When Dreams Come True (The Star Series Book 1) by M. Stratton Page B

him while kissing her gently, his long fingers caressing her skin. “I’m going to worship you.” The raging storm around them was in direct contrast to his soft touch.
    As the rain beat harder and harder against the windows he took his time, discovering her body and what she liked, taking her over the edge time and time again. She’d never had someone take so much time discovering her body and exactly what she liked. With every touch and caress, her body came more and more alive and she blocked out the storm, focusing only on him and what he did to her.
    Every time she tried to explore his body, he’d gently push her back down and double his efforts to distract her from anything else but feeling.
    Finally, with the lightning crashing around them he slowly slid into her, burying himself deep inside. It felt as if he’d come home to her, their bodies and souls connected, moving as one.
    Framing her face with his hands, he made sure she was looking at him. “I love you.”
    So lost in him, she didn’t flinch when the thunder cracked around them. “And I love you.” She forced her eyes to stay open as he moved slowly in and out, filling her up as the storm built to a fever pitch around them. Completely connected, they rode out their own storm until their voices mingled with the thunder and they collapsed, completely satisfied, and fell into sleep.

    Lissa woke up a couple of hours later. The storm had quieted, but her mind was thundering with what had happened. She didn’t want to admit it, but she knew she’d fallen in love with Will a long time before, and after their lovemaking it was out there in the open. The strange thing was he felt the same way. Sitting up, she wrapped her arms around her knees and rested her chin on them, looking out the window down to the city lights which were blurred from the soft rain still falling.
    She wasn’t sure exactly how it happened, but her mind seemed clearer than it had in months. Looking back on how she’d gone from one extreme to the other, she realized it was all in trying to keep her feelings for him at bay. If she pushed them away, then she wouldn’t have to think about what she’d give up in order to be with him. She knew she had to find a balance. Part of her wanted to get up and start making a list, prioritizing and making daily goals on the calendar, but she couldn’t bring herself to move from where she felt him next to her. She did turn to look at the clock above the door, seeing that they only had about sixteen hours left before he had to leave. There’d be plenty of time to plan. At that moment, she couldn’t move from beside him.
    The only good thing was that they wouldn’t have to wait another two months to see each other. That was going to be their longest separation for the next year. She looked back at her storyboards and computers, then back out to the view she knew. Her security, where she spent all of her time, where she wrote. The place she’d known for years, where she only had to think about herself and her stories.
    She knew she loved spending time with Will, even if it was only on video chats, but she wasn’t willing to give up her independence. Maybe it was from fear she’d become completely absorbed in him and lost herself, putting him first over anything which was good for her. She’d seen her mother do the same thing with her father, completely getting lost and putting her needs aside for his. He was always first; what she wanted was never considered.
    Lissa didn’t like to think of her years growing up as an only child. She didn’t even have siblings to lean on when her mother was spending every waking hour making sure her father was happy. In her mind, she flipped through the images of growing up which were burned into her brain, of always feeling like she was on the outside looking in. She learned early on to rely only on herself and to do things on her own, because she was the only one she could depend on.
    One of the more