“Cory did it a few days ago, while I was putting the final touches on this project,” she mumbled. “I officially love bridges now. And I realized how much that weekend meant to me. All of it.”
My heart was pounding in my chest. For her to permanently ink something on her skin that linked us together blew my fucking mind. She had just given me another gift and it was the confirmation I needed to move forward.
As I cupped her jaw, I slid my mouth along her neck and felt her ragged pulse against my lips.
“I’ve never really let myself wish for anything before,” I whispered against her hair and she shivered. “But here you are.”
“Nate,” she sighed, resting her head on my chest.
“Your exhibit is incredible, Jessie,” I breathed. “It’s daring and brave, but at the same time, it feels like a secret present just for me.”
I heard her sharp inhale as I continued.
“I don’t want to go another day without you,” I whispered.
Her shoulders clenched and I held my breath as she turned her misty gaze to mine.
“As soon as I got in that beat-up Daisy Duke truck, it was a foregone conclusion.” I lifted my shoulder in a shrug. “That I would belong to you.”
My fingers skimmed her nape as I stared deeply into her eyes. “I’m hoping you feel the same way.”
Her mouth quirked. “You need further verification beyond a tattoo and an entire art exhibit?”
My lips found her ear. “I need to hear you say it, baby.”
“You are a caveman,” she said, leaning over and kissing my throat. “Of course I belong to you, Square. Like the sun belongs to the moon. You couldn’t get rid of me if you tried.”
My heart climbed its way into my throat and I squeezed my eyelids shut at the intensity of her words.
“Fucking kiss me already, Square,” she whispered against my lips.
My eyes snapped open. This girl was so the shit. And she was all mine.
I gathered her face in my hands and claimed her mouth in a slow and deep and sensual kiss. Our lips remained melded that way for a long while until a group of rowdy students entered the tent.
As I dragged my mouth away from hers, I mumbled, “Naked. In my bed. As soon as possible.”
“Only if you promise me something,” she said, tightening her arms around my waist.
“Anything,” I said, still breathless from that kiss.
“Give it all to me,” she murmured in my ear. “The wild and the sweet, the light and the dark. Because I need them both. They make up who you are. And that’s the Nate I want to belong to.”
Fuck, I was so gone for this girl. “That’s a promise I can keep.”
***
We’d just devoured our pizza delivery and were lying naked on my sheets. I’d had her in practically every room and position in the house—spread eagle, spanked, tied and positioned against the bedroom wall—but my favorite by far was in the bathroom, her legs splayed wide and looking sexy as sin atop my vanity.
Yet, it didn’t feel like enough because I still craved the feeling of being inside her, nestled in her darkness—because even in her darkness there was light. Her soft glow filled up all the hollow and dim places inside me. I felt completely electric whenever I got to spend any amount of time with her.
Now she knelt before me, her fingers slipping to my hips and her tongue gliding up the underside of my shaft. Before she could take me further inside her mouth, I seized her arms and hauled her body up to mine. I flipped her to the mattress, my lips slamming over hers in a bruising kiss.
“You drive me insane, baby.” I drew away to catch my breath. Then I reached for a condom, rolling it quickly down my stiff erection.
I clutched for her hand and then interlaced our fingers—our thing, which always made me feel connected to her. My other hand burrowed into the nape of her neck, drawing her forehead to rest against mine.
I held her gaze steady as concrete as I inched slowly inside. Her eyes drifted partially closed on a moan. She adjusted her legs to rest higher on my back, so that I could burrow more fully in her warm and addicting heat. I plunged at a measured but gentle pace, setting a mind-blowing, drugging rhythm.
The rawness of the moment was etched in her furrowed brow, her shallow breaths. Her intense need and longing pouring out of her flushed skin. The depths of her feelings seemed to churn beneath her hazel eyes.
The way she looked at me, like I was her everything, made my chest ache and throb and surge. Hell, was there any better place in the universe right now?
“Fuck, Jessie,” I said in a husky voice, overcome with my own emotion. “You make me want to stay here like this forever. Watching you, feeling you, tasting you. I am so goddamn in love with you.”