She bit her bottom lip, more to restrain a giddy smile than as an effort to look coquettish, and climbed back on top of him. She positioned her knees between his thighs, sitting up tall as she swept her mass of hair into a high ponytail, and his cock gave a noticeable twitch. It was clear how badly he wanted her to return the favor from weeks ago, and she would, but she needed him to understand what this really was.
Crawling back up to his face, she looked at him earnestly as she held his cheek and placed a kiss on his lips. “I don’t want to bealt soulmates, Connor.”
“We’re not. We’reactualsoulmates, and we belong together.”
The look on his face told Liza he believed it.
“I belong toyou.” She kissed him again. “I gave you all of my heart a long time ago. I never got it back. I don’t want it back.”
“I’m not giving it back.” He placed her hand on his own heart. “I gave you mine. And I’m not taking it away again. I swear to you. It wasn’t mine to take away in the first place. I’ll spend the rest of my life earning your trust again if that’s what it takes.”
Anxiety gripped Liz as she remembered the secret she couldn’t bring herself to tell him. Brennan had been right all along. Not telling Connor about the wreck and the baby was going to be a problem, and she was already terrified.
She knew her internal worry was written all over her way-too-honest face, and Connor cupped her chin, forcing her gaze to meet his.
“I’ll do whatever it takes. I’ll prove it, Liza. I’m not going anywhere, and I’ll never push you away again. If things get hard, I’ll lean on you, and we’ll figure it out together.”
Liza squeezed her eyes shut as the anxiety nearly crippled her lungs. “Please mean that.”
“I do.” Connor kissed her forehead. “I do more than I can even tell you, sweetheart.”
She let herself collapse on top of him, their mouths colliding, tongues tangling, breath hitching, and the heat reached a fever pitch. Breaking her lips away, she slid down his granite-hard torso, kissed the flat of his lower abs, tongue stroking, as she drew one hand over his thigh and found his hot, thick erection. Her fingers wrapped around him, thumb circling slowly around the velvety tip, and Connor grasped her ponytail as his whole body hummed with a guttural growl.
Slipping one hand under his massive thigh muscle, Liza braced herself above him as she used her tongue to toy with and tease him, and he gripped her hair tighter. He breathed her name with pure, unadulterated adoration, and she finally drew his entire length into her mouth.
Liza knew she was good at this. He’d told her a million times, and his body had never lied, and few things in the world were as much of a turn-on as knowing how good she made him feel.
His breathing picked up, and he grabbed her hand that braced his thigh, squeezing it gently and then lacing his fingers between hers. Swearing under his breath, he let go of her hair and clawed at the sheet.
“Liza,” he gasped. “Stop. Come here.”
Unfulfilled ache hummed in every corner of her body as Connor gripped her shoulders and hoisted her up to his chest, rolling her over onto her back, pushing her thighs apart, and bringing his fingers to her slick entrance. He slid one arm under her neck, holding her in a cocoon of hard muscles and kissed her like there was no tomorrow. His thumb circled her swollen outer bud as his fingers located the internal hotspot, hurling her to that place of ecstasy, and she cried out against his mouth.
He made a move like he was about to climb on top of her, and she braced her palm against his chest. “Connor, please. A condom.”
Already one step ahead of her, he reached for the drawer of the nightstand and pulled one out. He had no way of knowing that the simple act of responsibility cracked Liza’s heart right in two. It was a glaring, excruciating reminder that she still didn’t trust him. She still didn’t fully believe in him. And how could she demand that he believe in himself whenshedidn’t?
She nearly grabbed his hand to stop him from rolling on the condom, attempting to allow herself to take a leap of faith with him, but she couldn’t. When he stroked his thumbs over her temples, kissing her forehead and breathing words of adoration and devotion as he entered her and filled her to the brim, a cry of a very different nature escaped her throat.
It was an unmistakable sob. Liza attempted to play it off as tears of joy as she murmured against his neck, “I love you, Connor. I love you so much.”
He ran his thumb across her bottom lip as he slowly thrust in and out. “My sweet Liza. Baby, I love you, too. You’re everything. This is everything.”
She wrapped both arms tightly around his shoulders and buried her face in his neck, ankles locked behind his thighs as she rocked against him. She forced herself to get totally lost in the feel of his perfection deep inside her as she climbed…and climbed…and climbed…back up to that glorious peak, and then came crashing down again as they simultaneously climaxed.
Connor turned onto his side, holding her close to his chest, and kissed her head. “Baby,” he uttered on a ragged breath. “Fuck, you’re amazing. God, I’ve missed you.”
Liza placed her hand on the valley between the hard muscles of his chest. His heart thumped steadily under the pads of her fingertips. “I missed you, too. I don’t want to lose this again.”
He held her closer. “You won’t. I promise. I know I’ve fucked up promises before, but I’m going to be better now. I swear.”
Connor couldn’t promise her that because he didn’t know what he was in for. And Liza knew there was no turning back now, no assurance that this time would turn out differently, and no telling if it would be even more catastrophic the second time around.
Because, after all, Javier hadn’t been the only casualty ten years ago. And that was something she knew had the potential to destroy Connor.
* * *
Liza’s long,silky hair draped in an espresso-brown curtain over her smooth, bare shoulders as Connor twirled his fingers in the tips of it. She breathed quietly, the tiny puffs of air from her perfect little nose tickling his chest every couple of seconds, and he couldn’t remember ever being this content.
