Light in Mourning (Mourning, #2) (19 page)

“The last year you’ve made me so much happier than I could have ever imagined being. You bring light to my life in a way I never thought possible. I want to spend my life with you, wake up to you, fall asleep with you, fall asleep
in
you,” he murmured the last part under his breath. My cheeks flushed as a smile tugged at my lips. “I want to give you everything, experience everything with you. I want babies and minivans and family vacations and Christmases. I want to spend my life giving you everything you deserve. Will you spend yours with me?” Emotion swirled in his deep green orbs and I forgot to breathe. Once again, he took my breath away. He kept me on my toes and had me smiling and laughing more than anyone ever had. I loved every minute of it and I loved my life with him.

I nodded and sucked in a sharp breath. Mist fogged my vision. I laughed nervously, trying to hold back the tears.

“Will you marry me, Georgia?”

“Yes.” I nodded and lunged into his arms. He locked me in his embrace and held me so tightly I could barely breathe. He consumed me. I inhaled his scent and my eyes fluttered closed. I was as happy as I’d ever been.
 

“Let me get this ring on your finger.” Tristan pulled away and slipped a large cushion-cut diamond with pave diamonds surrounding the center and the sides on my finger. It was stunning. He’d chosen a ring that left me breathless, just like he did, every day.

Cheers and claps from our little group erupted.
 

“A toast for the newly engaged couple,” Justin sang as he lifted his glass. Everyone toasted around us. Tristan stood and lifted me with him. I was too scared to let go of him. Too scared that this couldn’t be real, couldn’t be my life.
 

“I’m so happy for you, love.” Silas leaned over and planted a kiss on my cheek when I sat down.

“Did you know?” My teary eyes searched my best friend’s.
 

He nodded with a small smile. “He asked me.”
 

My heart cracked and love filled it even further. Tristan had asked Silas if he could marry me. I couldn’t even put into words how much that meant to me. My parents had been stolen from me and Silas was the only family I’d had for a long time. Tristan knew and respected that. The gesture alone clearly showed the love he had for me. How much he
got
me.
 

“You deserve beautiful, love.” Silas pulled my head into him, our foreheads pressed together and tears falling down my cheeks.
 

“You do too,” I murmured.
 

“I’ve got it,” he whispered and pecked me on the lips.
 

“I love you, Silas.”

“I love you too.” He kissed me on the tip of the nose before pulling away. I swallowed the lump in my throat and then turned back to Tristan. The love pooling in his eyes made me smile. He rested a warm hand on my thigh and squeezed. A little gesture to let me know he knew and understood. A sign that the love he had for me was even more than I had imagined. From the moment we’d met, our paths had been leading us here, regardless of what we'd wanted. It’d been inevitable.
 

“I love you,” I whispered.
 

“I love you so much more.” He snagged my chin and planted a kiss on my lips. A grin broke out across my face as I shut my eyes.
 

“Thank you.” I meant for everything. For putting up with all we’d been through last summer and the indecision that had me torn every which way. For taking me back, for loving me, for asking me to marry him, for accepting me, for accepting my friends. For all of it.
 

“No problem,” he whispered as his lips lifted in a breathtaking smile.

“I’ve got an appointment. Do you want me to pick anything up for dinner?”

“What kind of appointment?” Tristan’s eyebrows knit together. He sat in his office chair, laptop open before him, fingers hovering over the keys.
 

“Therapy.”

“Yeah?” He pushed the chair away from his desk and held his arms open. “Come here.”

I stepped up to him and he wrapped his arms around my waist, fingers tracing small circles at the base of my spine. I threaded my fingers through his tousled hair; I think it soothed me as much as it helped to soothe him. “I did some research into alternative therapies. I’ve seen a therapist before, but it never really seemed to help much. There’s a guy at the University of North Carolina who practices a new type of therapy, focusing less on feelings and more on happy memories, accepting the past to live in the present. My appointment’s at one,” I finished softly.
 

“That’s great, baby,” he murmured before he lifted the hem of my shirt and placed a soft kiss on my belly.
 

“I’m excited. I just . . . need to do something. After last summer, I . . . I need to stop being tied to the past. I need to find a better way to live,” I murmured.
 

“Anything I can do?” His beautiful green eyes turned up to me.
 

“Whatever you’ve been doing is perfect.” I leaned down and pressed my lips to his in a kiss. He groaned and pulled me into his lap, my legs dangling over his knees. He traced his hands up under the hem of my shirt and up the length of my spine.
 

“Sure you don’t have five minutes?” he murmured before swiping one palm around the front of my ribcage and palming my breast through my bra.
 

“You’re a five-minute man now?” I teased while nipping his bottom lip.
 

“I can make it work,” he growled and tugged the cup of my bra down to take my nipple between his thumb and finger. He pulled and I arched into his body with a moan.
 

“Have to go,” I breathed as my eyes fluttered closed.
 

“Five minutes.” He lifted my shirt and dipped his head under the thin cotton to attach his lips to my nipple. He sucked and pulled on the pebbled peak until my blood was rushing through my veins and my core was wet with desire.
 

“Mmm, Tristan,” I moaned as his other hand popped the button of my jeans and snaked inside my panties.
 

“You’re so fucking wet, baby,” he murmured before his lips attached to my other nipple and his long fingers caressed my aching center. He ran a finger between my lips and stroked between my thighs slowly, driving me to the brink of frustration. My heart thudded as I rocked my hips into him.
 

“I have to go,” I moaned with no meaning whatsoever.
 

“Let me get you off.”

“Tristan,” I whimpered.

“I’m doing my part to relax you,” he said before two fingers plunged into me. I sucked in a sharp breath and bit my lip between my teeth. “Let me hear you.” He pumped his fingers in and out, hooking them to reach that delicious spot just inside.
 

“Fuck . . .” I moaned as he thrust and my hips worked back and forth on his palm.
 

“Love that dirty mouth, beautiful.” He added a third finger and his thumb worked deliciously slow circles over my clit. Pleasure built between my thighs and my mind swam in a haze of lust-filled confusion. I rocked my hips into him, grinding my pelvis, seeking more. More everything. More friction. More pleasure. More him. My brain was chasing the orgasm that loomed seconds away.
 

“Fuck, God, Tristan,” I panted and moaned before lightning sparks exploded behind my eyes and shivers raced through my body. My toes clenched, and my blood pumped through every vein I had as I pulsed around his fingers.
 

“God, you’re fucking beautiful when you come all over my hand,” he growled as he eased his fingers out of me and thrust one into his mouth. My eyes widened in surprise as he licked it clean. “Your fucking taste . . . I could never live without it.”
 

My eyes flashed with desire. He cocked his beautiful head to one side, a soft lock of golden-blond hair falling across his forehead. He arched an eyebrow before sliding his palm over my collarbone, up my neck, cupping my cheek, and thrusting one finger, drenched with my juices, into my mouth. I closed my lips around his finger and sucked, never breaking eye contact with him.
 

“Jesus Christ,” he breathed as his eyes watched my lips, wrapped around his finger. “You drive me fucking insane.” He pulled his finger from my mouth and pulled my lips to his, crushing me in a passionate kiss. I thrust my hips into him, riding his erection through the denim of his jeans.
 

“Babe, you’re going to be late,” he groaned as he slid both hands into the back of my jeans and panties and palmed the cheeks of my ass roughly.
 

“I can make time,” I whispered before nipping at the lobe of his ear.
 

“Fuck.”
 

“Mmm,” I hummed at his ear. I loved when he lost control during sex and the dirty words started falling from his mouth. I kissed his lips before standing and peeling my jeans down my thighs, my panties falling to the ground with them. He worked the zipper down on his pants and pulled his cock out in his hands. My heart skipped a few beats and another wave of pleasure rushed between my thighs. I crawled back on top of him and pressed myself against his length, sliding it back and forth between my swollen lips.
 

“Christ, Georgia. I can’t fucking wait anymore.”

“Patience brings sweet rewards.” I worked myself over him, the head of his cock hitting my clit and sending sparks of lust through my body.
 

“You’re a vixen. The devil in disguise,” he groaned as his hips worked in deliciously slow circles. He passed across my entrance and tried to thrust into me, but I lifted my hips out of his reach. “Jesus, baby,” he growled before throwing his head against the chair, exposing his throat to me. I lowered back down and continued to tease, not letting him inside me as my hands worked their way up his beautiful throat, the stubble along his jaw, and entwined in his hair. My lips kissed along the cords of his neck and over his Adam's apple. I licked and flicked my tongue along the sharp lines of his jaw, enjoying his taste.

“You’re so beautiful,” I breathed into his ear as my teeth scraped along the shell of it.
 

“You're such a tease.” His hands held my hips firmly in place as he tried to angle himself into me.
 

“I take pleasure in watching you come undone,” I murmured.
 

“Sadist.” His fingers dug into my ass as he tried to impale himself on me. I lifted and then teased the head of his cock at my entrance. “Jesus, Georgia. I’m going to fucking come before I’m even inside you.”

“Sounds like you should see a doctor about that,” I murmured before his hand swiftly came down on my ass, causing a sting and, I'm sure, leaving a fiery handprint.
 

“Ow. Fuck.”

His eyes held mine, blazing with lust before he thrust into me, hard and fast and unforgiving. A groan passed my lips as my head arched in pleasure. “Fuck, that’s a beautiful face. The way you look when I’m buried inside you.” He thrust up into me as I rode him in his office chair. His hands held my hips firmly as he worked himself in and out of me. “I need you deeper, baby.” He lifted me, his dick still buried between my thighs, and laid me out across his desk. He pushed paperwork to one side and pounded between my thighs, working in and out of me, his beautiful face tense with pleasure.

“This is us, right here. You and me and no one else. Just this.” His hand circled around my clit and I could feel another orgasm building. The small bud swelled and burned with release. “You like when I’m buried inside you, baby? When I fuck you over my desk?”

“God, yes,” I whimpered as he thrust into me at a punishing pace. My hands flew to my breasts and I kneaded and pinched at the nipples, causing fire to race through my body. “I’m going to come.”

“Wait. Wait for me beautiful,” he ground through a clenched jaw. I reached a hand between us and wrapped my fingers around the base of him where our bodies met as he pounded in and out of me. “Jesus, baby.” His thrusts sped up, his eyes trained on mine, lust pouring off him, causing my skin to tingle and prickle. “Georgia.” He said my name and my body shuddered around him, coming undone for him because only he did this to me. Only ever him. He knew my body—could read it as well as his own—and had me convulsing in pleasure around his cock as he pounded into me, seeking his own release, before his hands clenched into my flesh and his body shuddered against mine.