He touched his forehead to hers, knowing how she felt. But if she hadn’t come to him, he would have gone to her. It was as inevitable as the tide. Both of them tossed, not knowing where to go, but she was right in front of him. It was the only place he could go. He slipped his fingers into her hair, cradling her face. He brushed his lips over hers, let them linger. Kissed his way over her cheeks, her temple, back to her mouth. “Stay,” he whispered.
Even with the ball of fear in his gut, he whispered again. “Stay.”
She took a deep, shuddering breath, caught his head, and pulled his mouth back to hers. They dove into each other, fast and frantic to get to some place neither had been in so long.
He needed her like air; he always had. The quick, hot spark flared through him just the way he remembered. She was everything that every other woman wasn’t. She was Mia. She was his.
Clinging to him, her fingers dug into his shoulders, slid up to grip his hair. She kissed him back, answering the ache for her that beat in his heart and throbbed in his blood. It felt the same, he felt the same, the years apart melting away.
He scraped his teeth down her throat and felt her shiver. The breath tore through his lungs. He wanted to be inside her, so deep inside her that neither of them would be able to think.
She whimpered into his mouth and, sensing her distress, he pulled back to find her eyes filled with tears.
“My Mia.” Staggered by her, he brushed the dampness from her cheeks. “Don’t cry.” That seemed to only make her cry harder. He did his best to soothe her and himself. Kissing her trembling lips, her eyes, smoothing his hands up her back.
“Nick.” It was a plea and a cry on her lips. “Nick.”
“Shh. I know.” He felt the same, like his heart were being wrung out like a wet rag. An urgent need grabbed them, dragging them on a riptide of emotion. He stood and carried her gently in his arms, his lips on hers until he laid her on his bed. He followed her down, held himself over her. He brushed her hair back from her face like he’d done countless times before and took a moment.
Her dark hair spread out over the pale gray of his pillow. Her eyes glistened. He leaned in, captured her mouth again. Slow, he forced himself to go slow. Touching her again was like a dream he was afraid to wake from.
He traced her lips with his tongue, dipped inside to taste her again. Pressed his lips to the fluttering pulse at her throat that mirrored his own. Only and always with her. Two people who’d loved so deeply they’d been like one, reunited with the other half of themselves.
With one hand, he kept her arms shackled over her head. He kissed his way down her neck, over her chest, releasing the buttons of her blouse as he went.
When his hands smoothed over her bare skin, she sighed. When his thumbs brushed lace-covered nipples, she moaned. “So damn beautiful.” He let her hands go to strip out of his shirt, then they lost their clothes piece by piece, pausing between each one to come together with more flesh on flesh each time. More kisses, more exploring until she was as lost as he was, so lost in each other there was nothing else.
“Nick.” Her muscles jerked and quivered. “I can’t breathe.” Her voice was thick, desperate, and he lifted his head.
“Do you want me to stop?”
“No.”
He rolled her nipple between his lips, took her breast into his mouth, then the other until he felt her relax and soften. He left her breast and made his way down her torso. “I want to touch all of you. I need to touch you.”
She quivered, might have said yes again, or maybe please, but he was taken over with the taste of her skin. Her body was soft and giving, her skin like silk under his lips as he laid a trail of kisses up her thigh. Her sounds of pure pleasure, the scent of her arousal. This one woman who had owned him from the first minute. How had he survived the years without this, without her?
Her hips rose. “Nick. I need you. I need—”
He took her mouth because he knew what she needed. He needed it, too. Both of them raw from the time they’d been apart. Her hands glided over his back, held him close. And that added another layer, feeling her hands on him. If she had any idea how much he wanted her... He rested his brow against hers, waited for his heartbeat to slow, at least so he could breathe.
“Mia.” He didn’t say more, couldn’t express everything running through him. He just needed to say her name. Wanted her to hear his voice. He didn’t know anything beyond her. Their bodies came together like they’d been waiting a decade to be rejoined, recognizing what maybe their minds were afraid of.
He knew where to kiss and stroke as she did, and they loved in the dark from memory. Sometimes frantic and hard, sometimes achingly slow. Every touch, every minute they’d ever had, rushing back to mix and build with the present.