Page 85 of Free to Live
He trails kisses along my neck while grinding himself into me. “That can’t possibly feel as good to you as it does to me.”
I grab one of his hands and pull it to my breast where my nipples have tightened considerably. “Bet you’re wrong,” I tease gently. It’s me who’s left gasping when he rolls the hardened nub between his thumb and forefinger.
Moaning, I score my fingers down his back. Twisting in his hold, I expose the cord of my neck. Joe rakes his teeth down it gently, eliciting goose bumps all over my skin. “So good,” I whisper.
“It’s going to feel even better,” he murmurs back. My lips are captured in another long, drugging kiss. My mind clears of everything except for one thing: the man who’s become my best friend is about to become my lover. It sends a tidal wave of emotions surging through me. I clutch Joe around the neck and bury my head in the crook of his shoulder. I do something completely unexpected.
I start sobbing.
“Hols? Honey, tell me what’s wrong?” Joe’s body freezes above me.
I shake my head. “Nothing. That’s just it. Absolutely nothing. I just couldn’t be more…” I search for the right word.
“What?” He resumes stroking my arms, my cheek, brushing away the tears.
“Amazed. I never pictured you’d…” His soft laugh interrupts me.
“For someone who sees everything as clearly as you do, you weren’t looking.” I blush to the roots of my hair. “Then again, neither was I.” Joe presses his lips against mine, separating mine with a brush of his tongue.
For long minutes, our mouths speak for us. Without words, I tell him of my disbelief and wonder. He tells me of his acceptance and adoration. We sip each other’s unspoken happiness from the other’s lips, feeling nothing but joy in each other. Finally, he tears his mouth from mine.
“Holly, I want to take my time running my hands and my mouth all over your body. Is that what you want too?” Husky, his voice still holds a note of anxiety.
I slide my hands under his shirt. “Do I get to help you lose a few clothes in the process?”
His dark blue eyes almost turn black they go so dark. His fingers skim over my exposed skin above my jeans. “I want to touch you.”
My answer is to roll my hips up into his as I pull his head down for another kiss. “You already are.”
“More,” he demands.
A teasing smile crosses my face. “Are you sure you’re up for that?”
My laugh is pure joy when Joe pushes up off my body, yanking me to my feet. “Is that a challenge, Ms. Freeman?” Even though he sounds mortally offended, both of his dimples are out. His eyes are shining in the way I’ve only ever seen him look at Grace.
And now, he is smiling at me that way.
Please, God, let this work, I pray desperately. “It sure is, Mr. Bianco,” I flirt back openly.
I have a half a heartbeat to prepare before I’m in a fireman’s hold over Joe’s shoulder. “Joe!” I screech. Laughing, I pummel his back as he makes his way down the hall.
“It’s time for you to go to your room, young lady,” he says sternly. But Joe can’t quite keep the laughter out of his own voice.
“Have I been bad?” I ask cheekily as we pass through the doorway to the master, a room I became intimate with earlier when I was examining the dark gray and white motif on my camera as Joe lay exposed on the sheets.
Once I’m in front of him, my hair is brushed away from my face by his long fingers. There’s a subtle tremble to them. “No,” he whispers. Lowering his head, I rise up on my toes to meet his descending lips. “I never thought I’d ever find someone like you.”
“But…” Joe lays a finger across my lips, preventing me from saying what we both already know:You already had someone in your life to love.
“I’ve loved and the part of me that did died.” My heart deflates hearing those words. I can’t hold my head up knowing that I’ll never have all of him but knowing I’ll accept it because even a part of this man is worth all of any of the others I’ve ever met. He catches my chin and forces my eyes back up to his. “I never thought I’d find someone who I wanted to live for, Holly.”
My breath catches.
“Yeah.” Joe runs his fingers through my hair, deliberately twisting his fingers in the length before letting it go. He skims his hands down my back and rests them on my hips. Catching my shirt under the hem, he begins to lift it. “You can imagine the shock I felt when I realized the feelings I had for my ‘friend’ weren’t that friendly.” His rough hands brush against each of my ribs, sending chills dancing along my skin. Within seconds, my shirt’s whipped over my head and my hair floats back down to my shoulders.
Then I’m clutching against him as he takes my knees out with mere words. “Every second of agony it took us to get here? I’d do it all over again as long as I knew I’d get to hold you against my heart.”
“Joe,” I whisper. I’m unable to get words past the clogged feeling in my throat. I’m grateful he doesn’t seem to need them.
