Page 45 of The Moonstone Major
Chloe.
His dreams were filled with her.
But this was real, so achingly perfect and real.
His lips sank deeper onto hers, pressing against their shapely fullness with a desperate yearning.
Just one kiss.
No one would be hurt by it.
She tasted as sweet as the strawberry tarts they’d had for dessert.
He inhaled the intimate scent of her body, sunshine and lavender meadow flowers, so lovely and perfect as it blended with the warm breeze that surrounded them and the salt of the sea.
A shudder tore through him as her breasts pressed against his chest.
Their bodies were made for each other.
He wanted more than this one kiss, but this was all he dared allow. Even this was a step too far and should never have happened…should not be happening.
Yet how could he resist?
His heart had always belonged to Chloe, in friendship first, but now in the way a man desired a woman. He meant to keep the kiss brief and now end it, but how did one end a touch of heaven?
He found he could not.
So he continued to kiss her sweet mouth and allowed dreams to form that could never be. Dreams that would end when their lips drew apart.
Not yet.
He deepened the kiss, desperate to blot out the years of tormenting ache and deprivation.
In kissing Chloe, it was as though a floodgate had opened within him, and all the feelings he had denied throughout his life now came spilling out. The hopeless future of the street boy he’d once been. The cruel, heartless strength he had needed to survive, for he’d fought like a lion for every scrap of food and grabbed whatever he needed to live into the morrow.
All his experiences had shaped him into the man he was today.
The man upon whom Chloe had chosen to bestow her first kiss.
He should not have allowed it for so many reasons, the most important one being Chloe’s welfare. This kiss could lead nowhere. It did not change the circumstances of his deprived life or her privileged one.
And yet it did change something profound between them.
He used to find comfort in being the boy who guarded his heart and never let anyone in. But Chloe had found her way in, pouring light into the darkest parts of him.
He kissed her until she moaned into his mouth, her angel lips now completely surrendering to his. He wanted to conquer this beauty who had effortlessly captured his heart, wanted it and her for these few moments.
But who was he to demand any of it?
What could he ever offer Chloe when he did not know who he was or what dwelled inside him?
If she dug beneath the uniform, she would find nothing more than a name someone had made up for him—Fionn Brennan. He was a man with no answers.
Just an empty uniform covering an empty heart.
He drew away slightly and kissed her throat, needing another moment to gather the strength to release her completely. He suckled the pulse at the base of her throat, gently teasing and wrapping his lips on it before taking a step back.
Her eyes had been closed, but they now opened to stare at him.
