Chapter 29
Destiny
“If you’re going to bite off more than you can chew, make sure it’s worth the calories.”
~ Grandma Dixie
Lights flashed behind my eyelids like I was Angelina Jolie on the red carpet as my body recovered from my insanely explosive orgasm. JJ’s mouth, his touch, and his kiss sent me soaring to places I’d never even known existed. It was like he shot me to another dimension; one in which only the two of us existed.
I slowly gained awareness as tremors of aftershocks rushed through me. I opened my eyes and found JJ hovering above me. His hand was between us, clutching his length as he ran his engorged head up and down my still-pulsing slit. The sensation was almost enough to put me up and over the edge again. A delicious shot of bliss spread through me as I stared up into his eyes.
“I love you,” he whispered huskily as he rested his forehead against mine.
Tears threatened as I opened my mouth to reciprocate his statement of love. Before I spoke one word, though, my voice was stolen from me as JJ pushed his engorged tip between my tight folds. A silent cry was all I was able to express in return. Needing him like my anchor in the storm, my arms flew around his neck clutching him as my inner walls pulsed around his erotic intrusion.
“I love you,” he repeated again and again as he sank into me with excruciating restraint.
My entire being glowed with fevered desire as he filled me millimeter by millimeter in complete and total control of my body. Every time he fed himself into me, my body stretched and seized with pleasure.
I lost all track of time as he whispered declarations of love against my mouth as he sank into me. I was only aware of the all-consuming feeling of him filling me completely, the weight of his body on top of mine, and the brush of his lips as he repeated the three words I’d waited my entire life to hear him say.
JJ Briggs loved me. Was making love to me.
This moment was not what I’d expected when I’d shown up at his door this morning. I’d prepared myself for him to tell me that he just wanted to keep things casual. It wasn’t that I’d doubted that JJ cared about me—I had known he did. But, like he’d pointed out, he’d never had a girlfriend. I’d never seen him in a relationship, and last night, I’d decided that, even though I loved spending time with him—all of my time with him—there was no way I could keep doing it and not end up demolished by my unrequited feelings.
He’d broken my heart when I was eighteen. And then again when he’d disappeared after the Fourth. But, now, every second I spent with him, I fell further and further down the rabbit hole into Love Wonderland, and I if I’d continued free-falling, I would’ve been destroyed when I’d landed.
Thankfully, I wasn’t the only one who had fallen, and JJ had been there to catch me.
He stilled above me, and I lifted my eyes so I could look at him. My inner walls flexed around his rock-hard length.
“You’re mine. I love you,” he rasped as his hands cradled my face. Between soft kisses he peppered along my jaw, my cheeks, and my forehead, he alternated saying that he loved me and I was his.
“Tell me,” he demanded as his body swelled inside me, stretching me to capacity.
“I love you,” I somehow managed to say despite my throat’s being clogged with an overwhelming onslaught of emotion.
“Tell me that you’re mine,” he gritted out.
“I’m yours.” The tears I’d been holding at bay now fell over my lids. “I’m yours. Forever.”
A primal groan ripped through his chest and vibrated against my own. Then he covered my mouth in a soul-stealing kiss. Losing myself completely in the feeling of his soft, velvety tongue exploring mine, I luxuriated in the tantalizing taste of myself on his tongue and his lips. Arousal spiked in me at the thought of all the wickedly wonderful things he did with that mouth when he was between my thighs. Instead of embarrassing me, it enflamed the heat of desire raging inside me.
Every time JJ touched me, looked at me, or kissed me, I felt empowered. Wanted. Worshipped. It wasn’t something I was used to.
When he stood before me, gloriously naked, with a raging hard-on that I’d caused, I’d felt bold. Like I had an inner seductress only he saw, or who only showed herself to him. The same feeling crashed into me as my body adjusted to his growing arousal during our sex-flavored kiss.
I tried to absorb every second of our encounter, to memorize it so I would only have to close my eyes to be transported back to this moment. All the passion, all the love, and even all the frustration I’d felt for JJ over the years were coursing through every cell of my body. Its power heightened with each kiss and each word JJ spoke. It was like I was floating, like I was having an out-of-body experience.
When he broke our kiss, he rose up to rest on his forearms, framing my face. Then he began thrusting slowly, methodically, in and out. In no time at all, my inner walls clenched, squeezing him as a now familiar feeling curled low in my belly. Wanting all of him, I wrapped my legs around his waist as my hands gripped the wide, muscular planes of his back and held him as close to me as possible.
My hips tilted up to meet each one of his possessive thrusts, and just as I reached my crest, JJ kissed me, swallowing my cries of ecstasy as he took me up and over the edge of oblivion.
His back stiffened under my fingers digging into his muscular shoulder blades at the exact moment of my own blinding release. My entire body shuddered. My inner walls milked him as I rode out the wonderfully earth-shattering waves of my climax. Each rhythmic convulsion was filled with increasing, almost-intolerable pleasure.
When my legs relaxed, flopping down to the bed out of sheer, sated exhaustion, I was happy that JJ stayed exactly where he was. I loved the feeling of being so intimately connected to him, and I knew that, the second he was gone, my body would feel hollow and empty. We couldn’t have stayed like that forever, but I would gladly take a few more moments.
The warmth of JJ’s breath spread down the sensitive skin below my ear as I tightened my hold around him and nuzzled even farther into the crook of his neck. His fingers were gently massaging the base of my scalp as he cradled my head. A moment ago, I would have said that sex with JJ was my absolutely favorite thing in the world, but now, my answer had changed to this. In his arms I was safe, treasured, protected. Completely cocooned in his love.
A loud knock sounded at the door, shattering the bubble I’d have happily floated in for the rest of my life.
JJ sighed as he gingerly rose off the bed. I couldn’t keep my eyes off his powerful body as he threw on a pair of basketball shorts and a T-shirt. How could getting dressed be so sexy?
“I’ll be right back,” he promised after giving me a quick kiss.
I nodded.
When he paused at the doorway and peered over his shoulder, he smiled. “I love you.”
“I love you too.”
Joy did not even come close to expressing what hearing those words, and being able to say them to JJ, filled me with.
“Just so you know,” he said, “you’re going to be hearing me say that a lot. I waited too damn long, and I plan on making up for lost time.”
I was pretty sure the smile spanning from ear to ear was broadcasting in high def how I felt, but just in case, I figured I would make sure there wasn’t any doubt. “I’m good with that.”
The knock came again, and JJ disappeared down the hall. When I heard his brothers’ voices coming from the front room, I knew that our stolen moment was now over. I couldn’t make out what they were saying, but it was something about people waiting for him and being late for his own party.
As sad as I was that life had cut in on us, I was more excited than I’d ever been that I’d finally found my soul’s dance partner. JJ was mine. I was his. That’s all that mattered.