“I went to see her,” I said after a moment, my voice a little raw.
Wren set the frame back down and turned to me. “Dani?”
I nodded. “I knew I had to let go of the guilt I held over her death. I’ve been harboring it for so long. It changed every fiber of my being, so much so that I didn’t even know who I was when you first met me. But being around you, talking to you about her, about me, about dreams and hopes again... it woke me up. You woke me up. And I realized that I couldn’t keep living with that guilt, whether you were in my life or not.”
She swallowed. “Momma Von told me about that day... about what happened.”
My heart raced a little faster, that same guilt I’d just said I’d abandoned surging again. It wasn’t gone just because I’d chosen to let it go. It still existed, and knowing Wren knew what happened to Dani and how I’d been a part of it terrified me.
But she stepped into me again, this time wrapping her arms around my waist.
“It wasn’t your fault. And I know it’s hard to see that, but it wasn’t. Just like it wasn’t my fault my marriage didn’t turn out the way I’d always planned. The guilt isn’t easy to let go of, neither is the pain, but you’re right. We have to live again—without that fear. Both of us.”
“Together.”
Wren’s eyes lit up and she pressed onto her toes to kiss me. “Together.”
I slid both hands back into her hair, grip tightening as I pulled her into me. She sighed as I deepened the kiss, and I took my time, lips pressing to hers in a steady tempo. I kissed her softly, tongue sweeping against hers, teeth nipping at her bottom lip before I started all over again. I could have kissed her just like that for hours or maybe even days, but she slid her hands just under the hem of my sweater, tugging at the belt she’d made, and I heard what she didn’t have to ask.
I bent, sweeping her up easily and keeping my mouth on hers as I cradled her slight frame against mine. I climbed the stairs with one hand wrapped around her ribs and the other arm hooked under the bend of her legs, just like I had that first night I’d met her. I felt the measurement of our time together as both a flash of light and the span of a lifetime. Maybe it was because a new life had started for me when I’d met her. She’d opened my eyes, shared her light, and pulled me from the shadows.
My heart hammered harder as I rounded the top of the stairs and carried Wren into my bedroom. I dropped her gently to her feet just at the edge of the bed, pulling back as both of us breathed harder. Wren’s eyes bounced between mine, her lips parted, and then she simply lifted her arms above her head.
I trailed my hands down her ribs, her waist, until they hooked at her hips and dragged the thin fabric of her long-sleeve shirt up and over her head. She unclasped her nude, lacy bra with her eyes still locked on mine, and I pulled my sweater off next. She smiled a little as her hands reached for my belt, and she unhooked it at the back, the expert hands who’d made it stripping it off me like that’s what she’d made it for in the first place.
It was so quiet in my cabin and I was sure Wren could hear how hard my heart pounded as we stood there, face to face, peeling off our clothes and laying our souls bare at the same time. Wren laid back on the bed when only her leggings remained and my hands dipped under the band of them, working them down over her hips as she lifted them from the bed to help me. The fabric clung to her legs and I slipped each leg off slowly, one by one, hands running the length of her creamy skin once the leggings were gone.
Wren was porcelain, fragile and smooth, spread out in my sheets like she didn’t care that I could break her. But as I pressed a soft kiss to the inside of her ankle, I realized it was because she wasn’t the only breakable one. And maybe that’s what love was, giving someone the power to shatter you and trusting that they wouldn’t.
I wrapped my hands around her ankles, dropping to my knees at the edge of the bed and slowly kissing my way up the inside of her legs. She squirmed under my mouth, hands twisting in the sheets only I had ever touched as I alternated legs, kissing and sucking and biting until I reached her thighs. I hooked my arms under them, pulling her closer, one hot breath sparking a moan from her lips before I ran my tongue along her wet opening.
She arched, head falling back as one hand found my hair and she tugged. I swirled my tongue up and over her clit before sucking it gently, her legs shaking around me, hips grinding against my mouth to find more pressure. I gave it to her, sliding one hand up and under her thigh until I could slip one finger inside. Wren moaned, loud and breathy, body rolling as I slipped another finger in and sucked harder.
When she was on the edge of her release I stopped, pressing a feather-light kiss to her clit before crawling up her body, slow and calculated, stopping at nearly every inch along the way. I sucked the skin stretched tight over her hips, ran my tongue along the defined muscles of her small abdomen, rolled my tongue over each puckered nipple before biting them softly and finally kissing her mouth, the sweetness of her still on my tongue.
She wrapped her arms around my neck tight, hands fisting in my hair before they pulled down my back, nails carving into my skin. I hissed into her mouth and she smiled, grinding her hips into me, the tip of me brushing the wetness of her.
Our foreheads were pressed together and I broke our kiss, mouth still open and her breath hot on my lips as I spread her thighs wider and entered her, inch by euphoric inch. She whimpered as I stretched her, and when I pulled back only to press in deeper, she clawed at my neck, pulling my mouth to hers once more.
Everything felt different.
The way she wrapped around me, the beat of her heart under my chest, her lips on mine—it was rapturous. We were connected, bodies zipped together at every inch, mouths desperate to get closer, taste more. But it wasn’t just a physical connection. It was spiritual, like everything worth living for was wrapped up in the sheets with us in that very moment.
I rocked into her faster, my hands gripping her wherever they landed—her hips, her breasts, the apex of her neck, the small of her back. I wanted her closer, wanted to pull her into me, wanted to exist as one. I’d told her I loved her, and now I was showing her the words were true.
“I’m coming,” she whispered against my lips, breath catching. She held it, lips open as I kissed the corners of them, her chin, down to her neck, and when I rolled my hips, pushing in deep as my body rubbed against hers, the friction caught—fire started—and the flames licked at every inch of her as she came under my touch.
She pulsed around me, bringing my climax right on the heels of hers, and we both shook in each other’s arms. I didn’t stop kissing her, lips covering her skin as her name left my lips on a prayer. When I slowed, my heart still beating loud in my ears, Wren smiled and dug her heels into my backside, pulling me in one last time with a moan as she kissed me hard.
“I love you,” she whispered.
I brushed her hair from her eyes, letting her see mine. “I love you, too.”
“I’m scared.”
At that I laughed. “So am I.”
“But we’ll be okay?”
I watched her for a moment, this girl who’d spun into my life like the most dangerously beautiful tornado, and I nodded. “We’ll be okay.”
She kissed me again and I rolled over, pulling her onto my chest and rubbing wide circles on her bare back as we both came down from our highs. She shivered a little, a content smile on her face.