Missing (16 page)

“Okay, Nathan,” she gasped, arching up beautifully when he
penetrated her with two fingers. Her inner walls were wet and clinging, and she
pitched her hips up into his hand. “I’m—Fuck, that’s so good!”

Because she seemed to be enjoying his touch so much, he
managed to hold off his own desire long enough to bring her to climax with his
hand. She shuddered and gasped as she clamped down rhythmically around his
fingers. His erection was a raw ache at his groin.

Then finally Lynn relaxed with a pleased languor and pulled
him into position above her. “Thank you,” she breathed, stroking his sides in a
way that drove him crazy. “You have no idea how much I love you.”

The words washed over him like a caress, and he pitched his
hips forward, sinking into the warm, wet clasp of her body.

She wrapped her arms and legs around him, and Nathan was
finally able to let himself go. He rode her hard, but she was eager, receptive,
and he knew he was pleasing her as much as he was answering his own needs.

The bed was shaking with their motion, and his body slapped
against hers with each thrust. But he couldn’t look away from her face, from
the look in her eyes as she gazed up at him in the dark.

He couldn’t believe she loved him, knew him, needed him as
much as that, but there was no way to deny that she did.

His motion and urgency intensified as the pleasure built up.
He was sweating, his whole body pulsing with each thrust. The breathless,
primitive grunts he made were echoed in Lynn’s little sobs of pleasure and
effort.

He thought about his terror four months ago when she hadn’t
been returning his calls and he’d thought he’d lost her for good. He thought
about how many long years he’d spent assuming he couldn’t have something this
good in his life. He thought about his insanity in believing he could enjoy a
small taste of Lynn every three months but not want anything more.

He thought of everything he’d been missing without her.

He came hard, before he was ready to, but he kept pushing
into her as the spasms ripped through him. And he heard her cry out in response
as her own body clenched and released.

He collapsed on top of her, in a way he tried not to do very
often because he knew his weight must be uncomfortable. She clung to him
desperately, though, and after a minute he felt her shaking beneath him.

He lifted himself up with effort, since his climax had wiped
him out, and he realized with an ache that she was crying.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, his voice rough. “What’s wrong,
baby?”

“Nothing,” she said, smiling up at him in a way he knew was
real. “I’m just happy. I love you so much. You give me so much, Nathan. You
know that, don’t you?”

He hoped so. He
hoped
so. But it was really good to
hear. He leaned down to kiss her softly.

“I was just thinking about what I would have missed if we
hadn’t gotten together,” she continued, wiping away her tears impatiently. “Not
just you, but the girls too. I mean, I was happy before, but my life is so much
better now with all of you in it.”

Nathan couldn’t speak. He felt too much. He hoped she
understood.

Evidently, she did. She pulled him down into a hug and
laughed softly. “All that to say that I think I’ll keep you around as much as
possible from now on. I wouldn’t like to go back to just seeing you once every
three months.”

“Agreed,” Nathan said, relieving her of his weight and then
readjusting their bodies so he was spooning her from behind.  He could relax
now—his mind and body relieved, sated—and he could feel sleep closing in on him
gently.

He kissed her hair lightly and added one last thought. “We
must have been crazy to think that would be enough.”

Noelle handwrote
her first romance novel in a spiral-bound notebook when she was twelve, and she
hasn’t stopped writing since. She has lived in eight different states and
currently resides in Virginia, where she teaches English, reads any book she
can get her hands on, and offers tribute to a very spoiled cocker spaniel.

She loves travel, art, history, and
ice cream. After spending far too many years of her life in graduate school, she
has decided to reorient her priorities and focus on writing contemporary
romances. For more information, please check out her website:
noelle-adams.com
. She also writes under the
penname
Claire Kent

Other
Books by Noelle Adams

One Hot Night: Three Contemporary
Romance Novellas
–
Hearts can change in just one night
…

A Negotiated Marriage
–
Sex
wasn’t supposed to be part of the deal…

Listed
–
A marriage of
convenience has never been like
this
.

Bittersweet
–
Love is as
strong as death
.

Intimate
–
They’ve loved
each other for years, but they’ve never been intimate before.

Other
Books Written as Claire Kent

Escorted
–
She hired him to take
her virginity, but now she wants even more.

Breaking
–
He knows what to do
with her body, but he doesn’t always know how to love.

Nameless
–
They named it
anything but love
.