Page 100 of Kiss & Collide
He pushed off the back of the couch and crossed to where she still stood by the windows, like she’d grown roots. She was so tense all over, her expression anxious and her body rigid, like she was still half expecting disaster.
“You matter to me, too,” he said gently, trying to reassure her. He took a step closer and reached for her hand. She let him take it, but her fingers were curled in tight against her palm. He turned her hand over and began smoothing out each finger.
“I’m sorry I hurt you,” she said quietly. “I’ll probably do it again at some point. I’m not good at this. But I promise, I’ll try.”
“You’re better than you think, Violet. It’s a chance I’m willing to take.”
Her hand was splayed open now, and he rubbed his thumb across her palm. She was chewing on her bottom lip, watching his fingers tangling with hers. Then her eyes lifted to his again. “What if you hurt me?” she whispered, almost too soft to hear.
Ah, there it was. The root of all of it. Her armor was off now and he could see what was underneath, a girl so scared of being hurt that she never gave anyone a chance to do it to her. He reached out a hand to cup her cheek, rubbing his thumb across her full bottom lip. “I promise, I don’t want to ever hurt you. I know I’m asking a lot, asking you to trust me.”
“I trust you,” she said, holding on to his wrist. “I really do. But it’s not easy. Trust.”
“I think it might get easier the more you do it.”
Resolve flickered across her face, an expression he was much more familiar with coming from Violet. Then she reached upand took his face in her hands. “I care about you, Chase. I want to try this again.”
He let out a gusty sigh. “Oh, thank god. Being sad and angsty really doesn’t work for me.”
She laughed, just a soft huff, but her whole face transformed when she did it. She gazed up at him with something he was coming to recognize as fondness. “No, it doesn’t. You should never be sad. It’s not who you are.”
Then she leaned up and pressed her lips against his. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her in tight against his body.
“I missed you,” he murmured against her mouth when they briefly broke apart.
“It’s only been four days.” She started kissing her way down his neck, and the feeling of her lips skimming across his skin made him drop his head back and groan.
“Four nights, too. We have some catching up to do.”
Violet pulled away from him and took a step back. She looked up into his face for a beat, then held her hand out to him. He put his in hers, palm to palm, and she tangled their fingers together. It felt like a different kind of connection, one that promised more than physical pleasure. This felt like companionship, caring, and a partnership, one that might last for a very long time.
Violet turned and led him toward the bedroom. Once inside he pressed up against her back, circling his arms around her and bending down to kiss the side of her neck. She let him for a minute before she turned back around. Her hands slid up under his T-shirt, the warmth of her palms sending sparks through his system as she ran them up his rib cage, pushing his shirt up as she went. He lifted his arms and let her whip it over his head.
“You’re so beautiful,” she murmured, running her hands back down over his shoulders and arms.
He started working her faded black T-shirt up as well. “So are you.” When it was gone, his eyes ran over every inch of her exposed upper body, her long, pale arms, and the swells of her gorgeous breasts above the black lace of her bra. Reaching behind her, he unhooked her bra and slid the straps down her arms, his eyes feasting on her bare breasts. “All of you.”
“I know you like them.”
His hands came up to cup them and her eyelids fluttered down. “I love them.”
She let him play with them for a few minutes before she brushed his hands aside and reached for the button on his jeans.
“I like parts of you, too,” she said.
“Oh, really?” He couldn’t help but smile, because all of this, the playfulness and familiarity now mixed into their sex, felt so right. “Which part specifically?”
Her hand slid into the open fly of his jeans and wrapped around him through his boxer briefs. “This part, for a start.”
“It likes you a lot, too,” he groaned, reaching for her. Wrapping his arms around her, he lifted her off her feet and crossed the room toward the edge of the bed before tossing her back onto it. She landed with a bounce and he came down over her, bracing himself with his arms as he leaned in to kiss her. Her hand found him again, stroking him at the same pace as his tongue stroked hers. His hips began to flex with each stroke until he was about to lose his mind from it.
He broke their kiss and pulled her hand free, pressing a kiss to her palm. “I wanna be inside you when I come.”
She stared up at him with that tender affection he was rapidly getting addicted to. “I want you there, too.”
Rearing back off her, he grabbed the cuffs of her jeans and wriggled them down, watching her long, silky legs emerge inch by creamy inch. He wanted to kiss his way up each one to the hot, wet center of her. He wanted to feel her come on his tongue, on his fingers, on his cock. He wanted all of it, and all with her.
When she was lying naked on the bed, he stood up and shucked his own jeans and boxers, then, retrieving a condom, he rolled it on his aching, swollen cock. Violet propped herself up on her elbows, watching with unabashed interest as he did. He gave himself an extra stroke just for her. She bit her lip and squirmed, rubbing her thighs together. God, he might explode if he didn’t get inside her right now.
