It's Only Love(39)

Hearing that word from his lips while his body was joined intimately with hers brought tears to her eyes. She blinked furiously, trying to contain that which could not be contained. Her heart was about to burst from the surge of emotion. She hadn’t known it was possible to feel so much.

He kept up the small, maddening movements until she was prepared to beg if need be to move things along. Before she could do that, however, he grasped her hips and turned them so she was under him, thrusting into her fully in one deep stroke that triggered her orgasm.

She cried out from the powerful release.

“Yes, baby, let me hear you.” Gavin rode her release until her body stopped quaking and then held still inside her, still hard. He peppered her back with kisses and began to move again, slowly at first and then faster until he, too, was coming in a last deep surge. “Now I can sleep.” Kissing her back again, he withdrew and got up to use the bathroom. He returned with a washcloth that he used to clean her up.

Her face was still wet from her tears, which he couldn’t see. It was just as well. He didn’t need to know what an emotional wreck she was.

He again gathered her in close to him, his hand caressing her arm. “Hey, El?”

“Hmm?”

“I just want you to know . . . I’ve laughed more, smiled more, felt more in the last two days than I have in the last seven years. I thought you should know that.”

She couldn’t contain the sob that escaped from her tightly clenched jaw.

Gavin moved quickly, arranging her under him so he could kiss the tears from her face. “What’s this? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing is wrong. Everything is perfect.”

“Then why the tears?” he asked as he brushed them away.

“Emotional overload.”

“It feels good, though, doesn’t it?”

“It feels so good. So incredibly good.”

He bent his head to kiss her, giving her gentle strokes of his tongue before withdrawing slowly. “Don’t cry, Ella. I can’t bear to see tears on your gorgeous face.”

“Can’t help it. They’re happy tears.”

“I suppose I can live with happy tears.” He moved to his side and brought her with him, settling her into the crook of his arm and neck where she could breathe in the appealing scent of his cologne.

Ella wanted to stay awake and enjoy every second of being close to him this way, but she could no longer fight the exhaustion that dragged her under.


*

She awoke to darkness, an empty bed and uncertainty about where she was until the events of last night swept through her mind to remind her that she was in Gavin’s bed. But where was he?

The scent of coffee wafted into the bedroom along with the low hum of the TV.

What the hell time was it? A glance at the bedside table clock indicated it was just after six. An ungodly hour to be awake.

She dragged herself out of bed and into the bathroom to brush her teeth and use the facilities. Then she stumbled back into the bedroom in search of the clothes he’d made her remove the night before. Thinking about that and what had followed made Ella’s body tingle as she got dressed.

He was an amazing lover, but then she’d always known he would be. Before now, before him, sex had never been particularly enthralling for her. But with him, she could easily become addicted to the way he made her feel every time he touched her.

Still, hovering beneath the surface of her happiness, was that tingle of fear. By going all in, by giving him everything, she was fully exposed. If it didn’t work out, if something happened . . . No. She couldn’t go there. She wouldn’t. Not when she was determined to enjoy this time with him after wanting him for so long.

With her resolve back in place, she stepped out of the bedroom to find him standing in the kitchen, mug of coffee in hand, dressed in another pair of well-worn jeans and a blue flannel shirt, rolled up to reveal the long-sleeved thermal he wore under it. He looked at her with satisfaction and possessiveness in his gaze. “Morning. Did I wake you?”

“No.” She went to him and wrapped an arm around his waist, noticing his hair was still damp from a shower she’d slept through. “Did you sleep?”

“Yeah, I slept great. You?”

“Same.”

He put down the mug and wrapped his arms around her. “Good. I want you well rested for tonight.”

“What’s tonight?”

“More of the same.” Kissing her, he let his hands wander down to cup her ass, drawing her in tight against his instant erection. “You’ve got me completely addicted to being inside you.”

It was a good thing he was holding her so tightly or she might’ve dissolved into a puddle on the floor. “I’m feeling rather addicted myself.”

“Good problem to have.”

“A very good problem.”

“Coffee?”

“Please.”

He poured her a mug and dished up some eggs and toast for her.

“And here I thought I’d already seen the outer limits of your culinary talents,” she said, taking a seat at the bar to enjoy her breakfast.

“I like to surprise you.”

“You do surprise me.”

He leaned on the counter, closing the space between them. “How so?”

“You tried to warn me away. You tried so hard to scare me off. And since you failed so miserably, I keep wondering what you were so afraid of.”