“Lucas?” I whisper and Lincoln nods.
“His first name.”
My Heart Will Go On by Celine Dion starts playing and I glance back again to see Smith waving his phone over his head with his eyes closed.
“Come back to me, Tate!” he yells and Lincoln sighs as I giggle.
“Jesus, he’s drunk tonight.”
Turning back toward the Camaro, I drop my head back and yell, “Good-bye, Smith!”
“Get down before you fall in the fire, dumbass!” someone else yells and I laugh, feeling more carefree than I have in weeks.
“Did you have fun?” Lincoln asks as he opens my door and I nod, turning to face him with the door between us.
“Yes. This is amazing. Thank you for bringing me.” Leaning up on my tippy toes, I press my lips to his and he groans as his fingers slip into my hair.
“I’ve got to get you home,” he whispers against my lips, urgency in his voice and I nod before slipping into my seat. He closes my door and jogs around the back of the Camaro before getting behind the wheel. As we pull out of the parking lot, I glance in the side mirror and watch the scene behind me. It was exactly what I always imagined having a big family would feel like and it hits me that I don’t want to lose any of this.
We spend the rest of the ride to my house in a comfortable silence with our hands clasped between us and in my mind, I’m imagining an entire life with Lincoln. For the first time, I’m thinking of this as long term because the truth is that I’m completely and totally in love with the man sitting next to me and I’m ready for more. I’m ready for all of it.
When we pull up in front of the house, Lincoln parks the car and instructs me to wait while he jogs to open my door. Hand in hand, we walk up the front walk as butterflies flutter around in my belly. Tonight is the night. I’m done waiting for some sign that this is right because I already know that it is. Lincoln is the one I’ve been waiting for.
When we get to the front porch, I turn to face him and grip his shirt, pulling him to me as I press my lips to his. He lets out a low groan as his arms wrap around my waist, pulling me even closer as I slip my arms behind his neck. Stumbling in the dark, he moves us to the side of the house and my back presses against the doorbell. It rings from the other side of the door and I pull away as I start laughing.
“Sorry,” he murmurs. “Where were we?”
I lean in, letting my lips brush his. “Right about here, I think.”
He kisses me, mutters “Keys,” and kisses me again as I slip them into his hand. As he pulls back to focus on getting the door unlocked, I press my lips against his neck, loving the scratch of stubble on my lips as I breathe in his rugged scent. He groans and flicks his hips against me.
“Fuck, that feels good.”
Smiling, I lick a slow path up the side of his neck before nipping at his ear. “Unlock the door, baby.”
“I’m fucking trying but that is a little distracting.”
I giggle and blow a stream of cold air across his neck. He shudders in my arms with another groan.
“I don’t want to wait anymore, Lincoln. Tonight, I want you to make love to me.”
He groans, planting his fist on the side of the house as his cock jerks against my thigh.
“Baby,” he breathes. “Give me two seconds to get this fucking door open and then it’s on.”
I nod and press gentle kisses against his neck as he slips the key into the deadbolt and unlocks the door. Once we’re in the house, he slams the door shut behind us and locks it again, not even bothering to turn on the lights as he kicks his shoes off on the way to the stairs. His fingertips scrape up my thigh as he pulls my dress up and over my head, leaving me in only panties as I fumble with his belt.
He releases me to pull his shirt over his head and I trail one hand down his stomach as my mouth waters.
“Keep looking at me like that, Darlin’, and tonight is going to be a whole lot rougher than I intended.”
I meet his eyes. “Good. That’s how I want it.”
“Fuck,” he hisses, slamming me up against the wall in the hallway and slamming his lips on mine as I pull his hair, urging him on. “Get my pants off.”
I grab his belt and unhook it as he bites into my neck and my eyes flutter closed, heat flooding my body.
“Pants, baby,” he growls, his hands seemingly all over me at once like he can’t get enough. Forcing myself to focus, I manage to undo his belt and shove his jeans over his hips before they fall to the floor. He steps out of them and effortlessly picks me up, turning toward the stairs.
“Wait,” I yelp and he pauses. “I moved rooms. I’m down here now.”
I point to my mom’s old bedroom and he nods, quickly changing direction and charging through the door before tossing me on the bed.
“Shit, condoms,” he mutters, looking back to the hallway where he left his pants and I laugh as I point to the bedside table. I didn’t think it would happen tonight but I was prepared for whenever it did happen. He marches over to the table and grabs one out of the drawer before standing in front of me and holding out his hand. I take it and he helps me to my knees as he molds me to his body and wraps his arm around my waist.
“I never stood a chance against you,” he whispers, leaning in and pressing a soft kiss against my lips. I thread my fingers through his hair as I pull back. “What I feel with you, for you, I never thought I would love someone like this.”
Tears burn my eyes. “You love me?”
“Yeah, baby. I fucking love you, think I have since the moment I first saw you.”
I beam, pulling him in to another kiss as I work up the courage to admit my feelings. As he leans back, I sigh. “I love you, too, Lincoln. You’re everything that I’ve been waiting all these years for and at this point, I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
It’s so weird how you can go through most of your life and be so self-sufficient and then you meet someone and in the blink of an eye, they are an integral part of who you are – like you were never truly you or whole until the moment your eyes met theirs.
“We’ll have time to talk about all this later but I’m just letting you know now that I’m never walking away from you. You are my everything and I have no future if you’re not in it,” he whispers.
Our lips meet in the space between us, no one leading the kiss this time as we fall back onto the bed with him on top of me. He kisses down my jaw to my neck before planting kisses across my chest and I arch off the bed, begging for more. I grab his hand and move it to my breast, earning a grin from him as his fingers squeeze my flesh and I sigh.
“Lincoln,” I pant, my clit pulsing with need and my entire body aching for more. “Panties off.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he chants, moving between my thighs and licking his lips as he slowly peels the lacy material down my legs before tossing it over his head. Leaning in, he kisses the inside of my thigh and I jerk beneath him, mentally screaming at him to move a little higher.
“You need something, baby?” He chuckles and I moan, lifting my hips off the bed.
“Please, Linc. I need it.”
He groans. “Fuck, I love hearing you beg, baby.”
Spreading my legs, he kisses my thigh again before flicking his tongue over my clit softly. I sigh, gripping the sheets underneath me as he keeps a slow steady pressure with his tongue.