As I look down at her, I’m pleased to see a lightness in her eyes, and she appears more herself than when I first walked in. I don’t know how long it will last, but if I’ve been able to bring her peace for at least a little while, then that’s something.
Her hands slide up over my chest before she winds her arms around my neck and pulls me down until my lips brush hers. Fuck. It’s been way too long since I tasted her lips on mine, or felt her soft curves beneath me. I’m completely lost in her touch. The second her tongue sweeps into my mouth, it’s as if nothing else exists. My hands slide into her hair as I return her kiss, my tongue tangling with hers until we’re both breathless.
Everything in my body is encouraging me on, but I force myself to slow down—which is seriously fucking difficult, especially when she starts grinding against me.
“Hadley.” The word is a half pant, half groan.
Ignoring me, Hadley hitches her leg over mine, using the momentum to turn us until she’s hovering over me. She presses her finger against my lips. “Shh, don’t talk.” Leaning down, she kisses me again while she slips her hands under my muscle shirt and pushes it up my body until she can tug it off over my head.
My hands land on her hips as I look up at her reverently. I still can’t believe she’s here, that she survived, that I got so lucky as to find this amazing spitfire of a girl in this crazy, fucked up world. I slide my hand into her hair, holding her still as I pillage her mouth, and roll us once again so I’m settled between her spread thighs.
I grab her thigh and hitch it over my hip, opening her more as I grind against her, making her head fall back as her eyelids close and she moans.
“Mason,” she pleads in a breathless pant.
I kiss my way down her neck, and over the swell of her breasts, pushed up by her sports bra, then along her toned stomach, until I reach the high waistband of her lycra shorts. I tug them and her panties down her legs until she’s left bare before me, pausing for a moment to just appreciate all of her. My eyes roam over her fresh wounds that will leave new scars, noting how prominent her ribs have gotten, and by the time I lift my head to meet her gaze, I imagine the fire in my eyes matches hers.
Crawling up her until I’m once again situated between her thighs, I slide my hand into her hair and kiss her deeply. “You’re fiercely beautiful. I’m in awe of your strength.”
She looks up at me with a rawness I’ve never seen before, and I realize, for the first time, she has stripped herself bare, and what I’m seeing is all the vulnerability she works so hard to hide.
“It’s tiring, being strong all the time.”
“Then don’t be. Fall apart, baby. I’ll be here to put you back together.” I rest my forehead against hers, so all I can see is the turbulent storm whirling in her eyes. Nothing else exists but her. “It’s you and me.”
She tilts her head so her lips meet mine. In that kiss, I can taste everything she’s not ready to say yet. I can taste how lost she is, the hopeless void she’s on the cusp of falling into, and I return her kiss with all the ferocity of someone begging her to hold on, to keep fighting, to stay with me.
“I love you.” Her words are a quiet whisper against my lips before she captures them in yet another kiss. She wraps her legs around my waist, crossing them at the ankles and using her heel to push my shorts over my ass. Lifting, I tug them down, and checking she’s ready, I line my dick up with her entrance and slide into her. My eyes roll back in my head and I let out a blissful sigh. This, right here, is the best feeling in the world. It’s like coming home after being away at war. When we’re one like this, everything I’ve had to endure to get here suddenly feels worth it.
She moans and her legs tighten around me, encouraging me further until I’m so deep inside her, I won’t ever want to leave. I can’t tear my eyes away from her face as I pump lazily into her, and she watches me back, with that same open and awed expression, like she feels the same things I do when we’re together. The air seems to crackle around us, filled with sexual tension and something so much more meaningful. Something everlasting.
I drink in the flush that rises on her cheeks, commit every breathless moan to memory, until she’s falling apart beneath me, and I follow her over the edge, reiterating my promise to her: I’ll be here to put her back together.
Chapter 10
“What exactly do you think you’re doing?” Hawk demands when I step into the kitchen later that morning, dressed in my school uniform.
“Eh, going to class? It is a weekday after all.”
“No, you’re not. I’ve told your teachers you need another week off.”
“No need, I’m all good.”
“Firefly, you just got back. Why don’t you take a couple of days to just relax? Chill on the sofa and watch some daytime television,” West suggests, his tone more soft and coaxing than Hawk’s sharp bark.
“Honestly, I’m fine. I have missed so much work, I don’t want to fall even further behind.”
Hawk scowls at me for another moment before finally relenting. “Fine,” he huffs out, “but don’t overdo it, and stay with one of us.”
“I don’t need a babysitter,” I snap irritably.
“Tough shit,” he barks, sounding just as annoyed. “That’s the only way I’m letting you out of this apartment.”
“Letting me?”
West steps forward to stand between us, glowering at Hawk before turning to me, his eyes softening around the edges. “Please,” he pleads. “We’re all going to be stomping about like angry bears all day if we can’t keep an eye on you.”
My posture relaxes as I smile softly at him. “Of course. It’s not like I’d want to spend the day with anyone else.” His smile grows, and we both ignore Hawk in the background as he throws his hands up in the air in exasperation and grumbles under his breath before stomping off like the grown man-child he is.
West moves to make me a cup of coffee, setting it down in front of me as I slide into a seat at the island.
“So, what have I missed?” I question, looking up at him over the lip of my mug. “I bet this month's girls are brewing up a storm over the fact none of you have been around much the last couple of weeks.”
West chuckles. “I bet they’re more pissed off that we once again put a stop to the whole tradition.”
My eyebrows climb up my forehead as my eyes widen. “You, what? When?”
“As soon as we got you back. We couldn’t risk saying anything before then, and bringing any more trouble to our door, but we’re fucking done with all of it now.”
“But, what about our parents?”
West shrugs. “They’re going to be too busy scrambling to rebuild the compound, while freaking out over Lawrence’s death and the future of the company, to worry about what we’re up to at school.”
I gape at him for a moment before finding my words. “So it’s done? For real this time?”
He leans across the island toward me, until he’s so close I could just lean forward and kiss him. “Yeah, Firefly, it’s done. We’re sick of hiding our relationship with you. I want the whole school to know you’re ours.”