Chapter 48

S imon waited for me when I ascended the steps to his apartment. Concern filled his features as he stepped out of his doorway and extended his hand. I darted the last dozen steps down the hallway, suckign in a breath as I crashed into him.

"I thought you weren't coming back until tonight," he murmured into my hair. His arms were tight around me, like he never wanted to let me go.

"I had to tell you something," I gasped out. Internally, I cursed myself. I hadn't intended to blurt it out like a madwoman.

Simon tilted his head, brushing my hair out of my face. "Tell me what?"

I sucked in a breath, the words caught in my throat. I swore there were a thousand glittering emeralds in his eyes, melting as he stared into my soul. My eyes traced the curve of his jaw, the arch of his cheekbone, the flutter of his eyelashes, and the perfect pink of his lips. His hair was undone and a long blonde strand danced on his forehead.

Everything about him was flawless and endless.

"Lucinda?" Simon prompted. He placed one knuckle under my chin, pulling my attention back to his eyes.

"I love you," I said.

He blinked, swallowing thickly. His lips parted, and I listened to his heartbeat as it sped up.

For a moment, I worried he would laugh. Maybe he didn't remember his words, or perhaps they were only said in the heat of the moment. An embarrassed blush rose on my cheeks and I almost stepped back.

Then, his mouth found mine.

Simon's kiss lit up my world like a meteor shower, one spark of light after another. He wound one arm around my waist, guiding me inside his apartment. The door clicked shut behind me. Simon's kiss deepened and he drew me against him. I hummed into his mouth, wrapping both my arms around his shoulders. He kissed me like I was everything.

I gasped when he lifted me off the ground, taking a few steps backward until his calves hit the couch. Simon lowered us both onto the cushions, my legs on either side of his hips. I placed my hands on either side of his face to hold him while I kissed him.

"I love you," he breathed when I lowered my mouth to his throat, kissing over his pulse, then lower still.

His words were music to my ears.

I lifted my head to grin at him, only for him to pull me into another earth-shattering kiss.

"I love you," he said, laying me back on the couch. He said it again when he lifted my shirt to kiss every inch of my torso.

And again when he took it off. I sighed at the feeling of his tongue swirling around my nipples. He sucked on one and sent jolts of pleasure through me. I lay beneath him like a worshiped queen. Each and every one of his kisses was deliberate as he worked his way over my body. He left goosebumps and trails of stardust in his wake.

Simon said it again when he reached the top of my leggings. His eyes found mine when he spoke, and I gasped when he tugged them off.

I'd never heard those words as anything other than transactional. Men said them to me because they wanted to hear them in return. Women said them because they felt too much. All of them wanted something from me. Validation. Praise. Something to stand on.

Simon said them between kisses. He said them as he lowered his mouth to my bare core and swiped his tongue up the most sensitive part of me. My mind swam, and he told me I was the most beautiful woman he'd ever known. I tangled my fingers in his hair and he begged me to pull harder.

Beneath the weight of his words, I felt adored. I felt worthy.

I felt like I was enough.

And it was, perhaps, the most wonderful feeling in the world.

Simon dipped his tongue into me and I gasped, rolling my hips down in desperation. I wanted more from him. I wanted everything. I tugged harder on his hair, keeping him there for a moment longer. He obliged, pushing his tongue in and out of me. My cries echoed through his apartment.

I guided his mouth higher, back to my clit, where I throbbed for him. He closed his lips over it, sucking softly at first, then harder when my moans of delight satisfied him.

When I came undone beneath his tongue, he told me he loved me again.

I smiled tiredly when he sat up, tugging his shirt over his head and undoing the button on his pants. After he undressed, he lowered himself back to me, his hips between my thighs.

I was broken when I came to Paris. Hopeless. Shattered. Alone.

Somehow, Simon took each broken part of me and glued them back together. Then, he infused them with so much light that I burned brighter than ever.

Simon kissed me in the same instant he thrust into me, filling me deliciously. I arched my back into him and gasped into his mouth.

"Fucking perfect for me," he breathed.

"I love you," I said.

Something glittered in his green eyes. He kissed me again, rolling his hips into mine. I wrapped my legs around his waist to pull him into me again and again. With each thrust he made, the closer I came to another orgasm. Simon boosted himself up to kneel in front of me, looping both my legs over his arms and bending forward.

The new angle sent shockwaves through me. I saw stars. My eyes rolled back and I let my hand fall between my thighs to touch myself where I burned the hottest, desperate for another release.

"That's it, my darling. Show me how good I feel inside you," Simon murmured.

I watched as he made love to me. Every part of this was different from the times we'd been together before. It was full of lust, sure, but more than that. This was about two people realizing they wanted to be together.

And I wanted to be with Simon more than anything.

My orgasm surprised me when it coursed through me, interrupting our eye contact. I trembled beneath Simon's thrusts as my whole body erupted in a million shining stars. Simon growled, his thrusts coming quicker and faster. When my hand fell from my core, he replaced it with his own.

"Again, Lucinda," he gasped. "Please, come with me."

Impossibly, I did.

Simon pushed himself deep into me when his orgasm rocked through him. I arched into him, my eyes rolling back. I sobbed in delight, my third orgasm melting any remnants of sanity I had left. Simon caught himself before he slumped forward, his breathing hard.

I physically missed him when he pulled out, lowering himself to lie next to me. I rolled to rest my head on his chest, breathing in deeply.

"Simon," I whispered after we'd been quiet for a while.

"Yes, my love?"

I boosted myself up onto one arm, my eyes searching his. "I don't want to stay in Paris."

Bewilderment flashed in his eyes. "What do you mean? Are you going home?"

I frowned. "No, but there aren't enough stars here for me—all that light pollution, you know?"

A smile spread across his face and he tilted his head to kiss me. "We can go anywhere you'd like, my darling. The world is yours. I am yours."

I grinned. "Okay, then."

He pulled me back to him, whispering his promise never to let me go.