Chapter 44

Chapter 44

Nikki

Zack wasn’t ready to turn around and drive the twenty hours back to California and we needed some time alone. So we decided to stay in Texas a few more nights. In the end, I spoke to Aunt Claire and decided to go back to California to live with her. Texas wasn’t my home anymore, no matter how hard I wanted it to be before Zack showed up.

So tomorrow we’re leaving. Oddly, Keller and Ash have hit it off pretty good. I never would have guessed the two of them would like each other. But there’s something more than friends brewing between them. We’re already planning on her coming out to California this summer.

That brings us to tonight. Zack rented rooms for Ashley and Keller so we can be alone finally. I’m more ready to be with him than I ever was and my heart swells with a heady combination of love and lust as he walks toward the bed from the bathroom. He’s wearing skin hugging grey boxer briefs and I can tell he’s just as ready.

“I like you in my t-shirt,” he says with a wicked grin, reaching for my locket. It’s become his new toy; he seems to need to touch it multiple times a day. He doesn’t even pretend it has anything to do with jewelry anymore. He trails his knuckles up and down my breasts, the locket dangling in the palm of his hand. “I like you out of my shirt even better.” He reaches for the hem of his t-shirt and lifts it up and over my head.

The room is still and I can hear his breath speed up when he sees me in my pink lacey bra and panties. We’ve fooled around before. A lot. We’ve even seen each other fully naked. But tonight is different and we both know it. Everything is about to change.

He stands at the edge of the bed looking at me, taking his time to graze his eyes up and down my body. The desire I see makes my body break out in goose-bumps. “Last chance to change your mind,” he says, searching my eyes. He wants to be sure I’m ready. I love that about him. Always putting my needs first.

I shake my head and crawl to him at the edge of the bed. He undresses me painstakingly slowly. I’m nervous but I know he likes when I take the lead sometimes, so I pull him to me, covering his mouth with mine, and we both get lost in a kiss that makes me glad I’m not standing. I slip down his underwear and he groans as my hand grazes his hardness.

He centers himself over me, our mouths entwined in a kiss that feels like it would physically hurt to disconnect. He reaches over to the end table and grabs a condom, disconnecting only briefly to put it on. Instinctively, I wrap my legs around him and he pulls his head back. He’s positioned perfectly over me but he stills.

He laces our fingers together and lifts our entwined hands over my head. “I know it will feel amazing to be inside you, but that’s just a bonus. I need to be inside you so we can be connected even more.”

“I want that too,” I respond in a whisper. He kisses me gently as he pushes into me slowly. A burst of pain makes me gasp, but the pain eases almost as fast as it hit me. Our mouths find a rhythm that synchronizes with the rock of his hips as he gently pushes in and out. He goes slow, inching his way in a little at a time, until he’s fully seated. Settling, he gives me time to adjust to the full but incredibly wonderful feeling of him being inside of me.

Breaking our intense, languid kiss he draws his head back to check on me before moving. “You okay?” he whispers.

I nod.

“You sure?”

“I would be if you would start moving a little.” His eyebrows arch in surprise and he lets out a raspy chuckle. But the laughter is quickly replaced by something more sinister. He buries his head into my neck and nips and kisses his way from my collarbone to my ear. His rhythm increases as the gentle kisses turn to sucking and his light nips become more forceful.

My body matches his rhythm, thrust for thrust, and together we rock back and forth, completely and utterly connected in every way. Mind, heart, soul and now body. It’s beautiful and breathtaking and the only thing I regret is not being able to see every inch of us joined as we become one for the first time.

A small moan escapes my lips and it ratchets up both our needs even more. I feel his sweat-slick body tense and I know he must be close. He pulls his head back, his face filled with so much need, but again he stops to put me first. “I love you, Nikki.” His voice is raw and intense and any doubt I had left is erased. My eyes fill with tears of happiness.

“I love you, too.”

He swivels his hips a little and his body finds a new way to pleasure mine that I didn’t even know was possible. My breathing hitches, my eyes roll into the back of my head and shudders rack through me.

“So beautiful,” he whispers, his eyes keenly focused on watching me give whatever is left over to him. He pumps into me hard a few more times; the groan coming from deep in his throat is the sexiest sound I’ve ever heard.

Even as we slow our rhythm and eventually stop, he still kisses me with more passion than I ever imagined could be real.

We spend hours exploring, learning each other’s bodies, until we finally pass out from exhaustion. The last thing I remember is feeling like I’m home again. I always knew home wasn’t a place, I just didn’t know I could find it with a person who would be so deeply raveled in my life before we ever met.