Page 155 of The Scientist
“God, I’ve missed this face,” he whispered.
I took the hand he had on my face and kissed the center of his palm. “I love you, Lex.”
His eyes sparked to life, his irises shining brightly as he started tracing my lips with his fingertips. “I think I fell in love with you the moment I saw you,” he murmured. “But I knew it with every fiber of my being that day at the well when you were singing that Coldplay song.”
I smiled. “It’s called The Scientist.”
“Is it really?”
“Yes. It’s about a man who’s consumed by his work, and he’s trying to find a way back to his love.”
He smiled back at me. “A perfect choice.”
“I agree completely,” I said. “Especially now that I know it was my siren’s song that made you fall madly in love with me.”
A deep rumbling laughter escaped his lips, and I almost burst into tears at the sound of it. It had been so long since I’d heard his laughter. I placed my hand over the center of his chest, and he covered it with his, holding it there.
“I hope this never goes away,” he said, looking down at our joined hands. “This feeling I get when you touch me… It’s like an intense craving that never fades no matter how much I have you.”
“Sounds uncomfortable,” I teased, wrinkling my nose.
“It’s the best and worst feeling,” he said. “But I don’t even remember who I was without it. It feels like it defines me now… how badly I need you.”
“You have me.” I said it like a promise. “But we’ve got to figure this out, Lex. You have to go back and finish what you started.”
“I know,” he murmured. “But I don’t want to think about that right now. Just let me have tonight. We’ll figure out the rest tomorrow. I promise.”
“Okay,” I whispered.
He pulled me in, and I closed the distance between us, pressing my lips to his. His tongue swept across the seam of my lips, beckoning me to open for him. I hesitated. He was so tired, and I knew what would follow if I let it go further, but I felt helpless to resist.
Our tongues met in a gentle caress, and I started to feel my way down his chest and abdomen. I took his already hard length in my palm and began to stroke him gently. He groaned into my mouth. I knew he was exhausted, so I swung my legs over his hips, positioning his erection against my entrance. I made sure he was looking me in the eyes before I slid down, taking him completely inside me. His lips parted, and he placed his hands lightly around my hips, urging me on. I rocked back and forth, enjoying every sound he was making and every look he was giving me.
After a few minutes of riding his cock, he sat up and continued pushing and pulling at my hips as he captured one of my breasts in his mouth. I moaned, tilting my head back, tangling my fingers in his hair, and holding him to me. Every swish of his tongue along my breasts and every press of his cock against me had me dangling on the edge until his hips met mine in the perfect spot. Pleasure shot up my spine. I tucked my face into his neck, crying out as I convulsed around him. He squeezed my hips even tighter as he thrust into me one final time, finding his own release, and we came apart together.
Chapter 37
The light of the morning was barely peeking through the window when I peeled my eyes open to see Lex sitting in a chair at the side of the bed, watching me. He smiled, and the sight of it made my breath catch. I thought of how long I’d been wanting to see that smile, the kind that reached all the way to those whiskey eyes.
The dark circles under his eyes were much lighter now, and the tension around them had dissolved completely.
“Hey,” I said softly, reaching my hand out so he would come to me. “What are you—”
“Marry me,” he said, cutting me short.
My eyebrows knitted together. Did I just hear what I think I heard? I shot up to a sitting position, wondering if I’d just imagined that. I was about to ask him to repeat himself, but he got up out of the chair and knelt beside the bed, one knee on the ground, the other pulled forward.
“Marry me, Hadley,” he said again. This time I knew I’d heard him correctly as my heart began pounding in my chest. “I called your mom this morning and asked for her blessing. She asked what took me so long.”
I choked out a laugh as the tears started rolling down my face.
“I don’t have a ring for you yet, but I couldn’t wait a single second longer. As soon as you’re ready, we’ll go out today and I’ll get you the biggest one in the whole damn country, if that’s what you want.”
He pulled me to the edge of the bed and took my hands in his. “I realized a long time ago that I only need two things in this life—I need you, and I need us. I know we still have so much to figure out, but I also know that I’m incapable of doing lifewithout you. So I’m asking you to say yes. Say that we’ll spend our lives together.”
I slid out of bed and dropped down on my knees in front of him. There were so many emotions coursing through me, so many thoughts going through my mind, so many things I wanted to say, but I didn’t.
I pulled his hand to cover my wildly beating heart and said, “Yes.”