Page 96 of This Changes Everything

“I won’t.”

Rory jogged back up to the group, oblivious as to why everyone was staring at him. “Okay, we’re good to go.”

Everything came into focus. My sun. My gravity. His force, pulling me toward him. My eyes inspected Rory’s beautiful face. I ran my fingers across the side of his cheek, and my thumb stroked his scruff. I brought his head down to me and gently held his jaw to kiss him. He smiled against my mouth, and I pulled away to look into his dark-brown eyes.

“You’re the love of my life. Only you.” I said it right there, in front of everyone, as clearly as I felt it. I needed to say it, so I did.

Once the words passed my lips, they hung heavily in the air, but I didn’t care. Let them hang. I had made too many mistakes. There had been too many missed connections. Too many almosts. Too many regrets. Too many times that I didn’t grab the moment when my heart screamed for it, and my heart screamed for Rory.

My love for him had never gone away. It had never diminished. It had dissolved into my body. Everywhere I went, Rory was always with me, holding my heart. It felt like he was never close enough, because our bodies were always in the way. But our past, our future, our love lived inside me.

Rory looked back at me. I heard him suck in a breath and let out a short exhale. He searched my eyes and pressed his thumb into my bottom lip. “You’re the love of mine. Always you.” Rory’s smile tugged his lips downward. He tilted his head. “Let’s go.”

He put his arm around my shoulder and walked us out of the club, leaving behind our friends, who were once again staring at us, gobsmacked.

Chapter 35

LAS VEGAS 29 years old

RORY AND I KISSED IN THE CAB. WE KISSED IN THE HOTEL LOBBY. We kissed in the elevator. His hands were on my face, and he leaned me against the hallway wall with his hips. He spun me against his door as he dug through his wallet to get his key card. It was as if I were having an out-of-body experience.

This was happening.

This was all really happening. Again! With Rory.

With my Rory.

I was having a difficult time believing it, even as it was literally and physically happening.

Rory pushed the door open and backed me up into the room with one hand lightly pressing against my stomach. His tongue explored mine as if he hadn’t been kissing me nonstop for the last hour, as if he hadn’t kissed me when we were teenagers. Even so, it felt like we had done this all before, from beginning to end, an infinite number of times, in an infinite number of ways, in an infinite number of lifetimes.

We crossed the room until the back of my legs pressed against his bed. I leaned back fluidly, and he slid on top of me just as seamlessly. He wrapped his arm beneath my body and lifted me up the bed so my head fell into his pillows.

“I’m in your bed, Rory.”

Rory’s mouth drifted from my lips to my neck as he mumbled, “I know. Never leave it, okay?”

“Okay . . .”

His lips fell into mine, and his hands found the bottom of my shirt. He slowly dragged his fingers up my sides, lifting my shirt over my head. My hair fell over my shoulders, and he brushed it away. He kissed my collarbone as he slipped off my bra straps, unhooked my bra, and dropped it to the floor. He sat up, and I sat with him. I watched his gaze roam my body, truly looking at me for the first time. His eyes sparkled, and his dimple creased from his small smile as I pulled his shirt over his head.

We both rose to our knees and pulled each other into a full embrace. Our bare chests and stomachs collided, mirroring our first kiss on the couch when we were only sixteen. His hands dragged along my shoulder blades, and he delicately kissed my neck. My hands slipped beneath his waistband and trailed to the front, where I unbuttoned his pants.

“I have thought about this a thousand times,” he said quietly while pulling off the rest of my clothes, as well as his own.

“Me, too. In Vancouver, New York, LA . . . It doesn’t matter where I’ve been . . .” I smiled. “I was always going to love you.”

Rory leaned back and tangled his fingers in my hair. His eyes searched mine. I had never felt so willing to hand my body and life over to someone. He pressed his face into my neck and moved his arms around my body to hug me. His warm breath coated my skin. “I was always going to love you,” he muttered. He lifted his head, looked into my eyes, then leaned me back on the bed. He pressed his lips into my navel and traveled down my body, landing between my legs.

“I can’t believe we’re doing this again,” I said, breathless. “I think about that night all the time,” I admitted.

“Tell me what you think about,” he demanded softly.

“All of it.” I sighed. “Your weight on top of me. How you felt inside me. Your mouth on me. My mouth on you . . .”

Rory once again discovered my every moan, gasp, and twitch, and a surge of tension moved through me. Our fervor and obsession with each other only heightened every time I called his name, or raked my fingers through his hair, or he held me down. I felt heavy, and my release was ruled entirely by his mouth and fingers. He smiled against my skin once I started trembling, and I lifted his face to mine.

“I want you to feel me.”