Page 78 of Until Forever

“You know?” I squeaked.

Gate prowled across the room, and I slid backward across the couch before I could stop myself.

“Keep running, kitten,” Gate said. “You know I like it.”

“Ummmm,” I stalled before flipping to my hands and knees and beelining to stand on the other side of the sofa.

“Really?” Gate muttered, hands on hips.

“I mean, this is just sofast,” I said, gesturing between us.

“As opposed to what?” Gate asked. “The last fifteen years? Hell, yeah, it is. I’ve got a lot of time to make up for.”

I held out a hand, half supplication and half to stall the heart attack I was about to have. “I just haven’t really done this,” I said, waving at the couch, “in a while.”

“Good,” Gate said, reaching for his belt. “Me either.”

I rolled my eyes, “Come on, Gate. It’s not like I haven’t seen you.”

Gate shrugged out of his cut and laid it across the back of a chair. And when his tee followed closely after, my mouth went dry.

Then Gate went for the buckle of his belt and the fly of his jeans. “I haven’t made love to a woman since you. Might’ve gotten laid, but I haven’t made love. I know that sounds like a piss poor rationalization, but it’s the truth,” Gate said. “Now, there’s nothing under these jeans, and you’ve got until the time they hit the floor to get naked.”

I reached for my shirt and then froze, breath seizing, my eyes flying up to meet his.

Gate stopped with the button fly and walked around the coffee table.

He held out a hand.

I looked at his hand, suspended in the air, waiting, and had the near-death sensation of my life flashing before my eyes. I knew if I did this, took that hand, my life would never be the same.

So I put my hand in his.

The skin of his palm felt rough against my fingers, but it felt like home, and I nearly wept with the comfort of it.

He tugged, and I let him pull me closer so that we stood toe to toe.

Looking up into Gate’s eyes, I shrugged out of my jacket, and whisked my silk tee over my head, thankful that I’d worn something pretty underneath.

“Holy fuck,” Gate whispered.

Yeah, I was definitely thankful.

And then he pulled me into his arms, and we were skin to skin.

His bent to kiss me, and when his lips met mine, all I could do was twine my arms around his neck and hold on.

Gate trailed kisses along my cheek to my jaw.

“Finally,” he breathed against my ear.

His lips blazed a trail down my neck, and when he found my collar bone, he nipped at the skin there. “You’re mine,” his words were muffled against my skin. “Always have been. Always will be.”

Then he was stripping me out of the rest of my clothes, and his jeans followed them to the floor.

One arm around my waist, he picked me up and followed me onto the couch, and when he rolled into me, I felt his cock hard against my thigh, and my body pulsed in response.

I reached out and stroked, the skin smooth velvet under my hand.

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