Through the Fire (Daughter of Fire, #1)(61)
For years, I’d been dreaming of a reunion with Clay. Now that I had him alone, I wanted to ensure the fantasy didn’t eclipse reality. I wanted to experience every last sensation. All the things I’d only been able to imagine before now. Whether it was gentle or hungry, I wanted to lose myself in his touch.
“Are you a . . .” the words seemed to stick in his throat, but I understood what he was trying to ask.
I shook my head. “Not anymore.”
His lips mashed into a hard line, and a frown tinged with both regret and relief creased his brow. I would probably be questioned over it later, but I didn’t care. There wasn’t anything I wanted to hide from him, not anymore.
My past, everything I’d done, had led me back to his arms. But I didn’t want to explore my past right then though. In that moment, all I needed was to experience everything I’d dreamed about for so long.
Not wanting the admission to break the moment, I ran my hands along his back and touched my lips to his. Our tongues met with renewed vigor, and his hands explored the curves of my shoulders before brushing down my spine.
I threw my head back as he adjusted his hips, forcing a spike of pure pleasure to shoot through my body. He seized the opportunity and attacked my throat with warm lips and a wet tongue. With one hand on the base of my spine and the other in my hair, he held me firmly against him as he moved beneath me. The rough denim of his jeans rubbed against the sensitive skin along my thighs providing a friction that I so desperately needed. A low growl built in his chest as my breath released in a staggered sigh.
The tiny noise spurred Clay on, and his lips explored my skin while his hips continued to rock against me. A stream of profanities and needful grunts, interspersed with my name, spilled from his lips whenever they lifted from my skin.
I burned with need for him to touch, to taste, to hold.
Each time his mouth caressed my skin, I cried out with desire. None of his kisses satisfied my need though. They were too concentrated and too innocent compared to what I craved. I wanted to fall into him and have him touch everywhere on my body all at once.
My temperature rose rapidly, until the air around us crackled with impending flames.
I worried the heat would turn Clay off, that he’d push me away and I’d be left desperate and wanting. Instead, the added warmth seemed to spur his need onward and he pawed at my back as if he desired to caress every part of me as desperately as I needed him to touch me.
There was something I needed to tell him first. I rested my hands on his shoulders, and gently pushed him away from me. His brow was creased with confusion, but I brushed it away with a gentle swipe of my fingertips.
“What is it?” he asked through his desperate pants.
“I love you,” I whispered as I trailed my palm along his cheek. “So much.”
His breath hitched and then he renewed his perfect attack, lavishing attention on my collarbone. “Fuck, Evie, you have to know I love you too,” he uttered between kisses.
Clay’s hands moved from my back to clutch the silk that pooled around our bodies. In one swift motion, he lifted the dress along my chest and off over my head.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
HIS BODY stilled all movement, and when I looked at him, I saw his hungry gaze exploring every inch of my exposed skin. It was the first time he’d been able to study my body, and he appeared appreciative.
For a brief moment, I squirmed under the intensity of his stare, but as a soft smile turned his mouth upward—the same dreamy smile he’d worn when he’d spotted me—I was empowered.
“Goddamn it, Evie,” he muttered. “You are so beautiful.”
A soft blush crept over my body. He made me feel wanted both with his actions and his words. It made me desire him all the more.
Unable to stay unconnected for even a moment more, we moved closer simultaneously. Our lips met in the middle with a ferocity that was rivaled only by the heat my body was generating. My tongue stroked against his lips, pleading for entrance, which he gave without pause.
He clutched at me, drawing me against his chest until there was barely a breath between us. His heart pounded against my chest, as if it were trying to leap between us to join with mine. I trailed my mouth over his jaw, nipping and sucking, attempting to return some small portion of the pleasure he was granting to me with the thrusts of his hips and strokes of the tongue. He claimed my mouth again, his tongue almost punishing in its exploration. My stomach clenched as I ignored the need to break apart to take a breath.
With his next movement, Clay twisted us around so that my back was flat on the mattress. Leaning over my body, he kissed me again. One of his hands pressed against the blanket beside my head. He lifted the other to play in my hair.
When his lips left mine, he trailed kisses down along my curves. It was like every part of his body was designed to fit perfectly against mine. His fingertips blazed a trail across my skin. Every inch he touched smoldered until his lips followed behind to soothe the flames.
As he crawled down my body, he caressed my breasts with his expert fingers and warm mouth, kneading and sucking, nipping and squeezing. His tongue and teeth worked together with his fingertips to bring me to heights of passion I’d never even dreamed of. Each and every fantasy I’d had of him had nothing on the reality of his touch. My back arched with delight as he tortured me exquisitely, and still, I needed more. I clutched at his arms trying to bring him back to me, but he continued on his path.