His expression sobers. “The album dropped. The music is still there, and no one can take that away. But, yes, sharing the music is part of the process, and I will have to do some touring if I want people to keep listening. But you and the baby can come with me. We’ll get two buses. One for me, you, and the kids. One for the band and the full-time roadies.”
“The kids,” I echo, throat so tight I can barely get the words out. “That sounds…” I swallow hard. “You have no idea how wonderful that sounds, but what if it isn’t that easy? What if being on the road with young children is stressful and exhausting? What if I’m unhappy and you’re unhappy, and our only choice is to live separate lives while you’re on tour?”
“Then I’ll stop touring,” he says, meeting my doubtful gaze with a certain one. “But I think that’s a decision that can wait until we get to that bridge, don’t you? There’s no need to borrow trouble from tomorrow, not when today is so good.” He beams down at me. “I love you, and you love me. How amazing is that?”
I bite my bottom lip, but Zack shakes his head. “No. This isn’t the time to stress.” Lifting a hand, he gently tugs my lip from between my teeth, the feel of his guitar string-calloused fingers on my mouth making my pulse beat faster. “Now is the time to celebrate,” he adds in a deeper voice. “I don’t think I’ve ever wanted you more than I do right now. I want to be inside you so badly, Cee.”
He shifts his hips forward, pressing his erection against my hip. Instantly, my blood rushes faster and tingles race across my skin, but I refuse to let my body call the shots right now. It’s too dangerous.
“We should use a condom,” I say as he backs me toward the bed. “We’re not finished with this conversation. We shouldn’t risk getting pregnant again until we are.”
He steps away from me so fast that I feel the loss of his heat like someone dumped a bucket of ice water over my head.
“Fine, then we’ll finish the conversation first.” His gaze rakes up and down my body, making my nipples bead even tighter beneath my tee shirt. “Then I’m going to undress you with my teeth, kiss every irresistible inch of you, and take you bare. I haven’t come this far to turn back now, beautiful. I’m coming inside you tonight. So deep inside you.”
My breath shudders out, and the ache between my legs intensifies until the hunger almost hurts. “That’s not playing fair.”
“I’m not here to play games. I’m here to convince you it’s over.”
I blink, confused.
“Your search for the father of your children,” he adds, making my heart flutter again. “It’s going to be me, whether we make them together or end up adopting or both. I’m all in. I want a family with you.”
Tears fill my eyes, blurring his handsome face as he steps closer. “I want that, too, but—”
“No buts,” he says, and then he kisses me, his lips warm and gentle against mine, coaxing, inviting, until I forget everything but how good it feels to be this close to him.
Until I know that everything is going to be okay.
Until there isn’t a doubt in my mind that we’ll find our way.
With love like this, how can we go wrong?
Chapter Twenty-Four
Zack
I’m so relieved I’m vibrating with it, my arms trembling as I guide Colette to the bed. When the back of her knees hit the mattress, she pulls her lips from mine. As her palms skim up my arms to my shoulders, she whispers, “You’re shaking.”
“I was scared,” I confess, knowing I don’t have to hide from her anymore, and that I never will again. “When I realized you were gone… I haven’t been that scared in a long time.”
She brushes my hair from my forehead with gentle hands. “I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be,” I say. “Just don’t leave without saying goodbye again.”
Emotion glows behind her eyes. “How about I just never leave again? Ever. Would that work?”
My lips curve even as my throat goes tight, making my voice husky as I agree, “That sounds perfect.” I lower my lips to hers, and I kiss her with all the love in my heart, so damned grateful that I don’t have to hide or downplay what I feel for her anymore.
I love her, and I’m going to make sure she knows it, tonight and every night that I’m lucky enough to have her in my life.
We fall back onto the bed. Capturing her wrists, I draw them over her head, pinning them to the mattress with one hand as I trail kisses down her neck, tasting the sweet salt of her skin.
“I should shower first,” she says, shivering beneath me as I cup her breast through her shirt. “I’m filthy.”
“I like you filthy.” I move lower, nipping at her nipple through the thin fabric, loving the way she gasps and arches closer to my mouth as my other hand pops the button at the top of her shorts. “I love it when you tell me exactly how you want me to fuck you.”
“I meant literally filthy,” she says, moaning as I slide my hand into her panties, finding where she’s already wet for me. Damn, I love that. So fucking much. “Not metaphorically. I’m still in my hiking clothes.”
“Not for long,” I promise, rubbing her clit in firm circles until she’s bucking into my touch before pulling my hand away.
I reach for the bottom of her T-shirt while she fumbles at the button of my jeans. In seconds, we’re rid of every scrap of clothing between us, and we come back together with a relieved sigh. Our lips meet in a kiss that’s urgent and demanding with a hunger boiling so close to the surface that I know this isn’t going to last as long as I’d like.
But that’s all right.
There’s always tomorrow and the day after that and the day after that.
Because she’s mine and I’m hers, and we’re never going to say goodbye.
“Oh yes, please,” she says as I nudge her thighs farther apart with my knee and press my aching cock between her legs, my head spinning as her wetness kisses my skin. “Inside me. Now.”
“Always,” I promise as I glide into her welcoming body, groaning as she wraps her legs around my hips and arches closer, taking every inch.
We begin to move together, finding that perfect rhythm, the one that brings us closer with every thrust, as in sync as we’ve been since the first time we touched. And as she comes beneath me, her body gripping me tight, triggering a release so intense I’m suddenly in orbit, high in the starry sky above, I make a silent promise to myself.
I will never let a day go by without telling her how special she is, how much she means to me, and how grateful I am to be the man in her bed and in her heart.
“Especially your bed,” I murmur against her lips as we catch our breath after, with my softening length still deep inside the only place I want to be.
“What’s that?” she asks, fingers skimming up and down my back.
“Just thinking about how lucky I am to be here with you.”
“I think I’m the lucky one.” She turns her head, pressing a kiss to my arm.
“I guess we can both be lucky.”