“I thought you’d given up on me,” she admitted tearfully, averting her eyes. “That you didn’t care anymore when all I got was an empty line. I didn’t know if I was talking to a machine or to nothing. I so desperately wanted to hear your voice.”
I heard the pain in her voice and gathered her closer. “I’m so sorry. I heard you, Rabbit. I cared. God, baby, I cared so much.” My lips pressed into her soft hair. “I can’t make up for what I did. I should have waited and found out more before I sent you back. Even worse, I should have listened to you and I shouldn’t have let you go. I was stupid and arrogant. I don’t even know if you can forgive me.”
“You never thought I loved you the way you loved me, did you?”
I shook my head. “No, I knew you loved me.” I lifted her hand and kissed the warm palm and held it to my cheek. “And, I knew no one would ever love me that way again. You were such a gift to me, Rabbit. An unexpected, wonderful gift. But I thought I didn’t have anything to offer you but a half-life, cut-off from the world. Isolated here with me. Nothing outside this place. It wasn’t what I wanted for you. He seemed to have everything you needed to have a good life. The kind of life you deserved to have.”
Her hands came up and cupped my face. “No, Joshua. There is nothing there for me. You are all I need. Life with you is what I want. It’s what I need. You have so much more to offer than you think.”
“Can you forgive me? For sending you back? For not being what I should have been?” I asked quietly, my voice shaking with repressed emotion.
She looked up at me, eyes awash with unshed tears. “Already forgiven, Joshua. I love you,” she whispered, her voice breaking.
I cupped her face, wiping away the tears that were sliding down her cheeks. “I love you, Rabbit. If you let me, I’ll spend the rest of my life showing you how much.”
“Show me now,” she pleaded.
Groaning, I lowered my mouth to hers, my tongue immediately seeking entry. Her lips parted and I was once again able to lose myself in her. I pulled her closer, tucking her into me as I shifted so she was now under me in the large chair. Again and again, my tongue explored her sweetness, delving and tasting, desperate for her. My hands traced her curves, loving how right she felt moulded into me. Her hands were under my shirt pressing me against her, soft encouraging whimpers escaping from the back of her throat when I broke away to caress and worship her neck with my lips, wanting to rediscover all of her. I moaned as I felt her hand slip under the waistband of my pants pulling me closer to her. I could feel myself losing control and I pulled back. “Not here in a chair, Rabbit. I want to love you—I want every inch of you loved and it can’t happen in a chair.”
“Take me to our bed,” she whispered huskily.
Our bed.
No two words had ever been sweeter.
I stood, taking her with me. Her head was buried in the crook of my neck, her lips moving on my skin in silent words of adoration, her warm breath filling my senses. Swiftly, I took her to our room and laid her on the bed. I looked down at her with her hair spilled across the pillow, her eyes gazing up at me burning with a thousand emotions. She sat up, pulling the shirt over her head. “Please, Joshua,” she beseeched, her hand stretching out. “Please.” I stopped at the sound of the desperation in her voice. We were too close to the edge already; our emotions taut and so close to breaking. I needed to slow both of us down.