Page 72 of Last Destination

And he loved me. He’d said the words a few times, but now, I welcomed them into my heart. My chest tightened with emotion and warmth pooled in my belly. Nikki Seymour the third was also mine.

I was so damn lucky.

I smashed my lips on his, frantically pushing every word I wasn’t able to say in the moment into his mouth. He returned it with equal eagerness. Dipping low, he swept me up into his arms with a flourish, and carried me back toward the cottage without breaking our kiss.

My arms clasped around his neck and my lips clung to him as if he were my only source of oxygen. He fixed his grip beneath me and continued onward, but the lack of sight and the uneven sand caused him to stumble. We fell face first into a berm and the soft grit coated my sweaty skin, temporarily throwing cold water on my desire.

Explosive laughter ripped from my chest at Nikki’s rueful smile and the white flecks dotting his hair, as if he’d aged thirty years. He rolled to his feet with the grace of a — er, jaguar — and held his hand to pull me up with him.

My grin was pasted to my face with superglue, the endorphins of just being with this man lighting me up from the inside out.

“Race you to the cottage?” I didn’t wait for him to respond. I turned on my heel and ran as fast as my feet would carry me, too horny and giddy to remember how much I hated running.

Nikki was not the kind of man to let me win. He and Ambrose had that in common. He sped past me like some sort of Nigerian Olympian, flashing me the cheekiest Cheshire Cat smile when his lithe body blurred by me.

My giggles slowed me down, but I couldn’t control my elation. By the time I got to the cottage boundary, Nikki was leaning against the white picket fence like he hadn’t a care in the world, his eyes closed and face upward to the sun.

I dodged his arms when he snapped to attention at the last minute and tried to catch me. I raced to the front door and tapped it triumphantly, spinning in place. He loomed at my back, a dangerous gleam shining behind his glasses.

“I w —”

His lips closed over mine in a desperate, bruising kiss, but he pulled back before he was dry-humping me against the wooden door on a very public porch.

“No, I’ve won, baby girl,” he crooned, turning the knob at my side. He pushed me backward into the room with his powerful body, but every muscle stiffened as soon as we were fully inside. His feral gaze was no longer glued to mine, but caught on something in the kitchen.

I spun in place and every blood vessel in my body froze too. My heartbeat stalled completely in my chest.

Ambrose sat in the same chair where I’d eaten my breakfast. He wore a similar pair of expensive khaki pants and a white-collared polo that stretched around his molded biceps and chest as he had on the day we’d seen him off to the ship. Soft black waves framed his face and he peered at us both with nervous amber eyes.

“Hey, guys.”

“Holy shit.”

Nikki spoke first, and took three strong strides over to my spot on the kitchen chair. He gripped my shoulders with strong hands and pulled me to my feet, latching onto my lips with such ferocity I had to wrap my arms around his waist to steady myself.

I hadn’t been expecting a hero’s welcome when I’d taken the single cab service on the island to their new place, but this — well, I wasn’t going to question it, not for a fucking second.

His kisses were punishing. Tender and light, then so forceful he threatened to knock me back into the chair, like he couldn’t decide if he was happy or furious to see me. I let him lead, so damn grateful this was his response instead of a punch to the face.

I’d known “wish you were here” wasn’t a platitude, but I hadn’t exactly told them I was coming. And from the looks of things, he had been about to take Marley against the front door, and I’d been the world’s biggest cockblock, although you wouldn’t know it with the way he was sucking on my tongue.

Was this how three people in a relationship worked?

My palms pressed against his abs to push him back and he reluctantly relented, pulling away from my face but touching his forehead against mine. His breath fanned across my cheeks as he calmed.

“I missed you, too,” I admitted with a relieved sigh, but nervous zings still spread across my chest. I had two people to own up to — three, really, but Madman wasn’t someone I planned on kissing. My attention snapped to Marley frozen in the doorway with wide eyes like I was an apparition.

“Jagiya.” I reached a hand out to her, and shifted from Nikki’s loose hold to walk toward her, closing the distance in two seconds that felt like two years. I swept a thick lock of dark, windswept hair behind her ear and peered into her soul through the jungle green of her eyes, the same eyes I stared at through selfies for the last several weeks. Nothing beat the real thing, but the thick tears that clung to her eyelashes snapped a heartstring.

Fuck. I hated seeing her cry. Knowing my absence had done that to her … I brushed a tear away with my thumb and stepped into her. The warmth of her skin and softness of her curves told me I was home.

I held my lips just above hers, practically able to taste her, but I didn’t close the gap. My heart stuttered like I was an arrhythmia patient, but I held still. I needed her to lead this. If she didn’t feel the same way …

“If you leave again, I won’t be able to do this, Ambrose.”

Her soft admission barely brushed against my lips, but it was the jolt my heart needed.

“I didn’t want to live without you, Jagiya. I’m here for good.”