“I have,” I promised her. “There was never a moment that I didn’t love you. There will never be a moment that I don’t love you. You can love me or not, but that will never change the way I belong to you.”

This time when she launched at me, I caught her, filling my hands with her curves as her mouth met mine.

Hell yes.

Her tongue swept inside my mouth, and I gave her control for all of thirty seconds before I took it back, kissing her until she rocked against me, her legs wrapped around my waist.

“We don’t have time,” she gasped.

“We have all the time we want,” I told her as I kissed a path down her neck. Two seconds with her ass in my hands and I was already hard—my body demanding hers.

“No, really,” she said on a breathless sigh as I bit that place where her shoulder met her neck.

“What I have planned can’t wait.”

“But I can get us to Aspen.”

“But I can get us to our bedroom,” I told her as I carried her up the steps to the lofted area of the apartment. Fuck the qualifications. At that moment I needed her under me more than I needed another X Games medal.

“We don’t have—”

I kissed her quiet and walked into the space I’d designed with her in mind. A few steps later I put her in the middle of our bed, then worked her out of her shoes, jeans, and shirt until she lay there in only her underwear.

“Did you know I’ve never had a woman here?” I asked.

“What?” she responded, leaning up on her elbows as I stripped.

“Never. Not once. Only on circuit or at parties, or at their place. I never brought anyone here, because it was ours. And maybe you wouldn’t come back, but if there was even the slightest chance, I wanted to be able to say that I kept this for us. Only us.”

I palmed my dick, stroking up and down the hard length while she watched, her eyes hazing with desire. If she licked her lips like that one more time, it was going to be over before I touched her.

She flipped around and crawled toward me on the bed, the very fantasy I’d always imagined while sleeping here. “And what did you want to do in here?” she asked, like she’d read my mind.

“This,” I said, my only word of warning before I lifted her from the bed and kissed her, filling my hands with her ass, filling her mouth with my tongue.

My fingers found her wet and wanting, already slippery, and I groaned with the feeling of her. “God, Rachel, I don’t know if I can wait.”

“Then don’t,” she said, kissing my ear.

“Fuck, I don’t have condoms,” I growled.

“Didn’t we already have this discussion?” she asked.

“I wasn’t exactly expecting you to show up,” I said, cursing my stupidity.

“Well, I did,” she said. “Check my jeans.”

I balanced her on the bed and picked up her jeans, finding a foil packet in her back pocket. “That might be the sexiest fucking thing I’ve ever heard,” I said, ripping it open and rolling the condom on.

“I’m glad you approve.”

I swept my fingers through her wetness and then pressed and swirled on her clit. Her knees buckled, and I caught her. “I approve of everything you do.”

“More,” she begged, and I willingly gave, beating back every instinct to bury myself inside her.

Instead I used my fingers to pump in and out of her as I stood her back up, teasing and tonguing the rigid peaks of her nipples. I wanted to do this for the rest of my life, and for the first time in forever, I felt like I might have a shot at that dream.

“Landon,” she moaned, rocking against me, the sound of her cry revving me even higher.

Her breaths came faster, her muscles tightened, and I knew she was close. God, I wanted to be there with her—needed to be inside her when she flew.

“I need you now,” I warned her.

“Yes,” she said.

It was all the permission I needed. Lifting her slightly, I slipped her thighs around my hips and held her ass as I slid inside her tight, welcoming warmth.

Fuck, she was so hot it felt like I was being branded in the best way possible.

Her ankles locked behind my back, and her arms looped around my neck as she met me in a ravenous kiss. I lifted her up and down, using my body to stroke hers to completion.

She cried out every time I dropped her slightly, letting gravity help me take her deeper, and when it wasn’t deep enough, I leaned her against the wall next to my bed and began a rhythmic pounding that had her keening in my ear for more. Harder. Deeper.

Of course I was ecstatic to oblige.

But I held back just enough to keep her on edge, and even though she arched against me, knowing how to take her own pleasure, I denied her that tiny bit of friction she needed.

“Landon!” she cried out in frustration.

“Tell me you love me,” I demanded.

“I love you,” she told me in pants of her breath against my lips, our foreheads pressed together.

“Tell me this is forever. You and me. Always.”

“Forever.” She gasped as I swirled inside her, hitting her clit. “Always.”

I kissed her with stark relief and passion, then changed our angle to give her everything she needed, thrusting until she came apart in my arms. She clamped down on me as she came, squeezing me like a vise, her head thrown back in the most gorgeous display of ecstasy I’d ever seen.

She pulled me over with her, and I came with a shout, her name a prayer on my lips.