I didn’t want to admit to all those unspoken thoughts, but he was right. I only nodded, not wanting to give them a voice. Not tonight.
“I am too. If we’re going to try . . . if we’re really going to do this, I need to see it in your eyes. When I make love to you, I need you to believe it.”
“I want this, Blake.” My voice quivered, and my heart seized with emotion. “Make love to me . . . please.”
I smoothed my hands over the hard planes of his chest and over his taut abs. His erection throbbed against me, hot and demanding. Grasping it, I circled him and stroked the soft flesh to the tip. He hissed, gliding between my fingertips with a slow thrust.
I grew slick, evident when he shifted so his erection slid against my folds. He repeated the motion, sending jolts of pleasure over my clit until I could no longer stand it. I pivoted my hips, hoping to guide him inside me. He grasped his erection, teasing the tip against my opening. I bit back a frustrated moan. The man loved to tease. Then, his focus riveted on the intimate place where we joined, he pressed into me slowly.
“Christ, you’re beautiful.”
He caught me by the knee, holding me open as he pushed in. I gasped for breath. The sensation of him filling me, of my body stretching for him, unraveled me every time. I pressed my fingernails into his forearm, a silent plea for him to claim me deeper.
“Watching my cock slide into you . . . it’s almost too much. Makes me want to lose it every time.”
I arched against him. “I want you deep.”
Palming my breast, he groaned and covered my body with the heat of his own. The hair on his chest teased my nipples, now hardened and hypersensitive. He kissed me, thrusting deeply. Then he gave me exactly what I asked for, as he had every night since I’d become his wife.
Nothing had ever felt so completely right.
I sank my head into the pillows behind me and pulled him down to me. I wanted us as close as we could be. Nothing but the sound of the waves and my cries as he made love to me filled the air. I closed my eyes tight, waiting for the rush of sensation to take me over.
“Erica . . . look at me.”
I opened my eyes, and the face of the only man I’d ever loved filled the frame of my vision. His lips parted with ragged breath. Each muscle flexing with effort. The vision was intoxicating . . . breathtaking.
We were all too human then, the vast ocean surrounding us and the tiny island we inhabited. We were two small beating hearts in this world, yet what we sought now seemed enormous. What we wanted and what could be created between us, a spark of life, so small and fragile, was too overwhelming to fully comprehend. My heart beat heavily in my chest with the weight of what we were trying for.
Energy radiated between us, heightened when he closed his hand tightly over my hip, the other threading possessively with my own. His gaze held me, too intense to break away, except I was unraveling a little more each second. Possessed by his potent stare and the fierce way he claimed me, I clung to him in every way I could. Like a thread growing taut and tense, my body strained toward release.
“I’ve never wanted anything more than I’ve wanted you. Nothing in my entire life has ever possessed me the way you have,” he said.
“I’m yours.”
“Forever,” he rasped, meeting my lips with a bruising kiss. He banded an arm around my hips, leveraging his weight and changing the angle of his thrusts.
“Blake!” His name was a plea on my lips, a desperate kind of praise for the perfect way he felt inside me.
His expression weakened. An almost painful vulnerability swept his gorgeous features as he took us closer to that heaven we found in each other.
“Now, baby. Let go. Come apart, just for me.”
That quickly, the thread snapped. He was incredibly deep. In my heart. In my body. Lips crashing, skin afire, bodies one, we came together. Together we fell into that perfect place, landing safely in each other’s arms. The sensation rippled over me, vibrating between us until we were both still.
We lay tangled in each other, the air perfectly warm around us. The low rolling of the waves against the beach was the only sound against our steadying breaths.
Closing his eyes, Blake exhaled heavily. “God, do I love you.”
I sighed, surrendering to the warm weightless comfort of being in his arms. I danced my fingers lazily over his skin, over his broad shoulders, replaying what had just happened between us.
Tonight had been different. Tonight we’d shared something I couldn’t name. Hope, or maybe faith. Grasping for a dream only we could make together, and believing that somehow it might come true.
A rush of emotion hit me, maybe harder than it normally would have in this vulnerable postcoital state. I closed my eyes to calm the burning behind them. Drawing in a deep breath, I slowed my caresses.