Lost to You - - (readera ebook reader TXT) 📗
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I leaned in and swept my nose along the sweetness of her jaw, and I whispered at her ear, “Be with me.”
Elizabeth swayed and rocked, and then precious girl let herself go in the security of my arms.
Her face was hidden in the crook of my neck, buried in my need and the absolute devotion I felt for her.
Her mouth pressed to my skin.
It had to be the best thing I’d ever felt.
I danced with her, lifting her from her feet and slowly spinning her around.
We stayed that way for what seemed like forever, the snow flitting down around us while Elizabeth and I said nothing, just allowed our hearts to dance together in an eternal promise.
Because I was never going to let her go.
She pulled her head away to find my face, and I placed her back on her feet. One hand remained firm around her waist, and I brushed aside the hair stuck to the side of her face with the other.
Contentment thrummed in my chest, while my need for Elizabeth only grew.
Her eyes were all alight, tender, that honeyed-amber swimming with what I felt beating steadily within my heart.
From the moment I saw her, I knew something about her was different. I’d just never imagined it would change my life.
It was Elizabeth who pushed the moment. She lifted to her toes and pressed her lips to mine. Her mouth came so cautious and slow, testing, though I felt nothing there that told me she was still unsure.
The questions between us no longer remained.
Both my hands slid to her hips, and I pulled her as close as I possibly could then wound one hand back up her spine to the base of her neck.
I kissed her slowly.
Savored her unhurriedly.
There was nothing carnal to this kiss. But still, it was enough to reignite the ache she’d left me with for so many months.
Hell, this girl had managed it with one look.
I smiled against her lips, still unable to grasp that she’d brought me this far.
I could feel her grinning, too, before she pulled back. She pressed her lips together as if savoring the remnant of our kiss. “What?”
I shook my head, gripping her tight. “Nothing. I just didn’t realize anything could make me this happy.”
She hid her face in my chest and mumbled, “Neither did I.”
I dropped a kiss to her head and hugged her a little more. She shivered again. Who knew how much time had passed since we’d been standing out in the snow without our jackets.
I stepped back and grabbed two of her fingers because I found I really didn’t want to let her go. “You should get inside. It’s freezing out here.”
She cast a quick glance behind her at her building. The single window to her apartment remained a darkened square against the gray wall.
She turned back to me. “You want to come inside?”
Did I? My body answered with a resounding Hell, yeah.
No doubt, the second we crossed her threshold it would be all over. There’d be hands and flesh and need that would no longer be denied.
No longer could anything or anyone stop this attraction that had grown, transformed, and solidified as this bond that could not be broken.
My eyes skimmed over her face. Even though she looked up at me with the same desires that spun a path through my veins and coiled in my muscles, I didn’t miss the weariness that lay as purple smudges beneath her eyes.
I shook my head. “No, not tonight.”
Disappointment creased her forehead, and I drew her to me and kissed her again. I pushed my mouth near her ear and murmured, “Of course, I want to, Elizabeth.”
I flattened myself to her so she’d know how much I really did.
“But I’m not going to. Let’s do dinner tomorrow, instead. I want that time with you, just knowing it’s you and me. Can we do that?”
She sighed and nodded against my chest before she smiled lightly up at me. “Yeah, I’d like that.”
I dropped a small kiss to her mouth plus one against her nose. “Do me a favor and go climb underneath a blanket. You’re frozen.”
She laughed. “Okay.”
She stepped back and hooked her index finger with mine. She swayed our hands between us. “I’ll miss you.”
I’d been missing her for months, and I didn’t even know it. “Me, too. I’ll see you tomorrow, though, okay?”
Finally, she dropped her hand, turned, and walked away. At the door, she paused to look at me. “It’s a date,” she told me with a soft smile.
All I could think about was the first day in that café. The smile that lit on my face was to match.
Finally, she pulled the door open and slipped inside.
I wrapped my arms over my chest in an attempt to shield myself from the cold, my attention trained upstairs. Her light flicked on. Five seconds later, Elizabeth pressed her face to the window. She smiled this wistful smile and placed both hands against the glass.
I stood there with my hands shoved in my pockets, rocking back on my heels as I stared up at her. That spot inside expanded and I loved her a little more.
No one could ever come close to this girl, the way she made me feel, what she made me see. We belonged together.
I lifted a hand in a small wave. Her fingers curled on the window, and her expression filled with that same tenderness she had looked at me with for so long. I hoped she could see the same in mine.
The knock at my door jerked me to my feet. My thoughts raced everywhere, and my nerves only skyrocketed knowing who awaited me on the other side of the door.
I hurried across the room, sidestepping my purse. I’d dropped it in the middle of the floor when I came in last night and rushed to the window to catch another glimpse of Christian before he walked away.
I guessed I’d needed an affirmation. Something to prove what had just transpired between us had been real. And it was, there in his expression, the same thing I felt reflected back at me.
Of course, I’d known I was in love with him before, though the realization had gutted me. Rather than joy, I’d felt only pain, my feelings for him nothing more than a millstone around my neck.
But last night had changed everything and peering down at him had revealed something greater to me. Joy had firmly taken root in my heart as a future unfolded before my eyes, snapped into place like the jagged pieces of a puzzle, ones that didn’t seem to fit but always belonged together.
We’d been raised so differently. Maybe it was those differences that made us so perfect for each other.
I opened the door to Christian standing there with his hands shoved deep in his coat pockets.
That mass of hair on his head was mussed, framing his pretty face. A clean shave had erased any trace of the shadow that usually had set by this time of day.
It accentuated every sharp line and contour of his jaw. The curve of a gentle smile lifted one side of his mouth.
“Hey,” he said, his head tilting to the side. He drew his shoulders up as his face bled into a timid grin.
“Hey.” I could feel the flush make its way up my neck to tint my cheeks.
Being around Christian had never been easy. It’d always been a feat of wills, brute strength and iron-clad resolve. I’d become almost accustomed to it until I stood before him now.
With all of our reservations out of way, I felt like a different girl.
Blue eyes gleamed as they traveled along my face and kissed along the length of my body.
Thick laughter jutted from his throat as he took me in.
I bit back a smile as another rush of heat flared on my face.
This morning when I’d talked to him on the phone, he asked me to wear the same thing I’d worn to the party last Friday. I knew under his coat he’d be wearing the same tight black T-shirt, and that his dark jeans would be a taunting me from where they hung low on his hips
He wanted a redo.
I wanted one, too.
“Come here,” he said under his breath, one hand reaching out to beckon me forward.
I didn’t hesitate to nestle into his chest.
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