Page 190 of Falling Backwards
It’s my turn to moan because now I’m the one whose shirt is being invaded, whose bare, balmy skin is being skated over by exploratory hands.
“Maggie,” leaves me, too, on a low sigh.
Her touch whispering up my back makes me shiver and press my face into her neck before I lay another open-mouthed kiss there.
I feel her knees weaken just a bit.I secure my hold on her and dimly remember this is not the first time I’ve had that effect on her and I don’t know how that’s real.I don’t know how I’ve gotten so fucking lucky, how she lets me be this close, how I’ve been blessed with a second chance with her.But I won’t waste any of it.I willnotwaste it.
And I won’t ruin it.
A promise I make to myself and to her.
Silently, that is, because now she has shifted and sought out my mouth with hers and we’re kissing again, and there isn’t really room for any more words.
M A G G I E
Something is happening with Luke, I’ve noticed, and it has never happened like this with anyone else.I don’t know when it started; maybe it was when I caught him staring at me before our workout began or when he came to me afterwards and instantly, eagerly touched me, or maybe it started when we were in my bedroom the other day, or maybe in some moment even before that.It’s definitely here now, though, thrumming through me while we kiss.
I feelsexy.
He’s just traded having his arms around me for being able to press me back against the edge of his bar counter.He has one hand sunk into the underside of my ponytail, has the other trying and failing not to slip from my lower back to the curves of my ass, and has his mouth on a mission to kiss me into forgetting anybody else has ever been on my lips.And the way he reacts tome,tomykisses and touches—the way he sounds and breathes and moves and the little words he manages to murmur….
I don’t feel gross from working out.
I don’t feel undesirable from having gained weight and shape and softness.
I don’t feel like pulling away or moving his low-gripping hand or reeling all this intensity in.
How I feel is sparking.Comfortable.
Luke asked me earlier if Marcus never told me how lovely I am, and I confessed that no guy ever had in the way he does it.And I’m realizing that is true about sexiness too.
With that in my head, there’s no helping having flickering thoughts of my experiences with other guys, but as Luke goes from wrapping a kiss around my bottom lip to delving into my mouth, his hands strong and cradling on me as he shifts our bodies together, there’sabsolutelyno help for me—I can’t keep from imagining being withhim,can’t keep from thinking in brighter flickers of him overcoming everyone else in the most intimate of ways, too, because bared bodies and pressing hips and bold hands will never have felt as good or as right as when they’re his and mine.I know it.I already know, in this moment of me matching his deep kiss and making him groan from my fingertips going into his hair and down his spine, that us having each other is going to make me burn like nothing else has before.
I want to hold on to it forever—this growing confidence that doubles as some kind of strange quietude.
I will.I’m gonna learn how to do it.
And I’m gonna hold on tohimforever, too, this time.
I attempt to do it literally right now, and God, does he feel good in my ar—
Loud knocks come at the front door, causing us to startle apart on a shared gasp.“Maintenance!”someone calls from the other side.
I breathlessly echo the word while Luke says, “Why the hell…?”Then he blows a weak raspberry and grumbles, “Oh, right.I forgot.”
If it were an unplanned visit, I might try to convince him to ignore it, but judging by that last thing he said, that’s not what seems to be happening.We withdraw our hands from each other and he steps back from me, allowing cooler air to rush between us while we straighten our shirts.
Good Lord, the way he looksandlooks at me—he’s still got that Just Worked Out vibe and his hair is a little bit mussed and his lips aremorethan a little bit kiss-swollen, and those blue eyes are dusky with heat and affection.
He cusses under his breath.“Should be illegal for you to look like that,” he tells me.“And to lookat melike that.”
The words surprise me and send extra warmth into my cheeks.I laugh out, “Wow.You’re a mind-reader.”
Another knock comes at the door as he walks backwards from me, one eyebrow lifting, a smile coming to his face.“Oh, really?”He turns away, then promptly turns a scanning look back over his shoulder to me.
I do my best to think past it since we’ve been interrupted.“Yeah.What are the maintenance people here for?”
