He sucked hard, teeth scraping the flesh, tongue swirling, and all those sensations were hitting me all at once, and my fingers were digging into his shoulders, raking in their plea.
“Evan. Evan. Oh God. I missed this. I missed you.”
And I knew he couldn’t hear what I was saying, but that he could feel the brush of the words on his skin. I knew it in the way he exhaled in his own surrender.
“Yes,” he murmured at my breast, his tongue coming out to flick one last time before he pushed up onto his hands to stare down at me. “I missed you. I missed this. Touching you. Loving you. Now I’m not ever going to stop.”
“You better not.” There would have been the threat of a tease in the words except for the fact I was physically shaking like a windstorm was coming through, my heart palpitating and sending all that anticipation pounding through my bloodstream.
Every nerve alive.
Every cell on high alert.
Tuned into this man.
The hint of a smirk lifted at the corner of his mouth. “That’s a warning I plan to make good on.”
Then there was no more laughing because Evan was winding out of his underwear, the last barrier keeping us apart. His abdomen jerked and flexed and ticked in these pulses of need as he slowly twisted out of his briefs.
His cock got free.
Hard and bulging at the tip.
My insides clutched. The man so damn beautiful it just wasn’t fair to my sanity.
Because I could feel myself slipping away.
I gripped him and ran my thumb over his engorged crown, then fisted my hand over all that hard, velvet flesh.
Stroking once.
Then twice.
Evan’s mouth dropped open in a straight-shot of pleasure, a low rumble echoing from his throat and covering me in his need.
“Frankie. Shit. Don’t stop. Don’t ever stop.”
Loved being in control of it.
Loved knowing that I could cause this reaction in him.
I rushed to dig around in my nightstand for a condom, ripping into it and slipping it over his cock that was twitching in my hand.
He wound a spot for himself between my thighs, and he was staring down at me in awe as I continued to pump my hand along his length while guiding him to me.
“Fuck, Frankie . . . you are killing me, sweet girl. You just touching me and I’m already dying. Dying to be inside of you.”
“Please.”
I wasn’t too proud to beg.
He shifted, took himself in his hand, the man watching me something fierce as he barely pressed himself at my center.
Anticipation so thick neither of us could breathe.
Everything dense and tight and completely hinged on this moment.
Evan nudged himself deeper, slowly spreadin’ me, and my nails were scratching into his back and his forehead was dropping to mine and he was filling me so full that the only thing I could feel was his body consuming me.
Heart and body and soul and spirit.
His eyes were open, and I knew he was experiencing me the same way as I was experiencing him.
Wholly.
Utterly profound.
The feel of him as he began to rock, the drive of his hips deep and slow and measured. Like he wanted to savor every second of the bliss that surged into my body.
He gathered me up, bringing us chest to chest, our hearts beating a reckless rhythm. “Unicorn Girl,” he murmured, those eyes striking in the shadows as he watched down on me.
As he loved me and I loved him and our bodies moved in time.
In slow desperation.
In a perfect union that started to take me to the highest places.
To the stars where he’d always said we’d been written.
Little sparks of pleasure lit our flesh, and Evan quickened his pace, every muscle in his body taught with glorious strain.
Evan grunted, panting as he drove and loved and kissed me mad.
And we were suddenly a mess of hands and pleading words and desperate mouths.
“Please.”
“I need you.”
“Never stop.”
Vibrant colors flashed at the corners of my eyes.
Ecstasy gathering fast.
Pleasure spiked in the middle of us, the ties that bound ablaze, our skin slick with sweat as we moved in the most decadent dance.
It only grew with each thrust of his body. An explosion of desperation as we climbed toward the peak.
Evan gripped me by the back of one leg, spreading me wider, driving hard and fast, completely letting go.
And that pleasure surged.
The feeling gathering to a pinpoint.
Our gasps ragged and hard and both of us begging for mercy.
“Evan . . . I love you. I love you.”
Our bodies slapped and clutched.
The hurricane coming at us was one I didn’t think either of us were prepared to experience.
Because the second it hit, I was done for.
Annihilated.
Decimated.
A crack of thunder that rang of paradise.
Otherworldly.
Our connection unlike anything possible.
This boy the other half of my soul.
And we were there together, shooting toward the stars where we soared.
I clung to him tighter as he jerked and drove, his mouth open at my neck as he pounded me into oblivion.
Higher and higher.
And I thought I couldn’t take it, that I was going to die, my entire body clinging to his as everything rushed to come together in the eye of the most breathtaking storm.
It fractured through the middle of me.
Blinding pleasure.
Euphoria.
Rapture.
Bliss. Bliss. Bliss.
His orgasm chased him down at the heels of mine.
Evan roared this massive sound that banged against my walls, body jerking as he came, hands everywhere, sinking into my flesh like he refused to ever let me go.
Savage satisfaction.
And he was panting and I was still lingering out there with him, where it was the two of us and nothing could ever come between.
Where we’d always stand for the other.
Where our dreams were bigger than our obstacles.
Where our fears were destroyed by our belief.
* * *
Darkness swam through my room, peace a covering that kept us shrouded.
Held and protected.
Our hearts beat in time.
Contented and fulfilled.
We were under the covers, on our sides and just staring at each other.
Relishing in the restoration.
Reveling in the revival.
Evan had the fingers of our hands threaded, and he lifted them through the rays of moonlight, studying the connection.
There was no resisting the force of the giddy smile that was working to break loose.
No shame in this surrender.
He shifted his head on the pillow to fully look at me. With our fingers still twined, he reached up and dragged his knuckles down my cheek. “I love it when you look like this.”
Heat flooded my face, warmth gushing through my body. I bit down on my bottom lip. “And what do I look like?”
“Like you’ve been fucked and thoroughly satisfied.”
A smirk took to the corner of his mouth, his tease so easy.
“Oh, you’re pretty satisfied with yourself, are you?”
“Oh yeah,” he said with that gruff, rasping voice.
God, I couldn’t believe how much I’d missed it. How much I needed it.
He pulled my hand to his mouth and pressed a kiss to the back of it, inhaling deep. “Being with you feels like the greatest gift I’ve been given, Frankie. You and Everett. Both of you are something I didn’t think I would have.”
Emotion crested his brow, those eyes darkening in the shifting shadows of my room. “A family.”
<
br /> My heart clutched, nearly gave, and I was tracing the line on his chest, peeking up at him. “Is that what we are? A family?”
His throat bobbed as he swallowed. “That’s what I want, Frankie. A family. That’s what I’ve always wanted us to be.”
Love blistered across the surface of my skin. Etching and searing. Branding me with forever. “I want that more than I could ever tell you.”
My chest squeezed, and I had to turn my gaze from the penetrating ferocity of his.
I turned to lie on my back, staring at the ceiling, at the dance of shadows that cast their comfort on my room.
I lifted my hands. DO YOU REMEMBER EVERYTHING WE’D DREAMED OF? ALL OF OUR CHILDHOOD FANTASIES?
Three years ago, I’d accepted them as nothin’ but fairytales and fiction.
I shifted back to meet his eyes. “I never stopped wanting that,” I confessed.
I hesitated, searched through all the notions and wishes that had gotten banged up by our separation.
I took his hand, needing something to do with my trembling fingers. “I always imagined that we’d have a big family.”
Regret rippled through Evan’s features. “You know that’s not possible.”
My head shook. “No, Evan, it is. I’d always imagined our family would be made of patches and pieces. Children who needed to be loved because they’d been cast out by this world. Because the world looked at them like they were broken and deemed unworthy. Because they needed to be loved in a way that only we could love them.”
“Frankie.” His eyes squeezed closed for a beat, and then he was back to looking at me like I was his treasure.
I couldn’t stop the tear that seeped out of the corner of my eye and dripped into my pillow. “I’d always imagined that we’d take over your mama’s café, that in some way you would be involved in A Lick of Hope . . . that it would remain a part of who you are. That you’d run the charity and I be the one standing beside you to watch it flourish and grow.”
Wistfulness throbbed in the space between us.
Drawing us together.
Back to those days.
His voice was gruff and scratching, the words barely there. “Yeah. I remember dreaming those dreams with you.”
“What made you give them up?”
Lightly, he brushed his fingers across the trail of moisture on my cheek. “I didn’t want you to have to wait around for the pain to come.”
My head shook. “No, Evan. A single day spent with you is worth a thousand years of pain. I love you. And it’s not a small love. It’s not a love dependent on you bein’ healthy. It’s not a love contingent on life being easy. Because the only thing I want to do is do life with you. Whatever that looks like.”
He reached over and took my face in both of his hands. He squeezed tight. “How did I get so lucky that I found you?”
“I was meant for you, remember?” The words raked the air.
Dense and mesmerizing.
This man my surrender.
My love.
My light.
My everything.
“I remember . . . and I promise I won’t ever forget. I will fight for you . . . love you and protect you with everything I have. And I promise I will never make the decision for you again. You choose to love me? I will choose to love you back.”
Grief and affection and every emotion that I’d ever felt bottled in my chest. I needed to tell him. God, I needed to tell him. I tried to force it from my tongue, to give him this burden that I knew was going to destroy a piece of him.
But the front door was banging open and Milo was going crazy, his nails echoing over the wood floors from the other side of the door.
“Milo, sweet boy!” I could hear Carly coo way too loud for midnight. “You are the sweetest, sweetest boy in the whole wide world, aren’t you? Come and give Auntie Carly some love. Apparently doggie kisses are the only kind that I can get.”
Josiah’s voice boomed right behind hers. “Oh, come on, Carly, you want some kisses, I’d be glad to do you the favor. Have you looked at me? There is some major hotness you are missin’ out on.”
“Ew, gross, kissin’ you would be like kissin’ my brother.”
Josiah cracked up. “You’re right. On second thought, keep kissing that dog. Way better than your last boyfriend.”
“I will stab you.”
More laughter echoed through the house.
Apparently, Carly and Josiah had done it up right, their voices ringing through the house, slurred and ridiculous.
A giggle slipped free of my mouth, affection so fierce that there was no way I could stop it, and Evan quirked a questioning brow.
Sometimes it made me sad that he was missing out on something that so many took for granted. But I also knew he made up for it in so many extraordinary ways. It was everyone else who was truly missing out.
Being observed by Evan Bryant suddenly made you feel as if you had fifteen thousand senses. All of them firing at the exact same time, touching you everywhere, making you feel like you were the most important thing in the world.
That’s what I wanted Everett and me to be.
His world.
And I was gonna make both of them mine.
“Carly and Josiah just got here,” I explained, sitting up and taking the sheet with me.
He sat up, too, roughed a hand through his hair, something cocky riding through his demeanor. “Should we be concerned?” He said with no concern at all.
Hell, I was pretty sure those words were packed with nothin’ but pride.
“Oh, we should definitely be concerned. Carly is gonna want to throw a party.”
Evan touched my chin with his knuckle. “Sounds like a good plan. I think we have plenty of reason to celebrate.”
Twenty-Four
Evan
Frankie: Here.
Couldn’t stop the big-assed grin that pulled to my mouth when my phone buzzed in my hand.
I headed for the door.
So yeah, I wanted to throw a goddamn party.
The biggest one ever.
I’d gotten word yesterday that my paternity test had confirmed me Everett’s father. Not that I’d ever questioned it. But the fact my attorney was currently getting my name on the birth certificate so we could have his previous medical records ordered was a huge fucking relief.
Well, that and the fact that I’d spent the last three nights wrapped up in Frankie Leigh.
Two of us rediscovering.
Sometimes slow and soft and sweet.
Other times wild and reckless and hard.
Everything in between.
Neither of us could get enough.
I opened the front door of my parents’ house to find her standing on the porch.
All those curls chaotic around her face. Girl was wearing a T-shirt with a frog printed on it and this frilly black skirt.
A smirk threatened, and I leaned up against the doorframe, hands lifted so I could sign. SOMEONE LOOKS AWFUL CUTE TODAY.
She did a little curtsey, grabbing her skirt at the sides and flailing it around a bit.
Yeah, fucking cute.
“Well, I might have been dressing up for someone real special.”
My grin widened. “Oh, and who might that be?”
She stepped up to me, her hand on my chest and sliding up to my face. “My favorite froggy, of course.”
I drifted forward, wrapping an arm around her waist and tugging her close. Just loving the heat of her body against mine. “And tell me . . . once you kissed this frog, did he turn into your prince?”
She giggled. I could feel the sensation of it running up my throat, this girl instantly making me ache to reach out and take a little more.
She peeked up at me, her fingers playing with a button of my collared shirt. “Better than a prince.”
My brow lifted in a tease. “Better?”
She gave an overexaggerated nod. “Oh, yeah. Turns out he’s kinda a god.”
“God, h
uh? Wow, that’s pretty impressive.”
She raked her teeth over that lip. “Mmhmm . . . and he’s been reignin’ from my bed.”
A groan rumbled in my chest. Half laughter. Half need. I gathered her closer, feeling the press of her joy. “You are ridiculous and perfect, Frankie Leigh,” I told her where I was pressing my lips to her forehead.
“I’m kinda great, right?” she teased as she looked at me so I could see what she was saying.
“Don’t get too carried away.”
Easiness bled between us.
A quieted, sated gratefulness. Still couldn’t believe we’d gotten to this place. Wasn’t ever going to leave it.
Her eyes went soft. “Where is Everett?”
“He’s in the backyard with everyone. Pretty sure he’s getting smothered with kisses this afternoon.”
“I think I need some of those kisses.” She lifted her hands. COME ON, WE’D BETTER GET BACK THERE BEFORE SOMEONE SENDS OUT A SEARCH PARTY.
I roughed a hand through my hair. “You’re probably right. You ready for this?”
“I think it’s something we should have done a long time ago, Evan. When we first started. There was no reason to hide what we are.”
WELL, EXCEPT FOR YOUR DAD.
I smirked down at her.
Another giggle. “He’s not so bad.”
“Uh, have you seen him?”
She took my hand, resting her head on my arm as we started through the house toward the back porch where everyone had already gathered.
Frankie’d had to work, so she was later than most. Basically, I’d been standing around like some kind of antsy asshole for the last hour and a half waiting for her to get here.
Knowing we were finally going to make a statement.
Claim us.
Frankie grinned up at me. “You took on Jack. I’m pretty sure you’ll do just fine.”
“Think that was pure adrenaline.”
“I think you’re way stronger than you give yourself credit for.”
I pressed a kiss to the top of her head as we took the left down the short hall toward the kitchen. Could feel the energy in the air, the clatter of voices and activity that I couldn’t hear but could sense as we made our way to the backyard.
On top of that?
I could feel the way Frankie was suddenly a little wary as she held onto my hand tighter as we headed for the french doors at the back.
Hold on to Hope Page 24
