onto my back. My hair presses against the pillow and I gaze up at him with expectant, wide eyes. He looks down at me, searching every part of me. “You are so beautiful, love,” Ran whispers against my cheek, his mouth placing full, warm kisses across it. I lose all of my senses when he pins my earlobe between his teeth and I feel his ragged breath on my skin. I don’t know if it’s by accident that he calls me love, but it does something to me that makes me want to burst into tears.
I angle my neck into him and close my eyes as Ran lowers his body to me. The sheets tangle around us and he runs his hands up and down my arms, stroking from my fingertips up to my collarbone in soft, sweeping motions. My own fingers travel down the tight muscles of his back to his waist, and I tug his hips to me.
Releasing my earlobe, he slides his mouth back onto mine, just as I part my lips and a sigh escapes from within me. Ran’s tongue slips into my open mouth and glides along it, tenderly exploring every part of it. My body tenses, and I pull in a deep, chilled breath through my nose, and move my mouth and tongue in response to his guiding motions. It’s not the ravenous kiss I’m used to experiencing—the one where it’s all about getting something from the other person, about escalating things quickly to get to the inevitable point that is the destination and real reason for the obligatory kissing to begin with.
Kissing Ran is nothing like that. It’s not like this is some required action that will lead to what we’re really here for. Instead, it’s as though each second with his lips on mine is its own, mind-altering experience and not just a necessary step that leads to something else. But not that I don’t want it to. Just not now, not yet. I want to do things in the right order, because that’s how we work. That’s what Ran wanted, and I realize that’s exactly what I’ve always wanted, too. I want to do things right, and it wasn’t right to shut him out for the past six months. The way his lips hungrily, yet affectionately, pull at mine seems to indicate we’re making up for that lost time.
“Thank you,” Ran whispers, “for letting me back in, Maggie.” He closes his mouth over mine once more, and even though it’s the most delicate, light kiss possible, my fingers and toes tingle with desire.
I press a firm kiss to him in response and apologize, “I’m so sorry for shutting you out for so long.” Skimming my hand up his spine, I coil my fingers in his hair. “Thank you for not giving up on me.”
“I couldn’t give up,” Ran says as he leaves a kiss on the tip of my nose. “I have the right to love just as much as anyone else. I would have done anything in my power to get that back.” He flips onto his side and pulls me over to him, the length of our bodies pressing into the mattress. Ran reaches down for the covers that are twisted around our legs and draws them up to our shoulders so we’re tucked under them together. He’s warm and I’m feverish, but I press my cheek into his chest and he rests his chin on the top of my head, not minding the heat, but wanting more. “I had every intention of storming over here and demanding it back from you. You made it so hard these past six months. What changed tonight?”
“Nothing,” I say, shaking my head slightly. His eyes tighten like he’s trying to understand. “Nothing about you changed. Nothing about us changed.” I run my fingers over his chest, feeling his heart underneath their tips. It’s slow, methodic, and assuring. “We might have lost those two months, but we didn’t lose us.” I sigh into the fabric of his shirt. “I fell in love with you fast, and I fell in love with you forever. Even though that time was stolen from us, the way I love you never could be taken.” Ran tightens his arms around me and I glance up into his eyes and say, “I just hope you’re able to fall in love with me again as easily as you did before.” Guarding myself—just like I always do—I drop my head back