Page 72 of Free to Breathe
33
Corinna
My head keeps screaming,You only have forty-five days left for sure in this world. This isn’t right. Move away. Let Colby move on with his life to find someone who is guaranteed in this world.
My heart can’t. It won’t.
My head tilts to the side as he presses me back against the wall to absorb the fury and the pain in his kiss. And not just because of tonight. Because of so many nights. So many years we could have spent just like this locked in each other’s arms.
We’ve both been wrong and we’ve both been to blame, but who the hell cares anymore? Who cares when we finally made it to where we’re supposed to be, right here in each other’s arms?
Colby spins me away from the wall and backs me up toward my bed. His scent is overwhelming me. It’s Burberry mixed with sweat, the same cologne he’s worn since college. I can’t walk by a man who wears it without my head spinning, trying to find him in the crowd.
He’s never been there before.
He’s here now.
“Corinna, I need you to know something important.” His breath is harsh in the quiet of the room.
Cupping his face, I brush my lips against his. “What’s that?”
He picks me up and tosses me on the bed, causing half my clothes to topple to the floor. “You’re going to have to refold your laundry.” Ripping off the gloves on his hands, he also takes the time to unlace his boots before crawling on top of me.
I welcome his hard weight pressing me down into the mattress. More clothes and pillows go flying over the sides of the bed, as Colby begins devouring my body.
I laugh, unable to keep in the sound of joy.
Colby stops kissing the crevice my bra and V-neck T-shirt affords him and stares down at me. “What is it? Why did you stop?”
“Because I want to cherish this moment I’ve dreamed about for so damn long, and I don’t want to rush through it like it’s the last time. It’s not. God wouldn’t be so cruel as to give me the gift of you, only to let you slip away.” He whispers the last as he entwines his fingers with mine. He swallows. “I know it, Cori. I know it here.” He moves our entwined hands to his chest while he braces on one arm. “I need you to believe me, even if you can’t believe yourself.”
Tears leak out the sides of my eyes as Colby gives me his full weight again. He kisses the tears from my cheeks. “How?” I manage to croak out, tightening my fingers in his.
“How what?” he returns.
“How were we so stupid for so long?” My tears are falling in earnest. “When I think of the time wasted—”
He cuts me off. “Because we needed to be exactly who we are now to battle this, Corinna. Don’t think of it as time wasted. Think of it as time lived so we know we’re the only thing worth dying for.”
With that, Colby rolls to the side and releases my hands. He pulls my body flush into his, drags my leg over his hip, and rocks my body into the cradle of his. I can feel the strength and ferociousness of his erection up against my mound. He’s barely touched me, and I’m already primed and ready. I gasp at the contact. Tugging his head down to mine, I kiss him with years of pent-up desire. Our lips touch. Our tongues mate.
For long minutes, that’s all we do. We sip at each other’s mouths like we just discovered a new flavor. Decadent, sweet, savory. Addicting.
Trailing his mouth down my neck, he stretches my T-shirt over my shoulder, tasting as much skin as he can. My head arches back when he bites down on the tendon leading to my shoulder gently. I can’t bear it. I want more. I want everything.
I want him never to think this was a mistake.
“Colby,” I whisper in the lit room. My hands are scratching all over his T-shirt, pulling and tugging. He pulls away, far enough to grab it from behind and tug it off, tossing it over the bed. It lands somewhere amid my clean clothes.
When he looks at me, I see passion has changed his eyes from gray to a smoky black. And I begin to pray. Please God, if I remember nothing else, let me remember this look right now. Let me remember when Colby cherished and coveted me, because it might just be enough to carry me through the perpetual darkness.
While I’m beseeching a God who never sees fit to answer my prayers, I feel the catch to my bra give before Colby’s hands skim up my waist. “Lift up, princess.”
Suddenly, a whole new set of insecurities set in. Colby is masculine perfection from the top of his dark hair to his square jaw, down the dusting of his chest hair to his chiseled abs. His arms are so ripped, I have no idea how he managed to climb the roof of my house to my window. How is my less-than-perfect body supposed to stack up against the women he’s had in the past? Even just knowing about one of them, that she-devil Addison, makes me anxious.
Before I can form a protest, in one swoop, Colby’s removes my T-shirt and my bra. My breasts, no longer restrained, shift to the sides as Colby rolls me to my back. In this position, my amaryllis tattoo is clearly displayed over my heart.
“I can’t wait for my fingers, my mouth, to touch everywhere my eyes can finally see.” He ducks his head and blows gently on one of my nipples. It reaches for his mouth, as my anxiety melts away, and I arch toward him. “You’re so soft,” he murmurs. Cupping my full breast, he lifts it to his mouth to surround with his lips.
