A smile played at the corners of my mouth. “You kept up with me move for move.”
She shrugged and turned, walking out onto my private balcony. “I’m a little out of practice, but sometimes it feels like I never left.”
I followed her out, glad that the partitions gave us complete privacy. The humid breeze licked at me as the sun set behind her, illuminating her skin in a warm glow. “I get that,” I said, standing next to her. “There are moments when it feels like nothing’s changed, like we’re on some altered timeline.”
She turned toward me, bracing her back and hands on the railing before hoisting herself to sit on the thick metal barrier. My heart caught even as she wrapped her ankles in the framework to steady herself. It was a long way straight down. “And the others?” she asked.
I stepped between her spaced thighs and put my hands on her hips. Just the simple pleasure of having her under my fingertips sent my heart into irregular beats. God, I’d missed the feel of this woman. “The other moments it feels like I’ve been drowning for years, and I can just now breathe again.”
“Landon,” she whispered, her hands tightening on the rails even though I was right here to hold on to.
“I’m not going anywhere. If I have to tell you that a million times before you’ll believe me, then I’ll do just that. You and me—we’re our own little infinity. Our forever is wrapped up in everything that’s between us.”
She let go of the railing and ran her hands up over her hair in frustration. My fingers dug into her hips to keep her safe.
Her head tilted, and her eyes danced in playfulness. “Why, Landon…does it scare you that I’m up on this big railing?” she asked, looking over her shoulder at the water ten stories below.
Of course it bothered me. One move and she’d break her damn neck. But that was never going to happen while I had her.
“Not when I’ve got you. You can let go any time you like; I’ll never let you fall.”
A quick flash in her eyes told me more than her lips ever could have—you did once—but she quickly forced it back. She was struggling, and I couldn’t blame her, couldn’t get angry, couldn’t expect her to open her arms wide and trust me. I had to repair every crack I’d put into her and pray her faith in me would return.
“You’ve got me?” she whispered, leaning slightly backward.
I swallowed the urge to yell at her not to do that, and instead moved my hands slightly to slip my thumbs through her belt loops and gain a more secure grip on her ass. “You always have to push that line, don’t you?” I asked, throwing her earlier words back at her.
“I learned from the best,” she said with a smirk.
Damn it, I wanted her. There was a sharp edge to Rachel that I’d searched the world over for, just to realize it only existed in her. That edge turned me on, pushed me further, held me tighter, drove me insane with the need to tame the one woman I’d never been able to fully claim.
If she needed to dangle over the edge of danger, I was more than happy to hold her there. She stretched her arms above her head and smiled, but kept her ankles locked around the railing. I’d take semitrust any day.
She slowly lowered her arms until her hands ran through my hair, her nails gently scraping my scalp in the way she knew I loved. Then her gaze dropped to my lips and hers parted.
Make the move, Rachel. It’s your turn.
She stared at me so long, so hot, that I was ready to combust, but I wasn’t going to cross the line—not when she thought sex was all I wanted.
Then she pounced.
Thank God.
Her mouth slanted over mine, and I was done for. The rest of the world could have been on fire and I wouldn’t have noticed, not when I had Rachel in my arms.
I let her control it, gave her the power I knew she wanted as she gently sucked my lower lip between hers. Her hair fell around us, hiding us from the world and enveloping us in the scent I knew would always trigger me for sex.
She slipped her tongue into my mouth, rubbing against mine, and that was the end of her control. A sound like a growl erupted from me, and I pulled her down off the railing just so I could press her against it. One of my hands tunneled in her hair while the other flexed on her hip. She was so damn tiny, but my body curled around hers as if it remembered exactly what to do—exactly how she needed to be kissed.
She opened fully under me, and I sank into her, stroking the roof of her mouth, savoring every tiny sound she made and returning to whatever would have her make it again.
She kissed me back as if she’d been just as starved for it as I was, arching against me, pressing her soft breasts against my chest, and I was instantly as hard as the railing behind her. I kissed her like she was the oxygen I’d been missing, breathing in everything about her until my heartbeat finally steadied, then slammed.
The world didn’t tilt off its axis—it finally came back to normal, as if everything had been out of whack until this very moment.
I didn’t hold myself back like I did with those small kisses in Nepal. I let her know exactly how badly I wanted her. She gasped when my hand slid north, skimming the soft skin under her halter top. Her stomach quivered with her shaky inhale of breath, but she never stopped, only tightened her grip in my hair.
Fuck, I could kiss this woman every minute for the rest of my life. Kissing her didn’t only involve my mouth; she awakened every nerve in my body, not just the ones she touched.
My thumb stroked higher, coming just under her bra, and she pushed forward. I rode the line between absolute pleasure and supreme need, my body remembering all too well how perfect it felt to be inside her, the way she came apart under my hands and dragged me with her.