Page 63 of Free to Breathe
My breath noticeably hitches. After all these years, it seems there was very little to heal between Colby and me. Every wall I’ve built up over the years to protect myself about the man sitting next to me starts to crumble.
Then he obliterates them.
Standing up from the lounger, he pulls me to my feet and begins to unbutton the wrinkled dress shirt he’s been wearing since last night. I suck in a breath when I catch my first glimpse of boxed abs and let it out when he shrugs it off. I can see where they put his shoulder back together.
My fingers are raised over the puckered scars where the bullets entered his body. “Colby.” The acknowledgment of the pain he’d endured is echoed in my voice.
He grabs my fingers and brings them to his lips. “We’ll talk about that later. That’s not what I want to show you.” He takes my hand and slides it down his muscular arm until it rests on his forearm, giving it a squeeze.
My hand lifts, and I almost stumble back over the lounger. Colby’s other arm comes around me to balance me.
It’s a tattoo of a key ring with everyday keys on it. Two things about it make it extraordinary: the Husky key chain, and the words Never Forget in block text beneath. I immediately recognize the key chain. It’s the one I left on the floor of his room the last night I was there. This ink isn’t new. The ink is faded. It’s got scars running through it.
My chest hurts with the need to release the pain. I keep tracing the tattoo with my fingers. My voice is choked when I ask, “When?”
“About six months after I graduated. It was a reminder to me not to let anyone else fade away the way you did.” His head is lowered, his breath wafting over my face. I tip my head back and am captured by the look in his eyes. He pulls his arm away from my fingers so he can thread his through my hair. “I could never forget you, Cori. No matter where I was or who I was with. You were imprinted in my skin, not to mention my heart and soul.” He brushes his nose against mine.
I stretch up a little bit. “Colby.” His name comes out as a breathless moan.
“I’m sorry, princess. I should have tried harder to make you understand, then and now.” His lips brush against mine as the words he says close up the wounds I’ve been suffering with since I was eighteen. “I can’t and I won’t apologize for the years in between because I just didn’t understand.”
“I won’t either,” I warn him breathlessly as his lips wander aimlessly around my face, the column of my neck.
“Then tell me this,” he says, tightening his grip on my hair.
“What?”
“Why are we talking?” He crushes his lips against mine, and I lose myself in his kiss.
As our lips learn each other’s taste for the right reasons, as our tongues entwine like the bands around my heart do, I lean my weight farther into him and surrender. My mind begins to fade to nothing except his kiss, but I have one last tangible thought.
Time. Do we need time to heal us, or do we just need each other?
30
Colby
Salvation.
That’s what this kiss is.
When I was overseas, I absorbed a great deal about different cultures. Buddha believed he was born into the world to be the king of truth, the salvation of the world. Hate to break it to him, but the person who was born into the world to be my salvation, my moral compass of right and wrong, has her arms around my neck, her lips parted against mine, and tastes like everything I ever dreamed of.
Incandescent light, sweet temptation, fiery passion.
I never want to let her go.
I moan into her mouth as her hands trail down my back, her nails scraping along the way. I deepen our kiss, letting my hands roam her body. I rest them on her rib cage under the fullness of her breasts. Her answering sigh lets me know she’s with me.
I don’t just have salvation; I’m holding a miracle.
Breaking my lips away, I bury them in the crook of her neck. “Cori,” I murmur.
“Yes?” she purrs. I want to roll my eyes back in my head. That Southern accent goes straight to my cock as always.
“Princess, we still have to finish talking.” I want nothing more than to spend the day running my mouth over Cori’s curves, but we have so much more to discuss.
Pulling back slightly, she narrows her eyes at me. “That’s less enjoyable than what we were doing just now.”
