Chapter 138 THANK YOU FOR COMING BACK TO ME
MERRIELYNN.
We were still looking at each other when my hand slipped out from under his.
I let my fingers trail along his jaw instead. The stubble there scratched against my fingertips in a way that sent little sparks up my arm. I followed the sharp line of his jaw all the way down to his chin, then let my hand drop to his.
I picked up his hand and turned it over in mine, studying it.
His hand was enormous compared to mine. His fingers were long and his palm was broad and rough with calluses I wanted to ask about. I wrapped my hand around his wrist, trying to circle it completely.
I couldn’t even get halfway around.
“What?” Cormac asked, watching me.
I shook my head. I wasn’t ready to stop looking at him yet.
My hand traveled up his forearm slowly. I could feel the muscles there shift under his skin as my fingers moved.
When I reached his bicep, I traced the curve of it, feeling how solid he was.
The tattoos I’d been dying to see up close were right there under my palm but I kept going, my fingers skating over his shoulder.When I reached the rounded swell of his shoulder muscle and felt how hard it was under my touch, something hot and liquid coiled low in my stomach.
I dropped my hand like I’d been burned.
“What just happened?” Cormac’s voice had gone lower. Rougher.
A small smile tugged at my lips even though I could feel heat climbing up my neck. “I’m just taking you in.”
His whole face went red and he reached up to scratch the back of his head like he didn’t know what to do with the compliment.
When he lifted his arm, the angle made something visible on the inside of his forearm that I couldn’t see when his arm was relaxed at his side.
Writing. A tattoo.
Bold black letters in a script I recognized even from here.
My name.
“So I wasn’t hallucinating,” I breathed out.
Cormac’s brows pulled together. “What?”
I gestured at his arm. “Your arm. Can I see it?”
He held it out between us without question. I took it gently in both of mine and turned his forearm over so the tattoo was facing up where I could see it properly.
My name was inked into his skin in beautiful script. Merrielynn. All of it.
It was an old tattoo. I could tell from the way the ink had settled into his skin, the lines slightly softened with time but still completely legible. Still bold. The placement was clever too. Hidden unless his hand was spread wide or his arm was raised.
It was private.
“When did you get this?”I brushed my thumb over the letters softly.
“I c-can’t remember exactly,” he stammered, watching my face. “But it was when I was sixteen.”
My fingers traced over the letters of my name on his skin. Over and over like I could absorb the meaning of it through touch alone. He’d gotten my name tattooed on his body forever.
Cormac’s hand moved upwards.His fingers found the necklaces resting against my throat.
He pushed the diamond one aside without ceremony, then his fingers closed around the blue pendant. The one he’d given me the day I moved into the palace.
He looked up at me and his green eyes were so intense I forgot how to breathe.
And then he leaned in, ever so slowly. I inched closer and closed the distance.
Our lips touched and it wasn’t like the kiss in the cave. This was slow and deliberate and devastating. Like he was trying to tell me everything he’d never gotten to say. Like he was trying to make up for over two years of not being able to touch the real me.
I kissed him back and something inside my chest that had been wound impossibly tight for so long finally let go.
His hand moved to cup the back of my neck. His fingers tangled in my hair and I made this sound against his mouth that should have embarrassed me but didn’t.
I shifted closer to him on the couch. Closer wasn’t close enough. I needed more.
He seemed to understand because his other hand found my waist and he pulled me onto his lap in one smooth motion.
I went willingly. My legs settled on either side of his hips and suddenly we were pressed together everywhere and it still wasn’t enough.
I could feel his heart slamming against his ribs. Or maybe that was mine. I couldn’t tell where I ended and he began anymore.
His mouth left mine and traveled along my jaw. Then down to my neck. I tilted my head back to give him better access and a sound escaped my throat that I wasn’t sure I’d ever made before.
“Merrielynn,” he breathed against my skin. My name sounded like a prayer.
My hands were in his hair. I tugged gently and the groan that rumbled through his chest went straight through me.
He pulled back just enough to look at me. His eyes were so dark they looked almost black. They were filled with so much want it made me dizzy.
“Are you sure?” His voice was wrecked.
Was he even serious?
I answered by kissing him again. Hard. Desperate.
His hands slipped under my shirt. His palms were rough and warm against my bare skin and everywhere he touched felt like it was catching fire.
I arched into him. I needed more contact. More of him.
He pulled my shirt over my head in one swift movement and tossed it somewhere behind me. I didn’t care where it landed.I didn’t care about anything except getting closer to him.
My fingers fumbled with his sweatpants. I was shaking too much to get itoff.
He helped me. Then he lifted me like I weighed nothing at all and laid me back on the couch. He settled between my legs and his weight pressed me into the cushions and it felt perfect.
“I’ve missed you,” he said against my mouth. His voice cracked. “Goddess, Merrielynn, I’ve missed you so fucking much.”
“I’m here,” I whispered back. My hands were already pulling him closer. “I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere.”
And then there were no more words.
Just his hands learning my body again. Just my fingers tracing the tattoos I was enamoured with. Just the two of us trying to make up forovertwo years of distance in a single night.
My necklace pressed between us. My name on his arm was visible every time he braced himself above me.
We moved together and it felt like coming home. Like our bodies remembered each other even when our minds had forgotten. Like we’d been made to fit together exactly like this.
Afterwards, we stayed tangled together on the couch. His head was resting on my chest. My fingers were running through his hair that had dried completely now.
His arm was thrown across my waist. My name was facing up where I could see it.
Neither of us spoke for a long time.
We didn’t need to.
The silence between us was full and comfortable and said everything words couldn’t.
I traced the letters of my name on his arm one more time. Then I pressed a kiss to the top of his head.
He tightened his arm around me in response.
And we stayed like that, wrapped around each other, until sleep finally pulled us under.