All That Went Unsaid | Complete (18+)

Chapter 29

Disclaimer: Explicit Content 18+

Raymond Reynold's POV

I couldn't hold back anymore. Every glance she'd given me, every accidental brush of her fingers against mine had been a slow burn under my skin. Now it was an inferno. I cupped her face, my thumb tracing the soft curve of her cheek, and the words escaped before I could stop them.

"You're all I've ever wanted, love."

Her breath caught, eyes shimmering like they held every answer I'd been searching for. Then she moved, swift, certain and settled across my lap. The world fell away.

Her palms framed my jaw, fingertips grazing the edge of my beard as if she needed to memorize the shape of me. She leaned in, brushing her mouth over mine, tentative at first, then with a hunger that stole my breath. She nibbed on my lower lip and I opened up for her. Her tongue swept inside my mouth and every inch of my body was on fire. I kissed her back with everything I'd held in for years, tasting the warmth of her, the quiet hum of her sighs.

The kiss spiraled into a medley of heat and need. She tugged at the hem of my shirt and I let her, the fabric sliding away in one smooth motion. Cool air hit my skin, but the heat between us only climbed. Her gaze lingered, slow and reverent, tracing from my shoulders to the ridges of muscle along my chest. The look in her eyes-part wonder, part need, was a touch all its own. Her gaze traced the expanse of my chest down to my abdomen and down to the vee of my muscles. She traced her hands on my shoulder blades all the way down to the muscles on my biceps and then forearms. I felt the hunger growing in her eyes just as clearly as I felt my own.

I smoothed my hands along her back, feeling every rise of breath, every tremor that passed through her. My pulse pounded like a war drum, every nerve alive and aching for her. The urge to pull her beneath me and claim every inch of her burned so fiercely it felt like a second heartbeat. Yet I stayed still, forcing my body to match the steadiness of my breath, letting her explore.

Her fingertips slid over my stomach in a slow, deliberate path, tracing each ridge of muscle as though she were committing me to memory. The light pressure branded me deeper than any flame could. I closed my eyes, a low groan threatening to escape, and surrendered to the sensation.

I wanted her to feel it all-the charge that had lived between us since that first night in the ballroom, the gravity that pulled us together no matter how hard we'd tried to resist. I wanted this moment to lodge itself in her memory, indelible, the way she was already carved into mine.

When her gaze lifted, rich brown meeting my own, the room seemed to tilt. Her eyes were molten, daring and soft all at once, and the look alone unraveled me. Desire tightened through me with brutal precision, a current I couldn't outrun.

My restraint shattered. My hands slid into her hair, silk and warmth threading through my fingers, and I drew her to me. The world narrowed to the press of her mouth against mine, urgent, intoxicating, until nothing existed but the heat of her lips and the wild, beautiful chaos she sparked in me.

Her hips rolled against mine, a slow, deliberate movement that sent a hot, electric rush down my spine. A raw sound broke from my throat before I could stop it. I rocked back into her, desperate, frustrated by the layers of fabric still keeping us apart. They had to go.

I caught the edge of her green jacket and tugged, the soft material whispering as she lifted her arms, letting me slide it from her shoulders. Beneath it, she wore a simple cotton slip that clung to her like a secret. My fingers hooked the thin straps and eased them down, inch by inch, until the fabric skimmed her skin.

My knuckles grazed the curve of her neck, tracing a slow path along her collarbone. My gaze followed, drawn to the gentle swell of her breasts, my hands aching to learn the shape of them. I caught the hem of the slip and drew it upward, revealing warm skin, the elegant lines of her body, until it cleared her head and pooled beside us.