A table had been set up with hors d’oeuvres and champagne. Taking a glass for each of us, I crossed to where Nova was already looking out over the crowd far below. Portable heaters kept the area toasty, but the wind still blew her hair into her face as she leaned over the railing.
“Thirsty?” I asked as I offered her one of the crystal champagne flutes.
Taking the glass, she sipped at it slowly. It wasn’t the first time she’d had champagne to celebrate something, but I never let her have more than one glass. Tonight was no different. Now more than ever, I wanted her to remain clearheaded.
“Ryan, seats at this lounge for this night alone are over sixteen grand. I’m not even going to ask how you got us a private party up here.” Her eyes sparkled like the diamonds threaded into her dress. “But I do want to say thank you. When I agreed to do this for Lyric, I didn’t imagine I would be spending New Year’s Eve like this.”
Taking her glass from her, I placed it and my own on the ledge and pulled her into my arms. “The ball hasn’t even dropped yet, and this is already my favorite New Year’s Eve that I have ever experienced.”
I cupped the side of her face with one hand, my thumb skimming over her full bottom lip. Fuck, it was so soft. I now knew how good her mouth tasted, and all I wanted was to drink from it all day long.
“I want this every day, not just tonight,” I breathed against her ear. “I want to see you smile, hear you laugh, and know that I’m the reason. And then I want to fall asleep with you in my arms and wake up to do it all again the next day and the next and the next. I know I’m not the first man to say that, Nova. I know I’m not the only guy in the world who feels this way about the woman he loves. But not a single damn one of them comes close to meaning it like I do.”
Her hands went under my coat and jacket, wrapping around me. “I know you love me. You don’t have to prove that to me over and over again. All I need is you. Not all of this.” She glanced around the rooftop, then over the side of the building at the hundreds of thousands of people below us. “Every smile, every laugh, those are always because of you. Not the things you buy me, but you, Ryan. We could have been sitting back at your apartment, eating ice cream straight from the container in our pajamas, watching all of this on TV, and I would have been just as happy as I am right now. Because you would be beside me. You would be the one holding me.”
A lump filled my throat, and I pulled the box from my pocket before I forgot about it. Offering it to her, I tried to get my tongue to work so I could speak. “This is your birthday present.”
Eyes wide, she pulled her arms from around me and accepted the long box. “Ryan, I just told you—”
“I know.” I tucked a few locks of hair behind her ear that the wind kept playing with. I was so fucked over this girl, I was even jealous of the wind touching her. “You might not need the things I can buy you, but I like giving them to you. I enjoy seeing you wear the things I choose for you. I don’t just want to see you in them, Nova. I need it. To mark you, to show the world that you are mine.”
Her teeth sank into her bottom lip for a moment before she released the tortured flesh and opened the long, velvet-covered box. When I’d bought her birthday present, I had no idea Elias planned on giving her a necklace as well.
The two overlapping Russian rings were platinum and engraved with RYAN’S HEART in a bold, all-cap font so no one could mistake what they said.
Her fingers trembled as she brushed them over the rings, then along the platinum chain. “This was for my birthday?” she whispered.
“Things were so crazy that weekend, and I was in such a rush to get to you, I forgot it on the plane. I didn’t even realize it until we were finally alone.” I touched her bare neck. “When Elias put his necklace on you, I wanted to kill him.”
She lifted her lashes, and I was gutted by the tears in her eyes. “I wish…”
“What, my heart?” I rasped. “What do you wish for? I swear I’ll make it reality.”
“I wish you hadn’t forgotten this on the plane. I wish the agony of the past month hadn’t happened.” Her chin trembled, and her words were rushed together as she whispered, “I wish you would kiss me and never stop.”
There was nothing I could do about the first two. They were in the past, and no matter how much I wanted to fix that mistake, I couldn’t. But there wasn’t a force in the world that could stop me from fulfilling her last wish.
Cupping the back of her head in one hand, I forced myself to keep the kiss gentle, knowing if I devoured her mouth the way I craved, things would get out of hand far too fast. The first soft brush of my lips over hers caused her to whimper, and she tilted her head, silently imploring me to deepen the kiss.
Without lifting my head, I snapped the box closed and shoved it back into my pocket before grabbing her hip and jerking her against me hard. Nova made an approving noise in the back of her throat, arching her body into mine, her hands tangling in my shirt, lifting it until her slightly chilled hands touched my abs. At her soft touch, my already-hard cock turned to steel, threatening to tear through the seam of my pants leg.
Pressing her back into the stone half wall, I lifted one of her legs up over mine, angling her so my cock could press perfectly into her center. Thank fuck her dress had a slit all the way up her thigh, ending just below her panties. That slit would have gotten a few men killed earlier in the night if she hadn’t been wearing the long black coat to cover it.
The sound of people counting down below didn’t reach my ears as I made love to her mouth. I didn’t see the flashing lights of the fireworks above us or hear the cheers and singing that followed. I could only see the one who owned my heart, could only hear our labored breathing and soft groans of pleasure. We were all alone in the world. Us and this moment that I would remember with complete clarity until the day I died.
28
Nova
Holding the two Russian rings between my thumb and index finger, I threaded them back and forth along the chain around my neck. Playing with the charms gave me something to do with my hands as I sat beside Ryan on the jet flying me home. What I really wanted to do was get lost in another kiss like we had the night before. My lips, along with the rest of my body, still tingled from the memory of it.
I wasn’t sure how long it lasted, but the crowd below had been sparse when we’d finally left the Renaissance Hotel in the early hours of the morning. Our mouths had been swollen, maybe even a little bruised, and my entire body had been one big throb. Nardo and Pietro got us back to the apartment, and we’d fallen into bed, kissing again.
Sleep hadn’t been on our minds as we kissed until the sun came up. Then my phone went off, pulling us both out of the lust-filled fog we had fallen into. Emmie had wanted to know if I was flying back to California with her later in the day or if I wanted to take a commercial flight later in the week so I could spend extra time with Ryan and my family.
I needed to get back to Creswell Springs, but I didn’t want to leave Ryan yet. He’d taken the decision from me, however, along with my phone, and informed Emmie he would ensure that I got home safely. Reluctantly, we’d gotten out of bed and gone over to the compound to visit with his family for a little while before getting on one of the Vitucci jets.