Page 54
The corners of her mouth curled despite the tears, and this time she was the one who reached for him and pulled him down. “Show me again.” Her voice had gone all soft and sultry.
So he did, showing her with every touch and every kiss that what they had was real. This time, there were no ghosts between them. No memories he was trying to recover and no man he was trying to become.
When he slid inside her, she sighed as if her world had just become complete.
For one suspended moment, he simply looked down at her. At the woman who had already lost him once. Who had been willing to risk losing him again rather than burden him with promises he couldn’t remember making.
Somehow, she'd still opened herself to him again. Not to the Benny she'd lost. To him.
“I’ve never seen a more beautiful sight than you right now,” he said, his voice rough with everything he couldn't quite put into words.
He kept his rhythm lazy, wanting to savor the way her hands moved over him, her eyes holding his. The little changes in her expression that told him what she liked.
Maybe his body had known hers before his mind did, but this wasn't some echo of the man he'd been. This was his.
His desire. His feelings. His choice.
He lowered his mouth to her breast and teased one nipple, gasping when she tightened around him in response.
“Jesus, that felt good. Want to try it again?” he asked with a little bit of a leer.
“Me first.”
She reared up and latched onto one of his nipples, giving him the tiniest bite.
Benny jerked, the sensation hitting him with startling intensity, but it was her expression that nearly undid him. The heat and trust in her eyes. The wicked little flash of satisfaction because she'd given him a pleasure he’d forgotten.
She did it again, and his control snapped. Pleasure crashed through him as he moved within her, brought her with him with each desperate stroke, but beneath it was something deeper, something that lodged itself squarely in his chest.
He loved her. Not because another version of himself had, and not because she'd told him he had. Because the man he was today did.
CJ. Benny. Whatever the hell he ultimately decided to call himself.
He loved Jordan Gonzalez.
When she followed him over the edge, holding on to him as fiercely as he held on to her, he finally understood that he didn't need the past to prove what they were.
They were building their own proof. Just Jordan. Just him.
Something that belonged entirely to them.
~
They made love again that night and christened the shower the next morning.
When Benny gave her a sideways glance over breakfast, Jordan held up both hands in surrender. “No more. Not today.”
He laughed a little maniacally, making her giggle as they settled in for the easy breakfast he’d whipped up.
“Thank God you’re a better cook than I am,” she said as she forked scrambled eggs into her mouth.
“I certainly am.” He grinned. “I’ll let you handle the weapons, how’s that for a deal?”
She held out her hand. “Agreed.”
Instead of shaking it, he brought her fingertips to his mouth and sucked her index finger between his lips.
She snatched her hand back and gave him the evil eye. “Stop that,” she scolded.
