Unbreakable (City Lights, #2)(101)

Look at him one more time and you’ll take a shower in his brains.

That moment came to me often in my own nightmares. I’d been so close to death, my thoughts had been full of Callie, of saying goodbye to her, and then the pressure of the gun was lifted from my brow, like a sunrise on a new day.

“Only this time, he pulled the trigger,” Alex said. “Over and over again, like a movie replaying endlessly, relentlessly, and each time I couldn’t move, couldn’t stop him. I just sat there watching, unable to even lift my arms…” She shuddered against me.

“I’m here now,” I said, resting my chin on her forehead. “I’m here.”

And what will you do now, Alex? What do I do? Do I let you go? Or do I tell you…? But she was slipping back into sleep. I could feel her melt against me. And now was not the time, not when her nightmare was still howling in her mind.

I adjusted myself against the pillows and pulled her to me, held her, stroked her hair, and wondered if this was to be the last time.





Chapter Thirty-Six


Alex



Secure in Cory’s arms, I felt sleep reach up to drag me down faster than I’d thought possible. Given the nightmare, I had doubted I’d ever sleep again—or would want to. But as usual, Cory’s presence soothed me. He chased away the demons that played in my mind, like a warrior or a hero, and I slept.

It was dark when I next awoke. Dawn had not yet come. I surmised I’d only been asleep for an hour or so, but my mind was peaceful. The nightmare seemed far away, and I was tucked safely in Cory’s embrace.

I craned my neck to see him. He was awake, sitting against the bedframe, looking at nothing in particular. But his dark eyes—those beautifully rich brown eyes—were full of thoughts. He must’ve felt my attention, as he turned those eyes on me, a ghost of a smile touching his lips.

“Hey,” he whispered.

“Hey.”

I don’t know who moved first. Like the hospital kiss, it just happened, a drawing together of inexorable forces, both of us helpless to stop it.

He slid down to lay next to me, his eyes roaming my face, drinking me in. I felt the space between us disappear, the room fell away. All I could see and feel and know was him.

And I waited. I didn’t move or speak or even reach for him, though I wanted to. I waited, as he regarded me intently, saying so much without words. Saying everything.

His hand stroked my cheek, his fingertips traced my eyebrows. His thumb ran along the contours of my lower lip and I held my breath as he leaned down. But his lips touched my forehead first, my eyelids—closing them softly—down to my chin, and then up, finally, to my lips, which parted readily for him.

But his mouth only brushed mine at first, a feather-light touch, as he cupped my cheek in his hand. Our lips met, came apart—a hesitation, a heartbeat—and then his mouth was on mine giving me the deepest, sweetest kiss I’d ever known. A kiss I felt in every part of me, and tears stung my eyes for its silent tenderness.

The kiss was followed by another, and another, each one a more intimate act than anything we’d done the night before—as naked and uninhibited and ravenous as we’d been. He held my face in his hands, braced on his elbows, his body over mine, kissing me until I felt drunk with him.

Finally, he broke away, trailing his lips over my chin, down my neck, gently sucking and licking and nipping. Each touch sent shivers dancing down my back, to the tips of my breasts, down, between my legs, making gasp.

He moved lower, and my back arched, pressing my body against his, offering it to him completely. His hands slipped down to the hem of my shirt and lifted. The cooler air hardened my nipples, at once. His mouth was at my navel, slowly working his way up. I clutched his wrists and pushed his hands down, to my breasts, and slipped out of my clothing with a sigh.

Cory was moving his mouth up now, and then left, swirling his tongue along my skin until he reached the nipple. I gasped again and let out a little cry, as he sucked and bit the hard nub, while his thumb moved in circles over its twin.

“Oh god,” I breathed, and tangled my fingers in his hair as he unhurriedly worshipped one breast, then the other, taking his time, while my hips rose and fell beneath him, undulating with the currents of pleasure he was sending along all parts of my body.

Finally, I couldn’t stand the feel of his shirt against my skin any longer. I pushed him back and sat up, to lift his t-shirt off and toss it aside and drink in the magnificence of his body.

“You’re so beautiful,” I whispered, my hands trailing down hard muscle sheathed in soft skin.

He shook his head, his eyes full of me, and kissed me as we knelt on the bed. We wrapped our arms around each other, our hands sliding up and down naked backs, reveling in the warmth of flesh on flesh. No mindless lust this time, no desperate need to slake. The urgency I’d striven for last night was gone. I wanted only to be touched like this and to touch him in return, to cherish him, to kiss him the way he wanted to be kissed—the way he deserved to be kissed.

Like there was no one else.

The rest of our clothing melted away and I lay back on the pillows, drawing him down with me. My eyes found his in the dimness and I looked nowhere else as I reached between us and guided him inside me, one smooth, perfect joining that stole my breath away.

He closed his eyes for a moment, sinking into me, his hands holding my face, and then he rolled his hips for the first time, so achingly tender and gentle, I thought my heart would break.