If Forever Comes (2 page)

“You know what, Christian? I had faith in you.
You promised you’d never walk away from her again, and I believed
you. You promised to be there through thick and thin…” He vibrated,
seemed to try to calm himself as he ran a hand over his crop of
brown hair. “Well, this is the thin, and it fucking sucks. I know
that. And I know you’re hurting every bit as much as she is. But
this,
right now”—he jabbed his finger on the bar—“is when
that promise counts. Not when everything is going like you
planned.”

My attention dropped to my fingers where I had
a stranglehold on the half-empty glass. Harsh words dripped from my
mouth. “She doesn’t
want
me, Matthew. She made it clear
she’d rather die than let me touch her again. Believe me, if there
was any chance I could win her back, I’d take it. But there’s not.
Elizabeth already made her decision.”

“You fought so hard for her. Now look at you.”
He shook his head in disgust. “You’re a damned fool.”

He left me sitting there in my
misery.

I drained the last of my drink. Slumping over
on the bar, I buried my face in the crook of my elbow.

My head hurt. My heart hurt.

Everything just fucking hurt.

My eyes fluttered as my thoughts swam, and I
got lost somewhere between fantasy and reality.

Late December, Nine Months
Earlier

I clicked the door shut behind us and flicked
the lock. Elizabeth backed into the middle of the room, those warm
brown eyes never looking away from me. I rushed her, hungrily
palming her hips as my mouth descended on the sweetness of hers.
“I’ve been dying to get you alone all night,” I grumbled as I
jerked her against my body.

Elizabeth giggled, all throaty and warm. The
deep burr vibrated against my lips. It reminded me so much of all
those times I had her pinned against my apartment wall, back when
we’d wandered these same New York City streets when we were in
college. This woman I held in my arms felt so much like the
eighteen-year-old I’d held all those years before, back when our
bodies had explored, back when she’d grown from the innocent girl
I’d first met into this sexy woman who very nearly lived in my bed.
Back then she’d flirted and teased, had set me on fire, left me
begging for more.

And damn if it didn’t feel amazing to have her
back.

“Now that you have me alone, just what is it
you intend to do with me?” she teased, tugging at my
tie.

We’d been out to dinner to celebrate the new
life we were beginning. Lizzie had gotten all dressed up in the
most adorable dress, her black hair tied up in ribbons. And
Elizabeth… God, one look and she stole my breath. The city was in
the grip of winter, and she was wearing a belted sweater dress that
cinched around her narrow waist, flowing down to perfectly hug the
curve of her hips. It came to rest just above her knees. There,
just a strip of bare skin teased me before it gave way to black
high-heeled boots. My attention shot to the diamond ring that
danced on her finger. I still couldn’t believe she’d let me put it
there. God, I couldn’t wait to marry her.

“What
don’t
I intend to do with you
would be the better question,” I murmured, wrapping my palm around
the back of her neck, the other possessive at her waist. I kissed
her hard, devoured the shocked breath of air that slipped up her
throat, stroked my tongue across hers. I kissed her and kissed her
and kissed her because I was never going to stop.

Our suite bedroom had floor-to-ceiling windows
that faced the street far below us. Outside, the city glowed.
Winter bore down, and snowflakes fluttered toward the ground as
they were set free from the inky sky. Lights glimmered through the
haze, spilling a soft glow into our darkened room.

I pushed her up against the window. Elizabeth
grunted. She sagged against the expansive sheet of glass, the
perfect lines of her body silhouetted against the backdrop of the
city that seemed to echo my past, the memories so thick, they
seemed almost alive.

I took a step back and let my eyes wander over
the one who inhabited them all.

Gradually the lines of that beautiful face
came into focus, and for a moment, my gaze got lost in the amber
warmth of her soft brown eyes. Devotion pumped steadily through my
veins. I loved her. Loved her with everything, with my life, with
my soul.

And I was going to spend my entire life
proving it to her.

My actions were slow and deliberate as I knelt
down in front of her, watching the way her lips parted when I did.
I slipped my hands under the hem of her dress, ran them up the
softness of her thighs and around to cup her perfect, round bottom,
my fingers brushing lace and satin. Her dress was all bunched up on
my forearms as I hiked it around her hips. The long length of her
toned legs were exposed as she stood there trembling in her
boots.

“You have the sweetest ass, Elizabeth,” I
whispered as I burrowed my fingers into the delicate flesh. There
was no stopping the overwhelming rush of need that burned through
my system when I touched her this way. Flames licked at my skin and
pulsed heat into my veins.

Every single inch of my body
hardened.

“You always have,” I said as I stared up at
her. “Do you know that? The first time I saw you ten years ago in
that little cafe, all I could think about was finding out what you
had hidden underneath your clothes. And it’s perfection, Elizabeth.
Every inch of you is perfection.”

Elizabeth watched down on me with dark, hungry
eyes. Deliberately my hand slid around to her front. My tongue
darted out to wet my lips as I nudged her legs farther apart. I ran
my knuckles over the scrap of dampened lace between her
thighs.

Vibrations shook her, and she grasped my
shoulders for support. “Christian,” pushed from her lungs in a
quiet plea, her fingers desperate as they curled in my
shirt.

My name on her tongue sounded like
heaven.

I suppressed a pained groan and let my hands
trail back down her legs to the top of her boots. I sat back a
little, one knee on the floor and the other bent with my foot
planted in front of me. I brought her foot up to rest on my knee.
“I want you to remember this night, Elizabeth.” Slowly I dragged
the zipper down the inside of her leg to her ankle. The distinct
sound infiltrating the hush of the room slammed me with a shot of
lust, curled as the tightest knot in the pit of my stomach. I had
to will myself to keep it under control, to go slow, because I
wanted to savor this night. “I want you to forever remember the
first time I make love to you in the city where we started all
those years ago.”

I wanted this night to erase every bad memory
she harbored of this place while it took her back to the hundreds
of perfect nights we’d spent with our bodies tangled.

I wanted this to make a mark. An
impression.

I wanted it to make a promise.

I worked her boot free, watching her
expression as it dropped to the floor with a soft thunk.

Elizabeth emitted a tiny whimper, quivered
more.

Quietly I went to work on the
other.

Anticipation thickened the air around us, ours
breaths filling the room, heavy and hard. Both of our bodies
strained, knowing the pleasure that was to come. Elizabeth and I
had wasted so much time.
Too
much time. How many nights had
been pilfered away when we could have been wrapped up in each other
like we were going to be tonight? No more. I was finished
squandering away my chances, finished living my life as a
fool.

My life would be lived for her.

And I’d never get enough.

I edged back to take her in.

Barefooted, she squirmed in front of me, her
palms flattened against the window to hold herself up. Her
expression was dark, intense, needy…as needy as my own. Soft
fingertips came out to brush along my cheek, set me aflame as they
glanced across my lips.

“You are such a beautiful man,” she murmured
as a somber flash of emotion flitted over her face. “Inside and
out. Thank you for showing me. For making me finally see. For
helping me believe. I’d forgotten how to.”

With her adoring touch, a shiver rolled down
my spine, spun with my desire, wound with the devotion that filled
every crevice of my being. She was mine. But God, there was no
doubt that I belonged to her.

“I won’t ever let you forget again.” The
promise penetrated the heady air.

Steadily I pushed to my feet, my gaze locked
on hers, my intentions clear. I unbuckled her belt, let it fall
free before I fisted her dress and dragged it over her head. Waves
of her hair fell all around her delicate shoulders, her nearly
naked body like a beacon that called me home. I took her by the
hips and hoisted her up. She wrapped her long legs around my waist,
just as sure as the arms she wrapped around my neck. Her tiny body
burned into mine as she pressed herself to me.

My spirit sang.

With one arm secured around her waist, I
twisted the other hand through the thick locks of blonde that
shimmered in the faint glow of light cast in from the
window.

Elizabeth brushed her lips across mine, then
sucked at my bottom lip before she turned her attention to the top.
A greedy urge to consume her speared me when she swept her tongue
over mine in a slow, measured tease.

A growl rumbled in my chest, and I felt her
smiling against my mouth, all cute and smug.

My hold intensified as I carried her toward
the huge bed that rested in the middle of the room.

This girl was too much. One touch and she
managed to devour me whole.

But tonight, I would be the one doing the
devouring.

I dropped her onto the bed. She bounced on the
plush mattress, and that hoarse giggle from earlier made a
resurgence. A coy smile curved her perfect mouth as she stared up
at me.

“And just what do you think you’re laughing
about?” I warned, fighting the humor that threatened to work its
way into my tone. I stepped back and tugged at the knot in my tie.
I pulled it free, dropped it to the ground. I ticked through the
buttons on my shirt, one by one, while I matched her penetrating
gaze.

Sitting up on her elbows, she rubbed her
thighs together, watching as I peeled my shirt from my shoulders.
Her voice was all raspy. “I’m laughing because I can’t stop,
Christian. I can’t express what being with you means to me. I never
thought I’d feel this way again. How can I even begin to describe
how
good
I feel?”

I edged forward and placed my hands on her
knees. “Prepare yourself to feel like this night after night, day
after day, Elizabeth. I’m not ever going to stop loving you.” I
forced her legs apart. My attention went straight to her
lace-covered center. I dipped down and pressed my mouth to the thin
fabric, softly kissed her there. “Not ever going to stop touching
you.”

Elizabeth jerked. The muscles of her flat
belly rippled with the slow tremor that rolled through her body as
I flattened my tongue on the lace in a long, firm stroke. She
writhed. “Oh my God, Christian,” begged from her mouth.

Her smell, the sounds escaping her quivering
mouth, the need I felt radiating from her worked my body into a
slow frenzy.

I slipped off the bed, grabbed her by the
thighs, and tugged her to the very edge of the mattress. I wrapped
my fingers in her panties, and she lifted her legs in the most
delicious way, one foot pressed to my chest, the other to the top
of my thigh.

Fuck.

There were few words to describe her. I
couldn’t help but tell her the only one that sufficed. “Perfect.
You are absolutely perfect, Elizabeth. No one compares to you. No
one.”

It was her. Only her.

The only one there’d ever been.

I edged back and pulled her panties down the
length of her legs, tossing them aside.

Faster than I could make sense of it,
Elizabeth scrambled to her knees, the woman kneeling in front of me
wearing only the sexiest bra I’d ever seen in my life, all black
and lace and frill. The rest of that luscious body was exposed, her
skin smooth and kissed in honey, just begging for my
touch.