Say Hello, Kiss Goodbye - Jacquelyn Middleton Page 0,140

base of his hardness, slowly immersing its thickness inch…by…inch in her tight, wet heat. Tarquin let out a low gasp as he filled her. She closed her eyes, her lips parting with a moan of overdue pleasure. “Ten months…” she mumbled, her lashes peeling open.

Tarquin sucked in a measured breath and caressed the soft skin of her thighs. “You okay, love?”

“I’m great! So great.” She rolled her hips back and forth, the slow sensation of slippery friction pulling a groan from Tarquin’s throat.

She remembers what I like. She’s never forgotten. A surge of love and longing filled his heart as his finger circled soft and slow above her entrance. “Leia, if anything feels uncomfortable, we can stop.”

“Nope. Never stop! This feels SO amazing.” She shifted back slightly, chasing the perfect angle as she upped her pace, rolling and grinding, lifting and lowering.

Being inside her, hot and slick, sliding in and out, Tarquin praised luck, fate, karma—everything and anything that’d helped him find Leia again. Ten months, ten long months of blaming himself, of regretting his choice to lie about his feelings. Would things have been different if he hadn’t? He lifted his head, watching where they were so deliciously connected as tingles grew at the base of his spine, the pressure building and building as Leia bounced and gasped, her soft lips turned up at the corners, breaths ragged, her breasts glistening with perspiration.

She’s not talking. She’s close—but so am I. “Leia, go on,” he groaned, his mind hazy with only one thought. I don’t know how much longer I can hold on. “Win your dare!”

Swiveling her hips, she answered with breathy moans and a crinkle of her nose as she lost control and cried out, tumbling into ecstasy, her body’s internal spasms squeezing Tarquin tight.

I can’t wait another second. Tarquin let go, exploding inside her, each pulse shaking him to the core. Chasing breaths after her own climax, Leia gripped his hands, coaxing him through until the trembling subsided and he was completely spent.

I can literally see stars… fuck. His arms flopped down on the bed. Totally. Annihilated. Sex so good you want it with this one person, forever.

Leia leaned forward and pressed a soft, smiling kiss on the hard lines of chest. “I was gonna say I won, but let’s call it a draw.”

Still my Leia, still caring, still giving. He reached up, his hands tenderly cradling her flushed cheeks. God, I love her.

Time hadn’t changed a thing, not for Tarquin.

But what about Leia? They were a couple now, sharing, opening up, being more vulnerable and intimate than ever before.

Does she feel the same as me?

His eyes pored over her blissed-out grin, delightfully messy hair, swollen rosebud lips. In London you told me, ‘I want to love and be loved.’ Well, I’m all in. But are you? He brushed his thumb across her mouth, lips gently parted, breaths calming as she playfully bit his finger. Will your doubts and fears about relationships fade along with your orgasm?

Tarquin could only hope.

With a wistful smile, he slipped his hand into her hair as she swept a lost eyelash off his cheek. I haven’t said ‘I love you’ since New York. I desperately want to tell her again. Actually, I’m dying to shout it to the entire world! But she might feel pressured to say it back, and I don’t know if she’s there yet. I can’t risk scaring her off, not when it’s only been a week since we found each other again.

Leia giggled, her smile carefree and somewhat relieved. “We’ve still got it!”

“We never lost it,” Tarquin whispered breathlessly. God, I love this girl and how she makes me feel. My heart is all yours, Leia, and always will be.

Twenty-Nine

LEIA

“What do you say, Ava?” Fiona swept her eldest daughter’s red curls from her forehead.

“Thank you!” The five-year-old, sat between her mommy and Tarquin, clutched Paddington Bear and the Tessa Virtue doll to her chest, her blue eyes round as saucers and fixed on Leia.

Ava is cute as a button. She has Fiona’s elfin facial features and Rupert’s freckles. Leia grinned, tearing apart a crusty slice of warm baked bread covered with melting Orkney butter. “You’re so welcome! If you’d like, I can make Tessa some extra skating dresses?”

Ava blinked up at her mommy, checking if it was all right. Fiona returned her glass of red Bordeaux to the round farmhouse table and nodded. “It’s okay, Av.”

“Okay!” The little girl burst into a smile, her shyness easing as she brushed