly what I need to hear.
“There is no such thing as perfect,” I manage to say. “There is just the truth in this moment.”
“And what is the truth?” he asks.
I gaze into those soulful brown eyes, my pulse pounding in my ears. “That right here and now, we are perfect for each other. That you make me feel beautiful and wanted.”
His cocky grin forms before he says, “I want you, love, make no mistake about that.”
I don’t doubt him, but I want to do this right and feel his skin against mine. So, I move to his shirt, tugging it off him and tossing it to the floor. Then I undo the button on his jeans and slide the zipper down. He stands like a statue, allowing me to do this at my own pace.
My pulse is going double time as excitement and nerves take turns crashing through me. When we had sex a few days ago, it was fast and hurried. There was very little time to think through the consequences, but that’s not this time.
This time, we’re both sure, and we’re both on the same page.
I push his underwear and trousers down, and my knees tremble. How is this man real? Holden’s body is glorious. He’s hard and strong, and his cock juts out, long and thick. I have seen and touched it before, but it appears much larger than I remember.
“Touch me, Sophie,” he says as an order, but also a plea. “I need to feel your hands.”
I run my fingers across his broad shoulders and down the strong muscles along his arms. My hand wraps around his wrist, urging his hand to my hip, then I continue my exploration. I move up along the ridges of his stomach, which is hard as steel, and to his chest before resting my palm over his pounding heart.
“One organ that controls so much,” I muse. “One organ that can both give and take.”
His other hand moves to my chin, nudging it up to meet his gaze. “My heart is strong, Sophie.”
I nod. “I have spent much of my life listening and waiting to hear that.”
“Hear it now. My heart knows what it wants.”
The breath in my lungs expels slowly, and my heart begins to race. “And what does it want?”
“You.”
His mouth is on mine, and I wrap my arms around his neck. We play for power, each teasing the other, as Holden walks me backward toward the bed. When the back of my knees hit, he breaks the kiss and then jerks his chin.
“Lie down.”
