Page 48 of Mistletoe & Magic
“I don’t know what this is,” I say finally, my voice low. “But I know I don’t want it to stop. I’m lonely, Ivy. I’m tired of pretending everything is fine. And when you’re around, I feel like I can breathe again.”
Something softens in her expression. She shifts closer until I feel my dick painfully harden with her touching me.
“I’m scared,” she admits quietly. “Scared this will mess everything up. But I can’t stop thinking about that kiss, either.”
Relief rushes through me like a tide. I reach for her hand, holding it tight.
“Then maybe we stop pretending we don’t want this,” I say. “Call it what it is. We are both grown, consenting adults.”
The words taste wrong the second they are out. I hear myself trying to make it sound casual and I hate it. I do want her in my bed, but I also want her coffee mug on my counter and her laugh in my truck. I want the small domestic things that live after the lights go out. I want her in my sweatshirt in the morning. I want her key on my hook. I want her.
She watches me, guarded. I can see the line she needs to draw. If this door is the one she can open, I will take it, but I will not pretend it is only that.
“Whatever you want,” I say, voice low. I touch her jaw because I cannot not touch her. “Just know I am not going to treat you like you’re something casual. That’s not what this is.”
Her eyes flick, surprised and hungry. The air tilts. When I kiss her again, it is careful for one breath, and then it is not careful at all.
She bites her lip and grins at that, and that is all the permission I need before I kiss her again, slow and deep this time, tasting her like I have no reason to stop. Because maybe we both deserve this. We deserve to be happy.
Ivy’s mouth is soft and hot under mine, and suddenly I cannot get enough. My flannel slips off her shoulders as I pull her closer, and she doesn’t hesitate, like she has been waiting for this as long as I have.
The sound she makes when I grip her hips and drag her across my hard cock nearly undoes me.
“Remy,” she whispers against my mouth, and it is the sweetest, most dangerous sound in the world.
I kiss her harder. I taste her, breathe her in, let years of quiet want pour into every movement. Her hands slide up into my hair, tugging just enough to make me groan.
“Tell me to stop,” I challenge, even as my hands slip under the hem of her tank top, skimming her warm skin.
“Don’t you dare stop,” she says, breathless.
That’s all I need.
I shift, laying her back against the couch cushions and bracing my weight on one arm so I don’t crush her. She looks up at me, cheeks flushed, lips swollen, and I swear I have never seen anything more beautiful.
I kiss down her throat, slow at first, then faster when she arches against me. Her fingers grip my shoulders, pulling me closer until there is no space left between us.
“Ivy,” I rasp against her skin. “You don’t know how badly I want you.”
She smiles, wicked and soft all at once. “Then show me.”
Her words light me on fire. My hand slides down her side and over the curve of her hip, gripping her thigh to pull her against me. She gasps and moans when she feels my fingers find her center, sounds that nearly ruin me.
I force myself to slow down, even though my body is practically begging her to want me, too. “If we do this, it changes everything.”
Her hands frame my face, pulling me down so our foreheads touch. “Good,” she whispers in a challenge. “Let it change everything.”
I lose control then, and I kiss her like I’m starving, like I’ve been waiting years to taste her, because I have. Every kiss is deeper, hungrier. Her tank top ends up somewhere on the floor, my T-shirt follows, and the heat between us is undeniable.
When her nails drag down my back, I nearly lose it.
“Ivy.” My voice is rough, shaking. “We should go to my room before I completely fuck you every which way on this couch.”
She nods, eyes dark with want. “Then take me there.”
I scoop her up and carry her down the hall, her legs wrapped around my waist, her mouth on my neck. The whole way, I am half praying Junie stays asleep and half thanking God for giving me this woman.
When I lay her on my bed, she looks at me in a way no one has ever looked at me before, making me feel something no one has ever made me feel.
