Chapter 91 CHAPTER 096
Amelia POV:
"Linc, I have to tell you something." I breathe. He is kissing a trail of liquid fire down my body, having gotten rid of my clothes in a flash like they were on fire. My body burns with the heat of his mouth on each spot he kisses. I am on fire everywhere. The delicious weight of his hips pressed into mine. The irrefutable bulge pushing against me in between my thighs.
He comes up to look in my eyes, I close mine, breathing hard. Feeling a claw squeezing my lungs so I can't breath. The pressure competes with my lust and both wins. I want him as much as I need him.
"What is wrong? Are you okay?" His worried voice above me pulls me from my despair.
"Yes. Yes, I am fine. I just need you to know something before we continue." I move slightly under him to be more comfortable, he adjusts and moves to the side, the absence of his weight on me is acute.
I can't meet his eyes. I am cold with nerves. Though still aroused. My heart is beating fast. I fear I might be having a panic attack but I know I am not.
"Amelia..." I can't stand the genuine worry in his deep voice.
"I am in love with you." I blurt it out. Loud and rippling in the silence of the room. I shut my eyes tight, I can't handle the thought of his eyes on me right now. Though our bodies are no longer touching, I am naked and he has on just his briefs. We are so close and I had to go and ruin it.
When the silence stretches, I peek out at him and my cheeks get colour at the sight of his heated gaze on me. Watching me quietly with a tender kind of warmth that is too suggestive to be coincidental.
"I know. It is crazy. There is probably no future for us given our situation. It might lead nowhere but I have felt this way for three years now and I can't keep it to myself anymore. Especially with all that has happened between us. I was scared I would never get the chance to tell you when Tyler took me. That made me sadder than anything then. The pressure weighs heavy on my chest. I feel like I could snap if I didn't say it. If you didn't know." I bite my tongue. God, why can't I shut up?
Though, the more I say, the more I feel free. Like someone took the heavy unmovable weight on my chest and simply rolled it away. It feels liberating. I refuse to look him in the eyes, to help keep me confident with my confession. This was my greatest secret and now it is not.
"I am sorry if this is coming at a wrong time or is more than you bargained for when we started having sex. But it is what I feel. And I can't keep it to myself anymore." I snuggle deeper into the sheets. As if to disappear. I know he is watching me but I can't hold his eyes. I am naked and I feel vulnerable. Maybe I should have just kept my mouth shut.
"Amelia, Why won't you look at me?" Linc's voice is soft beside me. My heart clenches. Moisture rises to my eyes. I blink away the tears. They are dumb.
What is the worst that could happen? We have come so far. Crossed so many lines already. What is one more? I love him and some part of me suspects that he knows. How could he not?
"Because I am scared." I whisper.
"Of what? I am in love with you too."
I must not have heard him correctly. I turn to look at him and his eyes take my breath away. They glint with such a fierce genuine intensity, I can't possibly doubt him. Not for a second and I am secure enough to know I am not just projecting what I want to hear and see instead.
"I should be the one that is scared out of my mind. Well, I was. For the longest time, I denied it, Amelia. I didn't want it to be true. I beat myself up over it. I felt wrong about it." Linc props himself up on his elbow, looking into my eyes. My vision is blurry through my tears. I realise the way he is looking at me now, with so much tenderness and affection, is how he has always looked at me. I just didn't notice it. Or wanted to delude myself. But really, there is nothing different in his eyes that I have never seen before.
"When I found you in that warehouse, I wanted to scoop you up and confess so bad. I had been in hell, wondering if I would ever have the chance to tell you how I felt if Tyler hurt you. I don't know how I didn't." He shakes his head wryly, a small smile on his face.
A tear drops and snakes its way down into my ear. I don't know what I am feeling anymore. I feel an upheaval of warm tender emotions. It clogs up my chest and makes me feel choked full. It springs forth out of me like a plugged dam coming loose. I can't stop it even if I tried.
Linc places his hands on my cheeks, so softly, it only makes the tears come out more. He loves me too. It is all I can think about as I do my best to control my outpour of overwhelming emotions. Linc leans down and kisses me lightly on the forehead.
"You are the best thing Kathryn brought into my life. If you were wondering, that is how I have been able to forgive all her transgressions against me." Linc says, a small chuckle from his lips on my forehead. He is trying to make me laugh. And I do laugh. But it is mixed in with my tears.
"Oh Linc." I say.
"I know. I am in love with you and I can't begin to explain how I feel knowing you feel the same. I don't know what to think. How or what to feel. I am rarely overwhelmed, but you have brought out all the emotions in me and I am at a loss of what to feel." Linc says, he kisses me again on the forehead, softly, lightly, rings of pleasure shoots through me at the contact.
"Oh Linc, but what are we going to do?" I ask, my voice breaking.
The brooding silence from him lets me know he gets exactly what I am asking.
What are we going to do about this gulf of obstacles stacked against us simply by the virtue of the connection we share as stepfather and stepdaughter?