Gone (Deadly Secrets #2)(50)

She had one split second to suck in a surprised breath before he lowered his head and kissed her. Electricity arced through her body. Electricity and need and an awakening desire she didn’t want to fight. Unlike last night, unlike every time she’d fantasized about this very moment, this felt right. This felt right and real and perfect, and she didn’t want to ever let it go.

He drew back long before she was ready and gazed down at her, but he didn’t drop his hands from her face. And that was all the encouragement she needed.

“Do that again,” she breathed.

His eyes darkened, and his mouth covered hers once more, his kiss rocking the world right out from under her. She opened at first contact, slid her arms around his shoulders and hung on, kissing him right back until she was breathless. His tongue brushed hers with long, languid strokes she felt everywhere. And when his fingers slid into her hair, when he combed his hands through her long locks and trailed them down her spine to encircle her waist and pull her against him, she knew she was lost. Knew she could no longer go on pretending this wasn’t exactly what she’d wanted from the first moment she’d seen him sitting on a chair in that hospital hallway.

Sensations rocked her body. The hot, wet slide of his tongue along hers. The firm, wide grip of his hand at her lower back drawing her closer. The hard, insistent length of his erection pressing against her belly, telling her he felt their connection as strongly as she did, telling her he wanted her just as much as she wanted him.

Her arms wound around his neck, and she trembled as he whispered, “Raegan,” against her lips. He kissed the corner of her mouth, her jaw, the soft skin behind her ear, whispering, “Raegs,” again and again until she melted.

Her hands slid to his cheeks, and she drew his mouth back to hers, kissing him hard. He answered by groaning against her, kissing her deeper, and wrapping his arms tightly around her waist as he lifted her feet off the floor.

She felt herself moving, didn’t care where she was going so long as he was going with her. Didn’t ever want to let go. “Alec—”

“Want you,” he rasped, kissing the corner of her mouth, her cheek, the tip of her nose, cutting off her words. “Need you.”

“Oh . . . yeeees.” She pulled his mouth back to hers and kissed him deeply as she wrapped her legs around his hips.

An animalistic sound echoed from his chest, one that made her hotter and more desperate. She felt herself turning, knew he was taking her into her bedroom, couldn’t wait to feel his weight pressing her into the mattress.

He crossed the floor, never once pulling away from her mouth. They reached the bed, and he wrapped one hand around her waist, stretched out the other to find the mattress. The soft comforter brushed her spine, and his tongue continued to tease and taste and taunt her with pleasure, but when his weight pressed into hers and he rose up above her, all she could think about was him and this and them. And more.

Cool air whooshed over her belly, and he pulled away from her mouth. Realizing he was tugging up her sweater, she let go of him and lifted her arms so he could swipe it free and then reached for him.

He tossed her sweater somewhere to his right, leaned down, and kissed her again. But not before she saw his flushed cheeks, his lips swollen from her mouth, and his eyes glazed with a lust that supercharged her blood.

His kiss drew her right back into bliss. Finding the hem of his shirt, she slid her hands up and under the fabric and all across his chiseled abs, desperate to touch him. Groaning, he let her pull his shirt free, and rocked against her until she saw stars.

“Raegs.” He kissed her jaw, her throat, trailed his lips down to the V of her cleavage. “God, you smell so damn good. Better than I remember.”

Tingles spread all across her skin, wherever he touched. She closed her eyes as he kissed her, slid her fingers into his silky hair, and trembled when he flipped the front latch of her bra, freeing her breasts.

He groaned in approval, and a tingle of anticipation rushed over her skin, tightening her nipples. It shouldn’t feel like the first time, but it did. They’d made love hundreds of times, and it had always been wonderful, but she never remembered being this turned on. This excited. Wasn’t sure she’d ever felt this roaring desire for more.

His hand closed around her right breast, pulling a groan from her lips. He pressed his lips against the fleshy mass, slid his tongue around the areola, licking and laving and driving her absolutely mad. But when he found the tip, when he drew her nipple deep into his mouth and suckled, the world rocked right out from under her.

She trembled. Lifted her hips, desperate for contact, for friction, for him. He answered by palming her other breast, by kissing his way to the other nipple and drawing her deep in his mouth all over again.

Her skin grew hot. Her body ached everywhere for his hands, his lips, his touch. She pushed up on her elbows and shrugged out of her bra straps. He eased back and helped her pull the garment free, tossing it onto the ground. Sitting up, she reached for him again, desperate to feel his naked body sliding over hers, but stilled when she saw the four tattooed letters in cursive right over his heart.

Emma.

Emotions swamped her—loss, heartache, sadness, regret—but the strongest, the one that had always been there, even through the pain, was love.

She trailed her fingers softly over the four letters etched into his skin, blinking back tears that seemed to come out of nowhere, and looked up at him, kneeling above her, his eyes as blue and fathomless as she’d ever seen them. “Oh, Alec.”