Page 96 of Redemption
After everything we’ve been through, every fight, argument, and disagreement, every story and memory of the past years we’ve been apart, I can’t help but find myself feeling something for this man. Respect. Admiration. And deep down, in the dark place in my heart I never thought would come to life again, there he is. As if he never left. Right along with Hawk, Jax, and Cole.
“Before we do this,” Darius continues, breaths quickening as he closes the distance between us. “I... I need to... Just once... One last time in case...”
My heart races at the implication, knowing that, in the muffled recesses of my mind, I feel for him the same as he does so openly now.
But therein lies the problem.
Jax. Cole. Hawk.Darius.
Past and present. Each one filled with unending love and devotion. But what does the future hold for us? Do our paths have a hope of remaining entwined? Or, in the next twenty-four hours, am I to say goodbye to the man who started it all?
I’m torn. I’ve already decided not to force myself to choose when it comes to Jax, Cole, and Hawk, and they’ve willingly agreed to that type of relationship. But to think of Darius right beside them? They don’t even know him. How could I possibly expect them to understand? To allow him to come with us, knowing that I’ll have to divulge our past to them, as well as my current feelings towards him.
Will they make me choose?
I can’t bear to think about it.
Thankfully, my mind goes blank as Darius lowers his head to mine, eyes dipping to my lips a moment before forcibly dragging them away. His gaze scans the planes of my face, reading me like a book he never wants to finish. Calloused fingertips explore in a gentle glide as they caress my cheek and jaw. Goosebumps and shivers skate along my skin, racing to meet his touch. Warmth and desire pool low in my belly, and I gasp when I realize the effect hestillhas on me. The sudden sound draws his eyes to my mouth again, hypnotizing him with possibility and hope.
“Alessandra,” he whispers, his lips teasing against my flesh, the words almost lost in the wind before they reach myears. He says my name like a prayer, a wish for things he wants and needs and yearns for with his entire being. He brings his gaze back up to mine, slowly. So slowly. Reverent in his perusal of my face. When our eyes meet, there’s no mistaking it. The burning heat in his gaze sears me as his pupils expand, turning his irises almost completely black with feral greed.
I know what this is. I know the gravity pulling us together. The tide rising to meet the moon that’s always seemed so far away but is so close right now.
I can feel him on the cusp of breaking, that fragile bit of restraint pulled taut like a rubber band stretched too thin. Breaths ragged, his chest presses against my breasts with every inhale. My nipples tighten, brushing against the muscle I know lies right beneath the shirt he wears, luring out an almost inaudible moan.
But despite my meager attempt to silence the ravenous need building within me, he hears it. Feels my pulse racing beneath his fingertips as they dance along my neck.
I know what I see in his eyes. His desire for whatever chance we’re giving ourselves, taking for ourselves, concealed by the trees and everything else out there.
He must see the same hunger evident in mine, because, not a moment later, his hand lowers, cupping under my jaw. His grip tightens, fingers splayed on one side, thumb on the other, holding me still but freeing me all the same. Entranced, he presses closer. And then... his lips meet mine. Gentle. Slow. Worshiping. I close my eyes at the pure adoration I feel in the kiss and see everything I’ve ever wanted from him.
Love.
We’re surrounded by it. Filled with it. Overcome by it. The pause he placed on our relationship all those years agoshatters, returning us to before that fateful day. Back when there was no virus, when everything in the world was right. When we were able to laugh and be ourselves. Nothing else mattered because, together, we were all we needed. My senses dull, and the forest falls away until it’s just us.
Me and Darius.
Familiar, yet so brand new. We’re two different people compared to who we were back then, wrapped up in one another in a new world, filled with new and exciting possibilities. Lost in our forbidden wonder as all our worries fade away.
I feel his groan as we tighten our hold on each other, the sound reverberating through my body as if it were my own.
Peace.
His hand wraps around the back of my head, fingers splaying through my hair and pulling the roots slightly as the rough bark of the tree digs into my back. It hurts, but lost love hurts more, so I block the pain as his tongue darts out, licking the seam of my lips and begging for entry. Lost to him and the possibilities set before us, I grant it.
Happiness.
His other hand wraps around my waist, the feel of his cock hard and long against my belly. Memories flood my mind of times past, of our young love becoming so intense we could no longer subdue it. Of him taking me, night after night, and showing me what it meant to be loved in every physical way imaginable. Of us dreaming of a future together and the hope of creating a family one day.
A place of our own, away from everyone else.
He thrusts his hips into mine, awakening everything I thought was gone for the man I believed had left me for good.Lust. Desire. Want. Need. I press back, lifting my leg into his waiting arm to receive a perfectly timed thrust against my pussy.
The man that ignites my wildest dreams...
Men.
Jax.
