Page 52 of The Girl I Once Loved

My mother flinches, and she actually looks at me.

“What do you mean? Forgive you for what?”

I hold in my eye roll. “Forgive me for leaving. All these years…we haven’t been the same. And I’m just wondering when you’re going to forgive me. Recognize everything I’ve done over the last few years.”

Her eyes are sad, her lips pursed as she takes me in. “There was nothing to forgive, Skylar. I’ve missed you. I’ve wished you would come home, but that’s all it is.”

I keep my face blank. But I’m frustrated, because I know that’s not true. Daisy clinks her spoon on her glass to make a toast though, and I remember to not make a scene.

I focus on Daisy, but I can feel my mother’s gaze on my face for the rest of the party. I stay until the end, but I catch a ride back with a neighbor instead of riding back with Daisy or my mother.

And as I lay in bed that night, I wonder if there’sanythingfrom my past that I can fix…or move on from.

Chapter Eleven

Skylar

“Baby,” Noah whispers with hushed awe as his fingers trace my skin. He pulls my hair tie loose and my hair spins down my back in messy waves. “That’s better,” he purrs as his fingers massage my head.

He brushes a kiss against my lips. “I’ve been desperate for this.” I breathe him in and his scent washes over me.

I need more.

Noah brushes his lips against mine again and I gasp, because I’m feeling so much.

Noah eases my mouth open, parting my lips with his tongue. The taste of him, like his scent, is everything. It’s like no time has passed at all. I’m right back to wanting him desperately…more than I’ve ever wanted anything before. His tongue slides over mine, feeding a sweet surge of lust into my entire body like a heady flood. I open to him willingly, needing more.

“Fuck, Skylar,” he groans. “You taste so fucking good. I thought I’d imagined this. This perfection...”

I feel utterly powerless, as if there's an invisible force binding me to Noah. It's as though the universe itself conspired to bring us together…like our love story is written in the stars…and I can't resist its pull. We were made for each other, like two cosmic souls fated to collide.

Every moment apart from him feels like an eternity of emptiness, a void that only his presence can fill. I can't fight this yearning in my soul, this magnetic force that keeps drawing me back to him.

Noah and I are meant to be, our love an unstoppable force of nature.

His kiss turns wilder, more demanding and aggressive than I know what to do with. Noah’s iron-strong hands pull me against the dizzying hardness of his body. My urges uncoil, opening to him. I reach up to weave my fingers through his thick hair. It’s the only soft thing about him. He makes a low, tortured sound, lifting me and carrying me over to the bed.

“Noah,” I whisper. I don’t know if I’m trying to slow this down or if I’m pleading for more.

“Let me have you. Please,” he begs.

He lowers us onto the bed, placing me on his lap so I have to straddle him. One of his hands sinks into the hair at the nape of my neck, gripping tightly. He gazes into my eyes, challenging me.

“Tell me you’re mine,” he growls, and I whimper, feeling the hardness of him between my legs.

He kisses me and I don’t have it in me to do anything but fall.

I don’t know how I ended up here.

But I’m so in love with him.

My legs are spread and my wet, softening pussy is pressed up against the gigantic ridge inside his jeans. The only barrier between us is my very wet thong.

Noah pulls me forward, his hands pushing up my dress and sliding along my bare ass. He squeezes my cheeks, thrusting me harder against his bulge. I moan into his mouth as I move against him.

I cry out as we move together, dry humping like we’re teenagers all over again. Noah licks at my mouth, kneading my ass as he pulls me into him in a steady, deliberate rhythm.

“Fuck. Look at you. You’re a fucking dream.”

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