It took me a second to realize what had happened. “Diana and Waverly.”
“They both lived on this ship.” Wade kissed the side of my neck. I shivered. Yes, I liked his lips there very much. “Maybe they wanted to make it seem more like home since we’re going to be in the black hole for a really long time.”
I wrapped my arms around his neck. “Well, then we’ll have lots of time for this kind of a thing.”
His heart beat faster, and I smiled. Maybe there were some benefits to being able to hear it. I kissed him lightly on the chin, the side of his face. “You didn’t break me, Wade. I’m right here. Strong. I don’t feel wrong. So how about you forgive yourself and not hold on to this pain? I could try to take the pain from you if you want.”
He widened his eyes. “No, don’t do that. Don’t ever do that. I felt that once. And Super Soldier powers or no Super Soldier powers, I’d prefer you never do that again.”
We both knew that wasn’t going to happen. I’d have to do it sooner than later to make sure I still could and that it didn’t affect the virus level. But not now. For just these moments, I wanted to be alone with Wade, both of us alive and healthy.
That was a gift he’d given me. One of many. This man kept saving my life.
“I know you said no fatalism.” He kissed the end of my nose as I spoke. “But it seems like a lot of things happened to bring us together, Wade. Maybe all of it had to happen to be here in this moment. Maybe it was all meant to be.”
He drew me even closer. I could have heard his heart beat even if I didn’t have these newly acquired abilities. “Sweet words, Sienna. I’m going to hold on to them. If anyone could make me a glass-half-full guy, it would be you.”
11 Once More Unto The Breach
Wade’s lips were warm, his breath sweet and clean, and I fit against him like I’d been made to do so every day of my life. How could he doubt that there was some sort of meaning behind all of us, some sort of meant to be? Or maybe I’d just spent too long living in a temple. The good news about my sudden procedure and subsequent recovery was that I’d not had to deal with seeing the people who thought I was a religious figure in the Dark Planets. I didn’t want to be that woman. No, I simply wanted to be the kind that got to be naked with Wade as much as I wanted. I thought that seemed like a pretty good way to live.
He took control of the kiss. It was gentle but quickly changed. Wade pressed my back into the wall, his caress becoming frantic. He so rarely lost control, but my guess was that was about to change. He roamed his hands over the top of my clothes, squeezing my nipples, pinching them through the fabric. I gasped in his mouth, and he drank down the sound.
“You like that?” He pinched harder. “Tell me when it’s too much.”
I didn’t know if there would be such a thing with him. Too much? What was that? There could never be enough. I’d been frozen, literally in some ways, and this man had thawed me out.
Wade. I spoke in his head because I knew how much he liked that
His body shuddered against mine. “You make me shaky when you do that. Like I could melt into a puddle of heat and be glad for having done so.”
“I reached for you in my sleep before I ever knew you. You were already there, already in my heart. Already mine.”
He spun me around, laying me down on the bed. Both of us were already breathing hard. Staring down at me, he seemed to be searching my face for something. “You want this.”
It wasn’t a question, but it was a chance for me to change my mind. This man would always put others’ needs above his own. He would always seek the right thing to do. It was just how he was made, and it killed me a little inside that he didn’t see himself that way.
I kissed him hard, and he smiled in return. Wade sat up a little and threw his shirt over the side of the bed. “I’m dying to feel you skin-to-skin.”
I wanted the same, so I followed suit and disrobed so that he could see me beneath my shirt. I was actually wearing a bra, a feat that hadn’t been going on for so long because of how constantly I went without the right clothing. But I had what I needed, for now. The undergarment was pink and lacy, not the most comfortable one I owned. Still, the way he stared at the lingerie made me glad I’d put it on.
He ran his hand over my stomach once then twice. “So beautiful.” He bent down and kissed the area of skin between my breasts and my abdomen. “So soft.”
I ran my hands through his hair. He was always so well put together, but right now, for Wade, he looked downright scruffy. “I don’t think of myself as soft.”
“Well, you are.” He kissed me again before he unhooked my bra in the front. “If I had known you were wearing that bra—that pink lace—I would have been hard all day thinking about it. It’s like an innocent device that is covering up your sexy heat beneath.”
He took my nipple in his mouth and sucked on it. A moan left his mouth—deep, scorching. To know he wanted me this much was powerful, beautiful. Humbling. I craved him too, but I was comfortable with the idea. Wade had told me he didn’t deserve me. To even be here with me, he was overcoming something deep and profound.
I was grateful he’d taken the leap.
I ran my hands through his hair, watching him love on my breast. There was something so erotic about that, and I was sure I’d take this image with me to my dying breath. Wade lost, giving me pleasure. Little jolts of it rolled through in me waves. It would build and waver. I squirmed as it increased, wanting more than what he was giving me but not wanting to lose the moment. Was it possible to grasp a memory and insist it stay fresh forever?
“Wade. Let me kiss you.” He lifted his head, and I lost myself when his mouth met my own. There was nothing better than this. The moment. The sharing of breath. We would be closer when our bodies were joined, but there was an intimacy to this that wouldn’t be shared in that. A kiss, especially with Wade, was a promise of forever. A loving. It was the first step in how we would give ourselves to each other.
I cupped him on the outside of his pants and felt how he grew beneath the fabric. It had to be hurting, but he didn’t seem to mind. He ground into my hand, and then sighed against my lips. When he lifted his head, he was grinning at me.
“I half-expect to wake up and find this is just another dream I’m having about you.”
I grinned. “This is very real, my love.”
We stripped each other the rest of the way. It was slow, unhurried. I didn’t feel like the world was about to explode. It might do that, but I wouldn’t live that way, not when I had times like this to be with this man. I wanted to own his seconds, live his years. He’d given me this opportunity, and I intended to treasure the moments.
When we were finally bare, I couldn’t stop staring at him. Wade was lean and muscular. I traced my fingers over the lines on his chest. He let me for a bit before he pulled me onto his lap. I straddled him. This was different for me. I’d not made love quite like this before. He was on his knees, and when he was inside of me, I imagined he would be as close to me as was humanly possible.
I lifted myself up and with his help, came down on him, letting him inside of me when I did. We both gasped, and he closed his eyes. “Like a glove.”