Page 26 of For Keeps. For Always.

“Does it scare you?” I shift closer, our hands still entwined between us.

Her head shakes. “Not in the way it should.”

“Is it real?”

She nods this time. “Yes. It’s too overwhelming to be anything else.”

Our eyes connect, her big brown pools set on mine in something I’ve yet to recognize.

“Will you stay?” There’s a plea in my words. A desperation that forces her teeth into her bottom lip. “Here in Lake Geneva.”

“I don’t think I can,” she confesses regretfully, the power in her voice non-existent as her eyebrows pull together.

“We could run away,” I tell her. “You and me. We’ll go far away and start our life.”

A single blink, one that she holds to shut me away from her thoughts. One that forces a tear to leak from her eyes and onto my pillow. “I would never ask you to do that, Brooks. Your family would never forgive me, and I don’t think you would either. They’re too important to you.”

“You’re important to me,” I implore.

“And I’ll always be here.”

I let my gaze drop to her lips. Perfect pink cushions begging to be tasted. Could my touch convince her she belongs here? With me?

As if hearing my thoughts, her mouth opens, the soft touch of her tongue dragging across her lips, making them glisten.

My body acts of its own accord as my free hand finds the front of her dress, and I pull her to me,needingher closer. Leaning in, I press my lips against hers in a gentle touch. A tender experiment to gauge her reaction.

She emulates the movement and her lips push forward in a brush even more delicate than mine.

We pull back at the same time, a longing anchoring our gaze just as our lips meet again.

This time, I deepen the kiss, needing more connection. Craving an actual taste.

My tongue strokes ardently against hers. A caress of our mouths, a reunion neither one of us could have expected. As the seconds pass, our mouths begin moving in unison, and I couldn’t imagine being addicted to anything more.

The supple swell of her lips, the ethereal graze of her tongue; I’m in a dream. I’m floating. Lost in a clouded bliss of lust and wonder.

A soft whimper escapes her mouth, and I can’t swallow it quick enough. Pushing her back into my mattress, I climb over her, salivating at the feel of her body beneath mine. I savor every one of her quiet sounds. Tender moans that send blood straight to my cock and a storm of butterflies to my stomach.

Legs moving out from underneath me, she circles them around my waist. I fall on top of her heavily at her insistence, groaning as I go.

Our kiss is simple and complex and suggestive and indispensable all at once. I need more and nothing else and everything, and I don’t know how or what to think. My mind is consumed byus.

Her hands find my jaw, her thumbs stroking my cheeks affectionately. It causes me to pull back from our kiss. I look at her, her eyes wild with a desire so strong, I scarcely know what to do with it.

My hand moves without instruction, rubbing against the zipper at her chest, teasing it down in a painfully slow trance.

She lets me undress her, and I feel her stare burning along my face, tracking my reaction. But I can’t pull my gaze from my hand. I’m unwrapping her like a gift I never knew I wanted. Every inch of creamy skin exposed cutting off my ability to breathe.

She is more beautiful than I ever could’ve imagined. More beautiful than any woman I’ve ever laid eyes on. And she’s mine. At this free and open moment, she’smine.

Fully exposed, except for the lace bra covering her small but full tits, and a simple pair of black cotton briefs, she holds my chin, lifting my eyes to hers.

“I’ve never done this.”

I swallow. “Neither have I.”

Confusion swarms in her eyes. “But—”

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