She looks up, startled for a moment, but the fire of hurt and then anger in her eyes flashes until it softens again.
Her lips trembling as much as her hands.
“It’s only been one day, Lucy. And I know I love you. Don’t let something as stupid as what you think you saw happen tear us apart before we even get together,” I tell her.
She points to my laptop on her bed, her head shaking in disbelief.
“Are you ashamed of me, is that it?” she chokes, making me frown as I shake my head.
“I don’t care if Marie and Eduardo ditched me, used my ticket to get close to you. What I care about is how you see me,” she sobs, explaining she read what I wrote on my computer before I move over and take her in my arms.
Glad only once I feel her buckle into me.
Once I tell her again that I love her.
“I don’t know what you think you read or saw, Lucy.” I gently explain to her.
“I could write a thousand things, most of them nothing more than fleeting thoughts. But when I decided I wanted to write about you, I had to know it wasn’t going to expose you. Upset you,” I tell her honestly.
I ask her point-blank if she wants me to describe her in every detail, or if she’d prefer I just stuck to the inspiration of the feeling she gives me.
“I meant it when I said you’re mine, and I’m gonna make you mine. I can’t wait another second.” I groan.
“But I’m never gonna share you with the world. Not like we do with each other. You’re mine, be my girl. For me only and I’m yours, forever,” I gasp, tasting her salty tears in my mouth until we’re both moaning with pleasure again.
Like we should.
Like I know we always will from now on.
No more tears.
Chapter Fifteen
Lucy
Seeing Marie and Eduardo isn’t what undoes me.
Well, it kind of is, but it’s more the fact I can’t get close to what I know I feel so much a part of inside me already.
If I’m Nathan’s, then why the hell am I here, struggling in line without a ticket, elbowing past people just in the hope he notices me?
It’s embarrassing him that worries me the most.
Making him feel ashamed of me instead of proud. Not want me like he did last night.
Last night when I should have given myself to him.
Now it feels like I’ve ruined everything. Like I’ve lost him to the crowd.
To people like Marie, no less. Fuckin’ Eduardo.
Jesus.
I decide it’s too much. Too hard and all my own fault as I turn away, heading back to the hotel entrance.
Packing my bag with the intention of just going home.
Starting my life over somehow, even though I know that’s impossible after last night.
My heart leaps when I hear him calling for me, his breathless figure filling the doorway, that intense look in his eyes.
But I feel angry still, insecure. Scared that I’ve lost him until he holds me again.
It makes everything clear in a moment.
The sensation of his huge, hard body against mine, the grip of his strong hands on me so tenderly, and those lips of his over mine once again.
I won’t leave, and I won’t let myself miss another chance to have him claim me.
It’s now or never. And never isn’t an option when it comes to my man.
“I should never have left you alone,” he murmurs, gripping me closer, telling me again that I’m his.
That he loves me.
He fucking loves me.
The only man who’s ever told me that is my dad, and it’s nice from him but in no way close to the way I know Nathan means it right now.
I want to ask him about the convention, tell him he needs to be there instead of chasing me.
This could ruin his reputation, his running out on a book signing without a good reason.
“What about the-?” I try to ask him, feeling my own body needing him more than any explanation or worry about his book conference.
Nathan only shakes his head slowly, reading my mind as he starts to undress me.
We both know now is our time. Now is the moment I want to give myself to him, heart, body, and soul.
Now is the moment he tells me how much he wants me and I echo it back to him as our bodies become enmeshed.
Savoring the experience of shedding his clothes and thrilling me as if it’s the first time I’ve ever seen him naked or felt his skin against mine.
There’s no soft light and the hotel room lamps from last night have given way to the open drapes and freshly made up bed I never slept in.
Nathan has nothing to be shy about. His body could be on the cover of any magazine any day of the week without any special effects.