She huffed out her breath and dropped her gaze to the floor. “Well, now I just feel bad.”
He grinned, and taking the final step between them, he wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her in tight. “Why?”
“Because I did the exact same thing to you.”
“When you asked Adam to park my Evel Knievel ass in a desk chair?” His hand on the small of her back, he had to work extra hard at keeping his palm from sliding down to cup the rounded curve of her butt cheek.
Surprise had her chin lifting and her eyes springing to his. “He told you?”
“No.” He shook his head. “He didn’t need to. You’ve spent the last seven years doing everything in your power to protect me. I don’t expect you to stop just because we’re together again. But it’s the two of us now, and finding Maya and getting the kill switch is our goal. Dominion our problem to fix. The Imperium Council our enemy. You and me, sweetheart. Always and forever.”
“Jay—” Her breath hitched, and she melted into him, warm and pliant. “I—” She put her hands against his chest, not to push him away, but to close their circuit, the exact same way she always had. Familiar and easy, even if she didn’t realize it.
“Tell me what you need, baby.” He knew what she needed.
Him. Rock hard and in deep.
“I—” She licked her lips, and rolled her hips, the slightest of movements, and he felt the friction in his dick like a horny teenager desperate to get to first base with his first girlfriend.
Unfortunately, his aching cock would have to wait, because saving the world took priority, and they were quickly running out of time.
“Always and forever?” she said, repeating the pledge they’d made all those years ago. “Like before? You and me? A couple? The two of us?”
He nodded, cursing the sling between them, because it kept him from holding her, touching her, making love to her the way he wanted to. The way he needed to. “I love you, Bec. I never stopped loving you. You’re it for me. The one. Like I said earlier, there’s no before or after you—because there’s only ever been you. I know it’s a lot. I know it’s overwhelming. I know we should be taking things slow. I know in some respects we’ve both changed, and we need to get to know each other again, but I love you, and no matter what lies in our past or what the future may bring, my present will always be yours.”
Fuck. He had no idea if anything he’d said made sense, but he meant every word.
The sunlight streaming through the windows caught the tears trembling at the edges of her lashes, and her black eyes glittered like polished obsidian in a sparkling creek—the hurts she suppressed wrapped in watery brilliance—silent but impossible to ignore.
Shit! Had he gone too far? Said too much? Applied too much pressure?
He hadn’t meant to. He?—
She pressed onto the tips of her toes, the move brushing her pussy along his cock, and he damn near passed out from how good it felt. How right it felt. God, the urge to fuck her. Here. Now. Give her a reminder of who and what they were together, fractured his resolve to take things slow.
Jay and Becca. Unstoppable. Inseparable. Inevitable.
They were stars on a collision course. Twin flames caught in the gravity of fate. Drawn together by forces they couldn’t resist. Whether they burned bright or burned out, didn’t matter. Some souls were destined to crash, and when they did, the effects lingered long after impact.
That was their story. Their place in the cosmic order of things.
Let mankind plunge into darkness. Let the world burn. Let the earth shatter.
Let their ashes be cast into the vast unknown.
Maybe humanity was meant to sink back into the great primordial soup, dissolving into the same swirling mass of chaos that had birthed the universe, because he knew without a fraction of a doubt their destruction wouldn’t be their end.
Nope. Somewhere in the distant future, their pieces would drift together again.
Jay and Becca.
Always and forever.
His faculties severely impaired, he bent his head, bringing their lips closer together.
“Tell me what you’re thinking, Bec.” He kissed her. A soft press of his mouth against hers. The perfect fit.
“Jay—” she moaned, kissing him back at the same time his name whispered from her lips, the sound warm and breathy. And the spark she fanned, flared hot enough to start a raging fire deep in his chest.
