He runs his fingers up the center of my nose, over the arch of brows, ghosts them over the tips of my lashes and then finally he cups either side of my face.
“You’re so much more than I could have imagined, Regan. I…” His voice is strangled, his eyes full of desperation that makes me tremble. He opens and closes his mouth a few times before he seems to abandon the idea of speaking.
Instead with a groan that sounds like surrender, he swoops down and claims my lips in a searing kiss.
His magical mouth thrills me to the edges of my senses and sends my imagination scouring for a new word to describe what we’re doing.
Because to call this a kiss, is akin to calling pearl, sand. It may start that way, but when pressure, passion, and fate collide– simple, small things become extraordinary, fathomless treasures.
With every breath we share, we are creating something so priceless that we’d be fools to let it go.
I’m falling in love with him.
God help me. How could I be so stupid?
It’s only been a handful of days, but Stone Rivers has already made me feel more alive than I thought possible. I feel connected to the earth, grounded to the moment. When I look at the night sky, I don’t notice the dark. I just see an endless spray of brilliant, blazing possibilities.
We make love one last time. There’s a rhythm, a natural push and pull between us that is at once cadent and capricious.
We are wanton, wild, wicked and so fucking happy.
My lips may say this isn’t real.
But my heart beats with the secret truth…and there it shall have to stay.
Crash Landing
Regan
“Oh, dear Lord, I feel almost human again,” I groan and lever up to sitting.
I can’t quite meet the eye of the woman who just finished washing my hair. It felt so delicious that I closed my eyes for a few minutes and pretended she was Stone. I might have come if she hadn’t stopped right when she did.
“You’ve got such incredible hair. It’s like the wigs everyone wears; these curls are to die for.”
It’s not vanity that makes my eyes roll. It’s boredom. My hair is unique, but then…so is everyone else’s.
But I’ve learned that attempting to dissuade or explain my resistance to accepting compliments is far more painful than just saying thank you.
I hear a commotion from the front of the small salon. Never one to ignore a fracas, I leave the flabbergasted hairdresser and stroll out front to see what is happening. A very familiar blonde is arguing with the extremely discomposed young receptionist. It’s Hayes’ Rivers fiancé. Stone’s soon to be sister in law and the very last person I should want to see.
But she’s pregnant, and clearly in distress. The woman at the counter isn’t even looking at her anymore.
“Confidence?” She spins around, her eyes wild with panic before recognition flickers and then fades. She gives me an assessing once over and a confused frown mars her incredibly pretty face and then her jaw goes slack.
Her shocked expression makes me feel like I’m standing there naked.
“Regan Wilde? Wow, your hair... is amazing and…I’ve never seen you look so… young before,” she says after tripping on her words.
“Good to know I look like an old hag normally,” I say in a dry voice before I can stop myself. I forget that my RBF means that my jokes tend to go over not so well.
Her ocean blue eyes widen in horror and then, she laughs out loud.
Hmmm, that’s unexpected.
She puts a hand on my arm, “And you’re funny, too. You know what I mean, girl. You look like you’re sixteen years old. I can see your freckles. You’re stunning all the time, but right now, you look like you’re a sun goddess or something. I can tell you’ve had a great trip.”
Her congratulatory smile makes my stomach dip.
If only she knew. I wonder what she’d say if I told her that I drove a nail into the coffin of my oldest friendship. Before I spent four days fucking, feasting and finding my religion with a man who isn’t my husband, but seems to know me better than anyone else ever has. Oh, and I think I fell in love with him, but it doesn’t matter because there is no hope for us.
Since I can’t say any of that, I focus on trying to help her with whatever I just walked in on.