Skyla’s perfect round ass stares at me, her back dipped, her hair wild and free over her shoulders, and I want to stop all of time and encapsulate this moment, memorize it, make it replay on a loop like a screensaver as soon as I hit paradise because God knows the only real paradise is right here with Skyla.
“Did you forget about me?” She lowers herself onto her elbows and turns her head, her features lost in the shadows with just enough of the flames dancing over them to make me dizzy with lust.
I straddle her from behind—breathless—too far gone in an erotic daze to even think of utilizing my vocal cords for anything that resembles the English language. I carefully press my body into her, and she arches back. Her vertebrae dip. Her hair sweeps to her ass, and I snatch up a handful and run it through my fingers, smooth as butter.
“That feels good,” she moans like a dove.
“I want it to.” I grab ahold of her hips and dig my fingers into her soft, creamy flesh. “Let me know if I’m hurting you.” I press in and out, easy the first few times, enjoying the tight glove of her body over mine, then thrust into her hard as hell because I’ve lost all control. Skyla gives a few heated breaths like she’s enjoying it, and I hope to hell she is because I can’t stop. I can’t even think of slowing down. My heart races like a horse out the gate, my adrenaline surges to lethal levels, and I feel like I’m about to pass out from the pleasure of it all.
“Shit,” I pull her in tight and tremble over her back relentlessly hard with an intensity I hadn’t thought possible. Out there in the world, the gears were still grinding toward the future, one that I would never have, but with Skyla, but this moment, this night everything is suddenly enough. I give a soft tap to her thigh, and she collapses forward. Skyla turns as I land on top of her, drenched in a heated sweat. “You okay?” I kiss her temple and taste the salt from her skin—salty and sweet, vanilla and spice. I trace my finger to the soft hair at the base of her body, and now I want to taste all of her, memorize every texture and flavor over my tongue.
A tiny smile tugs at her lips. “You going to keep asking if I’m okay, all night?” She pulls me in by the back of the neck and pecks a kiss on my lips.
A dull laugh rattles from me. “Okay, I won’t ask anymore, but if I’m hurting you, I want to know.”
A wicked gleam lights up in her eyes. “Maybe I want you to hurt me.”
“Please”—I shake my head—“I’ll feel like crap if I hurt you in any way, shape, or form. Feel free to get even if I do.”
She leans in and takes a generous bite out of my shoulder, and I groan because for one, it hurt like shit, and two, I kind of liked it.
“I was thinking more like this.” I graze my teeth over her neck, down across her chest, tugging at each of her nipples in turn between my teeth, then lower still to her stomach before twirling my tongue in her belly button.
“Logan,” she moans.
I move my grazing efforts south and gently kiss the curls at the base of her hips before opening her knees with my hands. Nirvana awaits. A lopsided grin perks on my lips as I gaze out at this foreign landscape. I’ve dreamt of it, imagined it, and here she is, open wide like the wings of a dove. Skyla’s body is stretched taut, toying with my sanity, stretching it to the limit right along with her.
“Whoa, where you going?” She pulls me up beside her, using her Celestra strength to do it, and I tighten my jaw in disappointment.
“You don’t play fair.” I touch a finger to her nose before tracing out her features.
“Yeah, well, I’m filthy, and sweaty, and all around gross.”
Her hair floats around her face like gold floss, like a halo, and she’s anything but gross.
“Really?” I bow down and run my tongue up her neck straight to her jawline. “You taste like sugar to me.”
“You’re supposed to say that”—she pulls me in by the small of my back until we’re fused together at the chest—“you’re my husband.” Her expression softens. “That felt good to say.”
“You’re my wife.” My chest loosens. “That felt amazing to say.”
“I think you’re amazing.” She runs her fingers through my hair never taking her eyes off mine.
“I think you’re amazing.” I scoop her into my arms and start heading across the room.
“Where we going?” Her feet scissor in the air, and she looks cute as hell with the anticipation in her eyes.
“Rumor has it you’re filthy, and sweaty, and all around gross.”
“Hey.” She swats me over the chest.
“I’m just repeating what I heard.” I walk us into the gargantuan bathroom that could easily fit the entire Oliver living room inside it.
I take a step into the tub, and the water is warmer than it was when we first arrived. Probably Dudley’s tears. The thought of me having Skyla must be killing him, but I’m not too sorry. I’ll cry my own river later—drown the whole damn world in the process.
“Logan!” She cries as I lower her into the bath with me.
I lie down, and she molds on top of me, the look of wonder ripe on her face.
“How did you know the water would still be warm?”
“It’s a supernatural event.” I land a kiss over her temple. “Everything has to be just right.” The universe owes me that much.
“You and I are finally together, so that means everything is right.” She lays her head over my shoulder, and I smooth my hands up and down her back as the rose petals swim across the surface.
“You know what I was thinking while I was buried deep inside you?” I run my lips over the top of her head.
“How much you were craving pizza?”
I tickle her ribs. “Nope. That you were worth the wait.”
“Thanks, but I still think we should have been doing this the whole time. I could have snuck you into the butterfly room and turned it into our love shack.” Her chest compresses with a sigh. “You’re right, though. The buildup was incredible.” Her arms tighten around me.
The best things in life are worth waiting for they say, and now, in death, I’ll be living that reality as well. I’ll be waiting in paradise, like a lovesick puppy, until the day Skyla comes home to join me.
I swallow hard because that buildup will be a hell of a lot longer—Skyla’s entire life. By then she would have loved Gage in this exact same manner, and a brick settles in my chest just thinking about it.
I hold my thoughts up like a steel wall then revert to thinking about every happy time I’ve ever had with Skyla. I let down my defenses, and soon she’s joining in on the walk down memory lane. We share our thoughts until they merge as one. We relive every one of Ellis’s damn parties, all those hours we logged together at the bowling alley, those stolen moments we spent as boyfriend and girlfriend those first few months. Those were the golden days, and they were all too fleeting.
“You know”—she hikes up on her elbows and lands those star-filled eyes over mine—“I just had this strange feeling.” She shakes her head. “I swear to you, Logan, something in me knows, without a shadow of a doubt, that we’ll be making new memories, beyond these walls, beyond these three days, somewhere out there—at home, on Paragon.”
My heart swells just hearing those words before plummeting just as fast. Skyla doesn’t have the gift of knowing. But it’s a nice sentiment—false hope always is.
“I’m getting stronger,” she whispers with a hint of defiance. “Things are changing, Logan. I know things. You need to believe me. We happened. This isn’t over.”
“This isn’t over by a long shot.” I steady my eyes over hers like a dare. There’s not one part of me that believes this will ever be over no matter how many dimensions we need to crawl through to find one another.
I pull her out of the tub with me and dry her off, inch by inch, before running the towel over my body. I scoop her right back into my arms and carry her to the bed with me. I wonder if this is what it would be like living out a full marriage with Skyla—the two of us b
athing, me carrying her to bed with my body eager to please.
Skyla gives a soft groan as she sinks into the mattress. “This has to be the most comfortable bed in history.”
“It probably is.” Knowing Dudley, a thousand perfect mattresses were pieced together just to make this one. As much as I can’t stand him, I won’t deny the fact he cares for Skyla.
I curl up beside her and warm her body with mine.
Skyla glides her back into my chest until we’re spooning, and I can feel her body relax as if she’s waited for exactly this before surrendering to sleep. But sleep is nowhere near the agenda.
I kiss her cheek. “You up for round three?”
She spins into me with a laugh in her throat. “You are insatiable.”
“Yeah, well”—I dive into her with my lips—“you make me that way.” I trail a string of kisses across her chest. “I think this time it should be all about you.” Every moment since we’ve met, the focus of my world has been on Skyla, and it makes me want to give her this even more. I was offering my tongue up as a simple act of worship. I want nothing more than to lay my love for her down on the altar.
“Sounds perfectly greedy of me.”
“Trust me, it’s my pleasure to serve.” I slide my way down her body and pull her legs over my shoulders. Her feet cross over my back, and I drink down the sensation.
“Logan wait,” she gives it in a heated whisper. Her hand trembles as she tries to pull me away, but I interlace our fingers and give a warm squeeze, assuring her I’m right where I want to be.
I tuck a kiss between her legs in that sweet spot before she can protest, and her head snaps back to the pillow.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” The words vibrate through her like a song.
“No—I’m positive.” I give the hint of a wicked grin before bowing into her body and landing my mouth right where it’s wanted to be for so damn long. A groan rips from my throat as I take in her metallic sugar. My tongue runs a lap over her slippery flesh, taking in her wetness. I push in with slow, meandering kisses, sucking her folds between my lips and lounge there just rolling my tongue over her gentle as hell. Skyla tastes like honey, delicate, soft and sweet as powdered sugar. I’m pretty sure I’ll die content now. If I were drawn up to paradise right at this moment, I’d have a satisfied smile on my face as I entered those pearly gates.
My testosterone surges. It bows to her estrogen as Skyla consumes me in this sweet fire. As horrifically shallow as it sounds, this is the icing I waited for. Skyla has a way of reducing me to the most primitive form of life, and the only real goals I had for myself were being met right here in this bed. It’s a truth buried in most males, their biggest desires, the highlights of their beings are often met between the legs of a beautiful woman. But Skyla isn’t simply some beautiful woman. She’s my everything—my soul mate. We are one giant heart, built for two.
I continue to love Skyla that way for a good long while before working her into a frenzy with the heated lashes from my tongue. Her knees sway over my back, anxious and hard as her breathing picks up pace. I ride up and down until she gives everything she’s got in one heated cry that whips around the room like a siren. Her body quakes and jolts. But I keep at my viral assault until she pushes her hand over the top of my head and lands me near the footboard.
“Logan.” Skyla pulls me up until I’m holding her again. She’s shivering, so I pull the blanket over us, and we fall asleep—happy as hell, if only for a little while.
In the morning a seam of intrusive light cuts through the windows, and I pull Skyla in close before burying a kiss in her neck.
“Morning sunshine,” I whisper, soaking in the moment. Here we are, husband and wife in this temporal window of time. This is what it would be like waking up with Skyla in my arms, day after day.
Skyla turns over with a grin blooming on her face before she ever opens her eyes. Her hair is rumpled, her mascara smudged, and my stomach drops because just when I didn’t think she could any more gorgeous, she does. A twinge of sadness pinches in my gut because I wish to God I could witness this every single day for the rest of her life, God knows mine is over.
Her lids flutter until her crystalline eyes focus on mine. “I love you.”
I brush my finger over her cheek, and a smile tugs at my lips. “You beat me to it. I love you, too, princess.”
“I think we should start every day with those words.”
I lean in and kiss her. “I agree.”
Her eyes widen as if she caught herself. “I’m sorry.” She gets up on her elbow, her features soften as if she had caused a real malfeasance.
“It’s fine. I know what you meant.” I nuzzle my face in her neck a moment. “I’m going to hop in the shower a second. I’ll be right out.”
“I’ll make us breakfast.” Her milk white teeth graze her bottom lip.
“You’re going to make us breakfast?” I’m pleasantly surprised, but I doubt we have a kitchen.
“There’s a minibar, and I bet there’s a pack of M&M’s with our names on it.”
“Mr. and Mrs. Oliver?” I give her a quick tickle to the side.
“Mr. and Mrs. Oliver,” she says it a hell of a lot sweeter, dreamier than I ever could have, and it sounds a million times better sailing from her lips.
I’m just thankful I get to be the Oliver.
I jump out of bed and take the world’s quickest shower, rinse some mouthwash through my teeth before heading back.
Skyla lies over the bed with all of the drama of the most beautiful woman in the world—because she is. A sly smile perks on her lips as she glances at the colorful candy laid out in the shape of heart over her stomach.
“Breakfast is served,” she purrs.
“You hide any of those in a secret location?” I raise a brow, carefully landing beside her before swiping one off her belly with my lips.
“That’s for me to know and you to find out.”
“You know what I don’t think is fair about this?” I glance down at the faltering arrangement.
“That there aren’t enough green ones?” She bats those lashes at me, and I’m about to lose it. Skyla had me going with that dreamy smile on her face as she struggled to wake up this morning. I wanted her then, and I want her twice as bad now.
“That and the fact your mouth can’t reach them.” I take a blue one up by my teeth and present it directly into her mouth like an offering. Skyla pulls me in by the back of the neck and swipes the candy right off her stomach. She glides under me while working me to life with her hand until we’re lost in a sea of delirium that can only be satisfied in the most amazing fucking manner.
Skyla slides down and plants sporadic kisses across my chest. She creates small circles over me with her hands, and I melt into the bed, just enjoying the ride. Her mouth finds my hard-on and I lurch because, in all honesty, I never saw it coming.
“Shit,” I whisper, digging my hands in her hair.
Skyla rides me up and down with her lips before taking me into her mouth and driving home the point she for damn sure knows how to get me going. I try to focus in on Skyla, her tongue, her sweet mouth over my body. Heaven can’t be that great unless Skyla is there with me doing exactly this. My body electrifies, it hums like a motor as Skyla works me like a fucking vixen. It takes far less time than usual for me to let out a roar that rips from my lungs like a hurricane.
“Fuck.” I pull back and spare her the trauma of spilling into her mouth.
She glides up next to me, purring with pride.
“Where’d you learn how to do that?” I pant it out without thinking. “On second thought, don’t answer.”
“I learned how to do it right here.” She taps over my skull. “I was listening in on how you were feeling, and when you were enjoying it I went with it. You taught me Logan.” A dimple buries itself in her cheek.
I land a kiss on her forehead. “I love it. You’re a genius, you know that?” I pick up an M&M and feed it to he
r. “Get your strength up. I have a feeling we’re about to engage in the world’s most intense lovemaking session in the history of time. What could be better than two Celestra?”
“Two near perfect Celestra.” She takes a bite out of my ear.
“We are perfect Skyla—with or without our bloodlines.”
Our lips find one another, and I cringe for a moment because I know where her mouth has been, but the chocolate has washed away all of the transgressions, and Skyla is delicious as ever. Our tongues engage in a lengthy, sweeping battle that drives home the point we’ve got nowhere to go and all day to get there. I try to hold up the wall again, but my thoughts are seeping through, and, unfortunately for the both of us, they’re littered with my fears of what’s to come—namely a life without Skyla.
I’ll always be yours. She inhales sharply while pushing in hard against my lips. Her kisses diminish with intensity, and we lounge in one another’s mouths as if this were the best form of relaxation.
I’ll always be yours, Skyla. But just because I’m leaving doesn’t mean you need to emotionally check out. I want you to live. Live out loud. Live for me, too. Go off like a bomb in this world because you’re living so damn loud. You’re going to set the world on fire. I already know that.
Can you imagine a future with me? She pulls back and settles her eyes over mine.
I stroke her cheek with the back of my finger. “That’s the only future I can imagine.”
“Me, too.” A network of crimson lines explode in her eyes. “This is going to be all right, Logan. You have to believe me.”
It’s pretty hard to believe this is going to be all right. “Okay.” I take in a breath. “If you believe it, then so do I.”
“Pinky swear?” She holds out her little finger, and I latch mine over hers.
“Pinky swear.” I reel her in by the hand. Paradise has waited for me since my infancy, and I’m not in the least bit of a hurry to get there. “How about we shake on it in a far more intimate way.” I pull her over until her naked body covers mine and savor the warmth she’s giving off with her flesh. I’m all about believing—of doing more of this, more of anything with Skyla in the present and the distant future. There was no reason not to believe. Hope is the child we made in this bed last night.