Page 49 of Colton's Second Chance
“I’ve missed you, missed this, sweetheart,” he murmured as he dropped tiny kisses along the curve of her throat. Her breath caught, and the sexy sigh that followed stirred the ache in his core to feverish new heights.
Patience. Savor this. Make it count.
He knew he might not get another chance to set things right with her, and he wanted everything about this night to reawaken the feelings she’d once had for him.
He took his time, nibbling the sensitive spot below her ear, massaging her nape with his thumbs, tracing the shape of herlips with one fingertip. He felt her muscles slowly relax, her body tremble in response to his caresses. He tested all the spots that had once been her favorite places to be kissed, and he grinned when he won gasps of delight and pleasure from her.
She slipped her hands beneath his shirt and dug her fingers into his back, encouraging him by canting her hips and sliding her body against the length of his.
Patience. Savor this, he told himself again, even as his breathing grew rough and choppy, his libido firing and hungry.
One item of clothing followed another, while they stared into each other’s eyes. Her shirt, then his. Her slacks, his jeans. Her lacy underwear and bra, a wonder to behold both on her and then off.
When they were both naked, he lifted her, and she wrapped her legs around his hips. Turning, he tumbled them to his bed and quickly wrapped them in the warmth of his blankets.
Burrowed deep in a snug cocoon of blankets, he let his hands roam, his mouth taste and his gaze worship her. As his passion rose, so too did the tender ache in his marrow that could only be called love. “It’s only ever been you for me, Noelle. In college, now, forever. Only you.”
In the dark of their blanket nest, he heard a hiccupping sob, felt the dampness on her cheeks, and he dried the tears with his kisses. “Only you, Noelle. Only you for me.”
Noelle let Eli’s words sink into her soul and nudge aside the pain that had resided deep inside her for so long. Rejection from her birth mother. Rejection from her adoptive family. Rejection from classmates who saw only her differences in her youth.
The scars created when she was young. The longing in her soul for love and acceptance had shaped so many of her choices in life. Perhaps the most difficult choice had been to break up withEli in order to protect herself from what she’d believed to be inevitable pain in the long term. No one had ever loved her long term. No one had ever kept promises, kept faith, kept her close.
Except Eli.
And she’d pushed him away anyhow.
The stinging truth of that realization, seen afresh some thirteen years later, slashed her with needlelike tines. A sob broke from her throat, and Eli lifted his head from kissing her breast.
“Noelle? What’s wrong? Do you want to stop?”
She curled her fingers in his hair and shook her head. “No. I only… I was thinking how much I’d missed this. Missed you.”
“Ah, love, me too.” Pulling back a corner of the blanket and letting in the dim light from his bedside clock, he continued to stare at her, his eyes intense. “Are you sure that’s all that’s wrong?”
She gave a wry half laugh. “You know me too well, huh?”
He leaned on one elbow, studying her face while he drew lazy circles on her skin with his finger. “I used to, but I’m not sure I do anymore. Tell me what’s bothering you.”
“Now? In the middle of—” she waved a hand between them “—and break the mood?”
“We have all night for—” He copied her hand wave between them. “But if something is on your mind, I want to settle it now, before it becomes a problem for us.”
“It’s not…” She ducked her head to avoid his gaze, and he angled her chin back up again.
“Look at me, Noelle. Talk to me. Let me in.”
Taking a breath for courage, she admitted, “I was thinking how I should have fought harder to overcome my concerns about us when I had the chance. You were good to me, and I let worries about the future, clouded by my past, stand in the way.”
He lifted an eyebrow. “What about the future?”
Here, she hesitated. After a taut moment of silence, she said, “Your family. Whether they’d accept me as more than a college girlfriend. If my own family couldn’t love me, how could I think anyone else’s would?”
“Noelle, sweetheart…” He drew her closer, held her firmly in his arms and kissed the top of her head. “My family would love you. Didn’t my mom and dad welcome you today? And you’ve met one of my brothers and my cousin Kansas. Granted, Parker was teasing a bit about having caught us making out, but that was directed at me. Brother stuff.”
She shook her head. “It’s easy to be polite and kind in the short term, and a whole other matter to welcome someone…” she hesitated, almost saiddifferent, but went with “…newinto their ranks. Especially someone like me who hurt you once and who never—”
He stopped her with a kiss. “If that is your concern, then I can ease your mind with conviction.” He laced his fingers with hers and kissed her knuckles one at a time as he said, “My. Family. Will. Love. You.”
