Melody of the Heart (Runaway Train, #4)

“I’ll hate you far more if you deny me, and you will ease my pain by giving me a physical connection.” Her hand dropped to my lap, cupping my dick. It didn’t need to be reacquainted with Lily. It rose up to greet her like it had missed her. Hell, it probably had. She knew it almost better than I did. As she worked me over my pants, I hissed in a breath. “Give in to me, Brayden.”


When she did that special tug that only she knew how to do, I thrust my hips up. That friction was my undoing. I knocked her hand away and tackled her to the floor. I didn’t bother getting her out of her dress. Instead, I shoved the hem up her thighs and then jerked down her panties. I fumbled with my belt and zipper. When I finally had my dick free, I didn’t bother with any foreplay. I just plowed right ahead.

We both moaned when I thrust deep inside her. She felt so incredibly tight. Almost as tight as when we’d first been together. “Did I hurt you?” I gasped.

“No, you feel so good.”

“It’s been a long time for you, hasn’t it?” I murmured against the shell of her ear.

“Not since you,” Lily panted.

I jerked my head up to stare into her eyes with disbelief. Her hands came to cup my cheeks. “There’s been no one but you, Brayden. I don’t have sex without love, and you’re the only man I could ever love.”

Grimacing, I knew I couldn’t say the same when it came to being with someone else. I’d whored myself out in the last year trying desperately to forget her. When I stilled my movements, Lily questioned, “Brayden, what’s wrong?”

“I’m so fucking sorry that I can no longer say you’re the only woman I’ve ever been with.”

“I would have been surprised if you had remained celibate, especially in your profession.”

"How can you be so forgiving?”

“Because I know that no matter who you had sex with, you’ve only slept with me. Right?”

As I stared into her eyes, I wondered how she could possibly guess that with the thirty or forty women I’d fucked over the last year, I’d never actually slept with them. If we ever even made it to a bed, I’d end up leaving or having them leave. Lily was the only woman I’d ever spooned with and woken up to the sunlight streaming across us.

“You’re right,” I whispered.

“No matter how many women you’re with, no one will ever get to have your first but me.”

Then I placed a tender kiss on her lips. “No one will ever have my heart but you.”

She smiled. “I feel the exact same way. Now make love to me. Please.”

“Mmm, I love to hear you beg.” I began to flex my hips and slide in and out of her. Being inside her felt like being home again.

Lily’s hands slid down my back and grip my buttocks. “Harder, Brayden,” she urged.

I gave her what she asked for. Over and over, I pounded into her. I continued right on through the two orgasms she had. Then I finally found relief, spilling myself inside her and crying out, “Lily! Oh God, Lily!”

We lay there tangled together, not speaking and unmoving. When I dared to pick my head up and look at her, I found that she was smiling up at me. “I was afraid you might be having second thoughts after we did the deed,” I said.

“No regrets. What about you?”

“None.”

“I’m glad to hear that.”

Although she looked far more at peace than when I saw her earlier, there was still tension in her eyes. I pushed a strand of hair away from her face. “Lily, I want you to know I’m not going anywhere. These next few days I’m going to be by your side every step of the way.”

“You really mean that?”

“Yeah, I do.”

“I need you so much. I don’t know if I can get through the funeral…” Her voice choked off with her sobs.

“I’m here, baby. I’m here.”

I don’t know how long she cried. My shirt got soaked through with her tears. When she finally finished, her body went limp with exhaustion. I rose up on my knees to tuck my dick back into my pants. I then eased her dress back down her legs. Lily watched me without saying a word. When I finished, I shook out one of the other blankets and then brought it over us. I pulled her to me, wrapping her in my arms.

“Thank you,” she whispered. Before I could argue that she didn’t need to thank me for a raggedy blanket or taking care of her, she said, “I was thanking God for bringing you back to me.”

Her words overwhelmed me. I had such a range of emotions crisscrossing my body. Anger, remorse, grief, fear, happiness-it all threatened to burst out of me. Instead, I closed my eyes and let myself fall asleep with the woman I loved—my other half, my soulmate.





BRAYDEN


THE PAST