Total pages in book: 122
Estimated words: 115997 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 580(@200wpm)___ 464(@250wpm)___ 387(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 115997 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 580(@200wpm)___ 464(@250wpm)___ 387(@300wpm)
“It’s not going to,” he promised, his fingers rolling my nipples. “Let go for me.”
I came apart, bliss flooding my body in wave after wave. I screamed into his pillow, my hands falling from the headboard as I went limp beneath him. Heaven. He was heaven, and I wanted more.
As soon as I could move, of course.
“Fuck,” he groaned, his hands sliding to my hips as he stroked into me slowly, coaxing that glowing ember of desire into another flame, this one hotter than the last. “You’re not close enough. I can never get close enough.”
He slipped his hands up over my breasts and lifted, pulling my back against his chest as he took me over and over and over.
I reached back, cupping the nape of his neck, and turned my head for his kiss. It was open mouthed, desperate, and messy as our sweat-slick bodies met again and again.
“You feel so right inside me.” My nails scraped the back of his neck.
“God, I love you.” He pushed deeper and I moaned. “I need to see you.”
He was only out of me for a matter of seconds before I found myself on my back, Nate hovering over me like the god of every fantasy I’d ever had. Bracing his weight on an elbow, he pushed back in, and I gasped at the fit, lifting my knees for an even better angle.
“There you are.” He cupped my face, staring into my eyes as he picked up the pace. “My Isabeau.”
I nodded, words escaping me as I arched for him, pressure building low within me again with every push and drag of his hips.
He was everything I’d ever wanted. “I love you,” I whispered, wrapping my arms around him.
The words seemed to snap whatever control he’d had, because his eyes darkened and the snaps of his hips came faster and his rhythm slipped into a frenzy. His muscles tensed beneath my fingers, and his hand fell from my face to reach between us.
He was close, the harsh lines of his face so very beautiful, that I couldn’t look away as he fought his climax.
“Your turn to let go,” I told him.
“You first.” His fingers stroked my clit and my body exploded, the second orgasm sweeping through me without warning, making me arch and writhe as he found his own release, shuddering above me as he thrust three more times, his eyes widening with that last one.
He fell against me, immediately rolling to his side and pulling me with him, holding me close and looking at me with what seemed like a mix of wonder and . . . resolve.
“Are you okay?” I asked, stroking my hand over his face as my breathing finally slowed.
“I’m supposed to be the one asking that.” He smiled.
Not a grin. Not a smirk. A real, heart-stopping smile.
“I couldn’t be better.” Leaning over, I kissed him softly, tears pricking my eyes. In a few hours I’d be on a plane back to the States. “I don’t know how to live without you, Nate. And I know that’s not what you want to hear right now. I tried. I really did. But existing isn’t the same as living.”
“I know.” He stopped my words with his mouth. “Fuck, do I know.”
I swallowed the knot in my throat. “What are we going to do?”
He tunneled his hand through my hair. “We’re going to get in the shower, and then I’m going to make you come a few more times, and then we’re going to face this day.”
No promises. No sweet vows. No plans past the sunset. After ten years, we’d walked right back into familiar territory.
He did exactly as he’d planned, making me come against his mouth in the shower, and then again with my back sliding across the water-slick tile as he buried himself inside me, taking me like he could hold us in this moment if he just fought hard enough for it.
But we’d barely wrapped towels around our bodies when someone pounded three times on the door.
“Stay in here,” Nate said, kissing my swollen lips quickly before walking out of the bathroom, then closing the door behind him.
I wiped the steam off the mirror and stared at the woman I found there.
Her cheeks were flushed, her eyes bright, and her neck slightly red with whisker burn. She looked like the version of me I liked best, the one who only existed when I was with Nate.
The bathroom door opened, and I tensed at the serious set of Nate’s mouth.
“What is it?” I spun toward him, fearing the worst. “Serena?”
He shook his head. “Get dressed. They’re at the city gates.”
My lips parted. “At Jalalabad?”
His jaw clenched. “No. They surrendered Jalalabad last night while we were sleeping. They’re here in Kabul.”
Oh shit.
CHAPTER THIRTY
NATHANIEL
Kabul, Afghanistan
August 2021
“That makes three hundred,” Elston said, closing the roof-access door behind us as the Chinook took off with another fifty evacuees from the embassy.