Page 84 of Free to Live
“The first time I kissed you, you thought I was drunk,” I murmur. Her breasts heave against my hands.
“I thought you figured it was a mistake,” she whispers scant inches from my lips. I shake my head from side to side.
“Never that, Holly. I thought I ruined everything between us. On top of that, it was the first time in years…” I don’t finish the thought. Mary has no place in what’s about to occur between Holly and me. Besides, I made my peace with my past before Holly arrived earlier.
“And now?” Her bright gold eyes hold mine captive.
“Now, I’m not caught between the past and the present. I’m tied up in knots over the present and the future.” I brush my lips along her jaw.
“Why?” Her voice is breathless.
I drop my head to the prominent blueish vein on her neck next and allow my lips to trace it. “It’s hard enough for a man to admit he hasn’t kissed a woman in so long. But—” I pull back and meet her dazed face head-on. “—it’s next to impossible to admit the fact that…”
Holly slides her hands up my chest, distracting me. I swallow. Hard.
“I’m trying to explain—”
She interrupts me. “That what I’m about to feel in your arms is everything I saw in those pictures?” And just that simply, Holly erases all of my fears as quickly as I removed hers.
“Yeah,” I growl right before I pull her body tightly into mine. My lips crush down on hers, and she responds instantly.
Instead of the olive-infused vodka that painted her lips the first night—the night we lost Justin to the mouth of the beast—all I taste is the pure sweetness of Holly and the remnants of the coffee she was drinking earlier. I sip from her lips slowly, my tongue tracing them lightly to gain entrance. As her lips part, I plunder in. Our tongues touch and retreat, igniting what we’ve held at bay for so long.
One of my hands finds purchase in her hair, holding her head steady as I slip a leg between hers. Rocking her hips into mine, I know there’s been no moment in the last three years as perfect as this one.
45
Holly
Joe slides his hands from around my ribs to under my arms. Lifting me quickly, he fits me to his frame. Breaking the kiss, he walks us backward toward the couch a few feet, before dropping me down and covering my body with his own.
Feeling the weight of his lean muscle over my body sets my body trembling. From the tips of my fingers down to my toes, I can’t control the emotion.
“What is it, Hols?” Joe’s lips whisper across my cheek as they mark every inch of my face. They’re just not where I want them—fully locked with mine.
“Joe…” My voice comes out as a breathless moan. His soft laugh is his gentle reply.
“This first time, I want to savor every inch of your skin. I need to make you tremble beneath me.” Lifting his head, he then proceeds to wreck me. “I want to make sure you never again forget the beauty of this—” He touches my head. “—and what comes out of these.” He brushes my lips. “You need to remember this is precious to me.” He rests his hand in between my breasts on my heart. “The fact it beats against my hand is a miracle.”
“I…” I’m at a loss for words. Then his hand shifts over my breast. I arc into him, moaning.
Leaning down, he presses his lips against the tip of my breast. “I knew you wouldn’t have been here if you didn’t forgive me, but I need to apologize. Forgive me for not opening up when I should have, for not admitting my feelings changed, and most importantly, for hurting you over and over again.”
Lifting my hand to rest it in his thick dark hair, I tug him back up. Holding his face captive, I whisper out my own confession, “Only if you accept mine. My feelings changed so long ago, I can’t remember when I wasn’t holding back. And I know my pulling away…”
Joe rears his head out of my hands. “How long ago?”
My mind blanks. “How long ago, what?”
Leaning so close his nose brushes mine, he whispers, “How long ago did your feelings change?”
Without thinking, I blurt out, “Since the day we went to go see that god-awful movie together.”
A slow smile tips his lips up at the corners. Laying them on top of mine, he whispers, “Then don’t you think we should stop wasting time?”
Wrapping my arms around his neck, I open my mouth to answer but find my lips taken in a slow kiss. Shifting, I hitch my leg up alongside his leg. Joe shifts to align the rigid length of his cock in the notch of my legs.
I break the kiss to arch against him. “Ahh.”
