The rest of her words were cut off by his mouth clamping down on hers. She opened for him, moaning softly when his tongue plunged inside.
She felt him stepping out of his jeans as he lifted her off the ground and headed toward his bedroom. Her bare back brushed roughly against several surfaces and doorways in the dark as they made their way to his room, but she didn’t care. As long as his mouth didn’t leave hers, she was happy. For what felt like the first time in forever.
When he laid her down on his mattress, she stared up into his handsome face, placing both hands on either side once more and admiring the beautiful angles of it.
“Even though I know, I still want to hear it.”
He grinned, that slow, intense smile he gave only to her. Bracing himself above her, he stared straight down into her eyes.
“I love you. God, I love you so damn much, Kylie Lou.” His lips danced against hers and she whimpered at the force of the emotional dam breaking inside of her.
“I love you, too, Trace,” she whispered against his mouth. “I thought you broke my heart. But you didn’t. You are my heart,” she said with a tremor in her voice.
He kissed her so hard their teeth gnashed against one another’s. Panting, she began to shimmy out of the denim that still sheathed her legs. Trace divested her of them in one swift movement. He was above her again before she could take a breath.
“I missed you so fucking much, baby,” he told her between placing frantic open-mouth kisses down her jawline and neck. “Every day. Every second of every day I missed you. It hurt like hell being away from you. It nearly wrecked me…having to see you and not being able to have you.”
The intensity of his words combined with the damp heat of his mouth stripped away the remaining protective layers she’d kept around herself.
“Show me, Trace. Show me how much you love me. How much you missed me. How much it hurt. I need to feel it. I need to feel you.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Strong fingers slid her black thong down her thighs.
She let herself go as he kissed his way back up her legs. When his teeth grazed over flesh, her body jerked in surprise.
A low dark laugh reverberated against her skin.
“Behave yourself, Mr. Corbin,” she warned.
He growled—actually growled—at her.
She giggled, a soft, genuine sound she hadn’t heard from herself in over a year.
His hands were everywhere at once. Palming her breasts, clutching her hips, spreading her thighs. It was as if he was literally devouring her. She couldn’t get enough of him, couldn’t get open enough or get him close enough.
He massaged and open-mouth kissed his way all over, taking his sweet time on his exploration of her body. She wondered if he’d forgotten how it felt, if he was trying to remember and memorize it with his hands and mouth.
His tongue slid south and teased the center of her, causing her body to bow off the bed. As he licked her gently to her first orgasm, she felt all the tension she’d carried for so long extracting itself from her muscles and floating into the air.
“Now that I’ve said it, I can’t stop.” His hands massaged their way up her body as he made his way back to her. “I love you. I love the feel of you, the taste of you, the scent of you. I love you so much I lose control sometimes—lose the little bit of sense God gave me. If all I was allowed to do was sit and watch you exist for the rest of my life, I would die happy.”
She smiled as his mouth came down on her left breast. “I love you, too. I love the way you touch me, the way you taste me.”
He grunted his appreciation of her words and sucked her nipple into his scorching hot mouth before moving to the other side. “I hate myself for not telling you sooner. For walking away without letting you know that I loved you.”
“I think I always knew deep down that you loved me, Trace. That’s not why I’m scared.” Her whispered confession stilled him.
His head snapped up from her chest to her face and his eyes met hers. “Then what are you scared of, Kylie Lou?”
She pulled in a ragged breath of air. “That you won’t let me love you. That you’ll walk away again. Like before…” A sob escaped and she laughed at herself as she wiped her tear-filled eyes. “Sorry. I know this isn’t the time—”
He cut her off by kissing her on the mouth. She tasted the faint hint of herself on his lips. “It’s always the time, baby. You can tell me how you feel, or what you’re afraid of, or worried about, or what you need, anytime you want.”
“Okay,” she whispered against his mouth. Her fingernails raked over his chest, pressing him backward. “Let me love you, Trace. I need you to let me do that. You deserve to be loved. You are more than deserving of my love. It’s always been yours.”