“Remember how I told you that after I had that dream about Alan and me, and how I was running to dinner and he was right behind me? Such a common, mundane memory, and yet when he spoke to me, there was so much love.” Another tear spilled down her cheek. “Or when I had that memory of playing hide-and-seek with Lynn, there was no fear. Nearly every second of my life must have been filled with happiness and trust and love.
“And then when I was here with you, I would think: How am I supposed to ever come to terms with the idea that I once was Addie Durand? I’m so different from her. I don’t trust. I don’t hope beyond the ordinary,” she said shakily, touching her breast. “And everything about you, everything about us, was so extraordinary.”
“Baby,” he muttered gruffly. Her struggle had become unbearable to witness.
“No, it’s okay,” she assured, her face turning luminous. Tears brimmed in her eyes now. “Because that’s when I realized.”
“What?”
“That every night I spent with you, every hour, every minute . . . Addie must have been with me. Because the truth is, I’ve never been so trusting. I’ve never felt so loved, than when I was with you. And you realized that all along, didn’t you? See . . .” She took a step toward him, her expression eager, like she was wild to make him understand. He felt like his heart was breaking a little, seeing her in that moment, bearing witness to her strength and her courage. “With Lynn and with Alan—with my mother and father—I only had those tiny glimpses of what it was like. But with you, I feel it all the time. Addie could trust, so I can. Do you see? Despite everything. Despite Kehoe, and Cunningham and Stout, despite being ripped away from my family and all of this—” She gestured around the stables. “Despite all the years
with Sissy, it’s not too late,” she said, reaching out and placing her hand on his chest.
He winced in pleasure at her simple touch. “If you don’t think it is, I mean,” she added after a moment, studying his face anxiously. “I’m sorry that I hurt you by leaving. I wish I could make you understand, Dylan.”
He reached and grabbed her hand. He pressed his mouth to the back of it. “I understand better than you think,” he said. “I knew you trusted, and I knew at the same time you doubted that trust.”
“I don’t doubt anymore,” she whispered, stepping closer. “That’s why I came.”
He touched her cheek, amazed all over again at how soft she was. How precious. For all those years, he’d sought her, and yet he’d really had no idea just how precious she was. He cradled her jaw.
“The ability to trust is granted only to those who are well loved,” he said gruffly. “That’s why I always said you should trust me. Because I don’t think anyone could be loved as much as I love you.”
He swooped down to capture his name on her tongue. Her taste and texture flooded him. So sweet. So familiar.
Ever new.
Without thinking, reacting purely on instinct, he lifted her in his arms and headed toward the closed office door.
SHE’D started to get used to it before being with Dylan; so many layered, complex, and yet inexplicable feelings mingled with single-minded sexual need. Now as she experienced it again in that moment in the stables, Alice was able to put a name to what had happened to her . . . what still was. It was love and a deep, enduring connection, a bond that was too mysterious to dissect.
Her hands outlined his hard chest and shoulders with lust. With reverence. He tasted so good. She pressed closer to him, so hungry to fill her senses with him. Had she been out of her mind to deprive herself of this? She moved her hips in a tight circle, feeling his arousal mount. He groaned, rough and deep, his arms tightening around her.
He lifted her against him and they began to move. A thrill went through her. She’d always loved his strength and his dominance during lovemaking. Even their first time, here in these stables, he’d positioned and taken her with a single-minded focus that had left her stunned and intensely aroused.
Addicted.
Once they’d entered the office, Dylan tore his mouth from hers in order to slam the door and flip the lock. He turned back to her, his heavy-lidded gaze lowering over her flushed face in a way that made her crane up to taste him again. He placed his hand on her shoulder.
“Maybe we should go up to the house and do this right,” he said, even if the way he was staring at her mouth with a slight snarl on his lips was making it clear it was a halfhearted offer.
She shook her head. “You always do me right. I don’t need candles and violins right now. I just need you,” she said, tearing at the first buttons of his shirt. She unfastened them to just above his bellybutton, shoved open the plackets and pressed her face against his skin, inhaling him. Tasting him. She ran the edge of her teeth along his side and felt his skin roughen with the tip of her tongue.
“You’re always such a greedy little thing,” he growled. She heard the edge in his tone, the evidence of the savage in him that she loved. To show him how accurate he was, she bit at a dense, succulent pectoral muscle and slicked her tongue over a small dark brown nipple, making it stiffen. He groaned and sunk his fingers in her hair. His skin roughened beneath her lips and seeking fingers. Applying a slight pressure on her head, he moved her over his chest and ribs, down onto his ridged abdomen. She lost herself in the glory of him, kissing and licking and using her teeth until she’d hear that growl in his throat, the one that both told her how much he liked her caresses, and was a thrilling warning, too.
Their desire pulsated around them, encapsulating them in their own small world. She was unoffended and eager when he urged her lower, her fingers sinking beneath the waistband of his jeans. He steadied her as she sunk to her knees before him. Then she was jerking at his button fly, her excitement mounting at the sensation of his cock pressing against the denim. Unable to wait, she pressed her hand along the length of it. She moaned, made feverish at the feeling. She sunk her head and clamped the column of it between her upper and lower teeth and twisted her head slightly. He groaned and pressed her head to him tighter. His jeans protected him from the rough edge of her teeth. She stimulated him like that for a moment. He seemed to appreciate the sharp pressure, groaning roughly in pleasure. But like her, he was impatient. He lifted her head and hauled down his jeans and underwear.
Her mouth parted as she watched him fist his erection from below and stroke his rigid length. He looked so beautiful. She made a choked, desperate sound in her throat as his scent pervaded her nose. She craned for him.
“I know, baby,” he rasped, tightening his fingers in her hair into a gentle hold. “I missed you, too.” He stepped forward slightly. Sensing what he wanted, she kept her mouth parted while he pressed the smooth, warm tip of his cock around the circle of her lips. Then he caressed her cheek with it. She looked up at him as he stroked her, helpless in her desire. His nostrils flared slightly as he looked down at her.
“You’re so beautiful,” he said.
“So are you,” she whispered, turning her chin and licking the succulent head of his cock. She waggled her tongue. He let his hand drop. His firm, heavy erection bobbed in the air under the influence of her tongue. She looked up and met his stare while she played with him, licking just the head and making his cock twitch.
He made a rough sound in his throat, palmed his cock and her jaw at once.
“Always pushing it, aren’t you?” he asked thickly. He pushed his cock between her lips, stretching them to make way for his girth. Their gazes held as he slid onto her tongue and slowly filled her mouth. Made bold by the depth and expression of her feelings, she ducked her head forward and took him deep, recovering from the daring stroke as she sucked and pulled her mouth back on his length.