"No. Our timing was just off. Other people got in the way," I replied.
Quinn shook her head, her eyes sad for a moment. "She also brought us together and kept us together," she said.
"But you make me better," I said. I leaned over and kissed her cheek. "Thank you for always making me better."
"Even on Mars?" Quinn asked with a smile.
I nodded. "But especially here and now."
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Quinn
The game was interesting and I loved exploring the Mars scenery with Owen. I was bursting to tell him about my plans for the money I was earning. First, I wanted to see the worried furrow in the middle of his forehead ease. He was so wrapped up in his own problems that I was not sure the time was right.
"Watch out for t
hat crater," I said. We both pulled our avatars back sharply.
"Thanks, saving me again," he said.
"I don't know when you think I saved your life," I said.
"Right now. All I could think about was who might be setting me up and what would happen. All the hypotheticals were killing me," Owen said.
"So a little imaginary exploration of Mars was just the right thing?" I asked.
Owen smiled and wrapped an arm around me. "Maybe it’s more than just the Mars game," he said.
"Like what?" I paused my player.
Owen turned to me and opened his mouth to say something. Then, he shook his head. Instead, he tugged my shoulders closer and pressed a light kiss against my lips. I did not pull back. Wrapped up close next to him on the couch was exactly where I wanted to be.
"You're okay with this?" he asked. Another trio of gentle kisses brushed my lips.
"Okay with what?"
"I know it has to feel a little strange. I don't want you to think I'm taking advantage of you. Or using you to ease some guilt. Or, I don't know, whatever other people say about us," Owen said.
I hovered a half an inch from his face. "I don't want to think. I just want to feel because this feels right to me."
Owen tossed aside his controller and brought his other hand up to cup my cheek. This time his kiss was light but did not brush past. The heat built between our searching mouths. He tangled his hand in my hair and tipped my head back to deepen the kiss.
I could not get close enough to him. I turned from cuddling against his side to sitting astride his lap. Owen's arms wrapped around my back and pulled me closer. This time was different, the heat building slower. It seemed to radiate gently from my chest. My heart beat long, throbbing pulses against him. I worried that I knew what that meant.
"It feels right to me too," Owen said. "So, absolutely right and I waited too long."
I felt his hand push gently against my side, asking permission. I moved in the direction he suggested and lay down on the couch. For the longest time, we enjoyed the warm friction, our bodies rubbing together as the kisses grew longer.
Soon, I was breathless, breathing from him as our lips could not part. His hands were hot on my body as he explored all the places we pressed together. We were too warm, but not close enough, longing to hold each other connected.
Owen undressed me slowly, the magnetic pull of his gaze heating every inch of skin he bared. He let me pull his shirt over his hard shoulders, then he slipped free of his jeans. He brought his body against me slowly, the warmth touching me like sunlight. His agate-blue eyes held mine as we came together and our gaze did not break even as our bodies took over.
For all the pulsing desire, it was slow, as if Owen needed to savor every small sensation. The pressure of him, the anticipation, the wild longing soothed by the possessive look in his eyes, brought me to shattering before him. He drank up my shuddering cries, brushed my hair off my neck. I felt him whispering there as he rode my aftershocks, words he could not yet say out loud. Words I understood anyway, saying things that made my heart sing and my body surge around him again as he poured himself into me.
We lay for a long time afterwards without moving. His lips stopped their soundless words and instead, kissed the curve of my neck. My hands drifted up and down the contours of his back.
And we both held on to each other. Every throbbing beat of my heart was answered by his and neither of us moved away.