Conviction(61)

Hearing him say that, after all these years should bring me peace, but I actually feel anger bubbling away in my belly.

His hand travels to the back of my neck, he lifts my hair up and runs his fingers along my spine, to my hairline. I shiver.

“What does your ink say?” How the f*ck does he know I have a tattoo there? Even my parents don’t know. “How’d you know about my tatt?”

He pulls away so that he can look me in the eye and I get the shy smile of my Conner again.

“When you were standing up at the bar with Sophie earlier, I was… I noticed you. I mean, I didn’t know it was you, but I was—”

“Looking at my arse.”

He gives me possibly the sexiest smile that’s ever been bestowed upon a woman, in the history of mankind, or womankind. I sway slightly on my feet, but manage to keep my eyes open, just so I don’t miss a second of it.

“Yeah, how’d you know?”

I shrug. “You’ve always had a thing for my arse.” He turns up the volume on the smile and any resolve I have left dissolves, puddles, right at my feet and then just evaporates like it never existed at all.

“I’ve always had a thing for you, period.”

“Have you?” I want to smile and not a little smile either. A big fat cheesy grin kind of smile.

“Since you were five-years-old. Since the very first day you set foot on the playground of St. Mary’s Catholic Primary School. I thought you were an angel or a fairy.”

Warmth spreads from my heart, my cheeks and my toes until my whole body feels like it’s glowing. I can’t help but smile up at him now, my cheeks ache too much from trying to hold it at bay. This all feels too easy. It feels natural… right.

“What’s it say, the ink?”

My smile fades. “It’s just a date.”

“A date?”

I nod my head.

“What date?” he asks.

I look up at the sky and then back into his eyes. “It’s the date of the worst day of my life.” My nose stings and I fight to keep my lip from trembling. “It’s the date that I lost our baby and the date that I lost you.”

He brushes a tear away from my cheek with his thumb and I don’t even flinch. The familiarity of his touch overwhelms me. So many emotions jumble together, fighting their way to the surface. Between them and the lack of sleep, my legs start to buckle and I sway.

Conner pulls me toward him, his arms wrap tightly around my back and he kisses my neck. There’s no space between our bodies. He brings his mouth level with mine. His eyes are open and searching my face as his lips meet mine. They’re unfamiliar for just a split second, then almost instantly it’s like a spark to a fuse that ignites a memory.

Home.

His touch.

His smell.

His taste.

It’s what’s been missing from my life for so long and now, finally, I feel like I’m home.





Conner



Human contact. It’s such a simple thing. Something that so many people take for granted and it’s not until you’ve been without it for an extended period of time that you realise how much you’ve missed it.

I felt like I was melting. My insides were a hot molten mess, dissolving me from the inside out. I actually don’t remember the last time I’d kissed a woman full on the mouth. A lightning bolt of guilt shoots through my chest as I think about the way I’d conducted my life over the years. Threesomes, orgies, anything to make it less personal and none of it, not a single one of those weird, kinky, f*cked up situations I’d been in before, could touch this moment.

I’ve watched an Australian supermodel getting eaten out by a Russian Princess while the Princess got f*cked up the arse by Jet and I f*cked the mouth of the model. It was the sort of situation many would pay money to watch, let alone be involved in, but it’d left me cold. I’d shot my load down the model’s throat and left the room feeling nothing but a sense of release from the need to come. But this, this moment right now, where I have Meebs’ small body crushed against mine, both of us fully clothed, my mouth gently caressing hers, my tongue slowly probing, seeking access, this is a moment I want to last forever. Right now, I would give back every sordid, sexual encounter of my life, in exchange for a moment like this every day.

She moves her hands from my shoulders and up into my hair, pulling my mouth down harder on hers as she opens and finally allows my tongue access.

I can’t hold back now. I move my hands to her arse, lift her up, turn and sit her on the handrail. Her legs are wrapped around my hips and I grind into the heat between her legs, gyrating my hips around and around, in between rocking into her. She breaks our kiss and throws her head back.

“Oh f*ck, shit, God,” she moans. My dick feels like it’s going to split the seam of my jeans and hers. I make use of the way her head is tilted back and lick from the hollow of her throat, up her neck to just below her ear. Then kiss along her jaw all the way back to her mouth.

“Come to bed with me?” I speak while my lips are still on hers.

“No,” she pants.

“Why? I want you so f*cking much.”

“You don’t know me.”

“Oh, I know you. I know you from the inside out, Nina Amoeba.” I drag my teeth along her jaw. “Every inch.” I lick from her throat, across her collar bone. “Every freckle.” I kiss her nose. “Every sigh.” I rock my hips into hers as I bite down on her lobe.