Page 90 of The Hallows Queen

“I want this forever,” I say, and she looks over at me again, her face twitching. “I want you forever.”

She stops walking, so I do too, and she wraps her arms around the back of my neck and lifts on to the tips of her toes to kiss me. Smoothing my hands up her neck and into her hair, I kiss her back, sliding my tongue against hers. When we break apart, she’s smiling and I’m breathless, the pit of my stomach swirling with nerves and anxiety and happiness.

“I want you forever too, H,” she whispers, peering up into my eyes. “This. Just you and me, happy, together.”

I nod, then I kiss her again, desperate to show her how much I love her behind the feel of my lips.

Chapter26

Penelope

I wakeup early the next morning under the thick down comforter on the bed in our hotel room. Rolling over, I watch Hayden sleep. He’s so peaceful, his bare chest rising and falling so calmly as he wanders through his dreams. One of his arms is thrown over his head, the other reaching across the bed and resting on my stomach, like even though he’s unconscious, he needed to be touching me.

His dark hair is a mess, knotted on his head from my fingers grabbing onto it last night while we fucked, and there’re red marks from my mouth and teeth covering his neck where I laid my claim. I want to paint this picture, cement it into existence, make it forever and keep it for myself. The tattoos that mark his pale skin, the scars on his arms from years of anxiety and depression, the mole that sits just under his collarbone – I want it all to be infinite, hanging on the wall of my mind and decorating my memories.

I slide a finger down his forearm, over the tattoo of a flock of birds that’s flying over his skin, skating over the dark lines and shadows of the Eiffel Tower that sits under them, down to his hand, where there’s a large rose from wrist to knuckle. I swirl my finger around the petals, then keep moving – to his fingers that are inked with black and white, the wordDEVILin thick lettering underneath different symbols.

Leaning down, I kiss along each letter one by one.D. E. V. I. L.Then I grab his other hand, kissing along the matching tattoo there that saysANGEL.

He stirs, rolling onto his side and sliding his arms around me to pull my naked body flush against his.

“What are you doing, baby?”

I smile against his neck, nuzzling my nose while I lift my legs and wrap them around his waist. “Just admiring.”

His hands squeeze my back, and he kisses my neck. “Why?”

“Because I want to.” I grin, and he chuckles. Pushing his shoulders, I roll him onto his back so I’m on top of him. “Now let me continue.”

Hayden smirks, resting his arms on the bed next to him, “Go ahead.”

I shuffle my body so I’m straddling him, and I kiss down his chest, over the tattoos there. His fingers grab onto the bed as my mouth ghosts over his nipple, and a tiny groan vibrates through his chest. I bite the sensitive bud, making him clench and hiss under me.

“P!”

Giggling against his skin, I release his nipple, then I continue to kiss down his chest and stomach. His cock is growing between us, turning to stone, and it makes me ache with need, but I continue my exploration, kissing around his hip bones to his thighs.

I slide down his body, running my hands over the matching set of butterflies he has tattooed just above both knees.

“Why do you have so many tattoos?” I ask, looking up at him through my eyelashes.

His chest is rising and falling quicker, and his eyes are burning me from above. “Why not?”

“Don’t you think one day you’ll regret them? You’re so young,” I muse, kissing the butterflies one by one.

He chuckles. “Okay, grandma.”

I slap his thigh, sitting up to look at him and he laughs.

God, he’s fucking beautiful when he laughs.

He sits up too, sliding his hands into my hair. “Are you done?”

I shake my head, pushing his chest so he falls back down onto the bed, then I lean lower to lick a line down his thigh. Wrapping my hand around the hardness of his dick, I suction my mouth around the head, gazing up at him. His mouth drops open, his hands digging into the bed again, then I take more of him into my mouth.

“Fuck,” he groans, and the sound has me releasing my hand so I can take down more of him. I gag when his cock hits the back of my throat, but I swallow around him and keep going, hollowing my cheeks to take him farther.

“Penelope,” he moans, sitting up and pulling me off.

---