The Return

I couldn’t talk as I watched him lower his head, strands of blond hair falling forward, caressing over my chest, knocking the air out of my lungs. He trailed a hot, fiery path down the center of my chest as he shifted his weight onto one arm. His hand was heading south as his lips and tongue tasted every square inch of my chest, getting closer and closer to the hardened nipple.

 

His fingers unbuttoned my jeans. The zipper went down—the sound erotic, causing my toes to curl. His hand smoothed over my hip, fingers slipping under the waist of my jeans. He tugged, and instinct urged me to lift my hips. I did, and my jeans went down my legs, off my feet, falling to the floor. As his hand resettled on my belly, his mouth finally made it home, closing over the tip of my breast.

 

I cried out as my back arched clear off the bed. Holy crap. His hands had nothing on his mouth. Goodness. My fingers curled into the comforter and a throaty moan burst from me as he caught the tip between his teeth.

 

“Seth!” I tried to breathe around his name, but he chuckled, flicking his tongue where he’d nipped, soothing that slight sting. And then he gave my other breast the same treatment—kissed, suckled, nipped, and licked, and oh gods, I was so in over my head it wasn’t even funny.

 

I was drowning in what he was doing, and when he slid his hand up over my ribs, closing it over my other breast, I surely thought I’d just die in that moment. I hoped not, because I could feel him pressing against my hip, thick and hard, and my heart pounded with need, want, and a thousand other things.

 

Seth took his time, teasing until my hips moved restlessly, my thighs pressed together, until my hands found their way to him and I slid them down his arms, feeling the bulge in his muscles, the slight tremor that coursed under his skin. Oddly, in that moment, I wondered if his tattoos were showing and what that must look like.

 

But then I stopped thinking, because his hand was moving as he rose up, bringing his mouth to mine. The kisses were slow, languid, almost questioning, and those kisses, they were sweet and dizzying. Seth was dizzying, every aspect of him. Sparks of electricity danced over my skin, ratcheting up everything I was feeling until I thought there was a good chance I might combust as his hand traveled down my stomach, over my panties.

 

“Open for me?” he asked against my mouth.

 

My thighs parted, and then he was cupping me. I tensed all over, partly because I’d never been touched that way and partly due to the tension deep inside me that had coiled up tight.

 

He murmured something in a language I didn’t understand against my mouth as he moved his hand between my legs, his fingers dragging up and then down. “You like that?”

 

My hips rose in response, and he chuckled again, pressing his forehead against mine. I could feel his chest moving as he kept up that slow movement of his fingers. “I’ll take that as a yes,” he said.

 

“I…” I gripped his arm, feeling the muscles move under my hand each time he moved his fingers. “Seth…”

 

“I don’t think I could ever grow tired of hearing you say my name like that.” He kissed me before he drew back, hand and everything leaving me. I started to reach for him, but he had his hands under the band of my panties, and then he was dragging them down my legs.

 

“Oh God,” I whispered.

 

One side of his lips quirked up as he glanced up at me, and then he had me completely bare to his gaze. “You are fucking beautiful, Josie.”

 

I stuttered out a “thank you” that I wasn’t even sure he heard. His hands were planted on either side of my waist, and he was staring at me like he’d never seen me before, but he was still in his pants. That didn’t seem right, so I sat up, pressing my hot face into the space between his neck and shoulder. My fingers fumbled along the band of his pants, and he drew back, giving me access.

 

I tugged on them and he leaned over, helping me get them down his thighs. He took over at that point, which was good, because I had no idea how I was going to get them down his long legs without sticking my butt up in the air. When he was in nothing more than a pair of black boxer briefs, I felt like my tongue would loll out of my mouth. I could see the length of him straining against the material.

 

His hand curved under my chin, lifting my gaze. Our eyes met. There was something soft in his gaze, something I doubted many people had ever been on the receiving end of.

 

Biting down on my lip, I reached again for him. His hand left my chin, folding over my wrist before I could get hold of his boxers. Startled, my gaze rose to his again.

 

He was still looking at me in that way. “Unless I’m totally way off, there’s something I think you should be telling me.”

 

“What?” That I was about to come out of my skin?

 

Seth dipped his head, kissing my bare shoulder as he drew my hand to him, pressing my palm against his length. I gasped at the heat that seeped through the material, and he groaned. “Josie, have you ever touched a guy like this?”

 

My fingers closed around him, and his hips jerked forward. He slid my hand up the long length as he lifted his head, kissing the corner of my mouth. “Josie…’

 

“No,” I whispered, tightening my hand around him, through the briefs. “I’ve never…been with anyone before.”

 

He shuddered as he lifted his head, his gaze snaring me. “And you’re going to give me that?”

 

“Yes.” And I nodded, just in case he was confused.

 

Pulling my hand away, he rose, slanting his head to kiss me deeply as he pushed me onto my back, with his weight draped over me. “I’ve never had anything that was my own,” he said against my mouth. “Nothing that was ever for just me and no one else. I’ve never been anyone’s first.” He kissed me and then lifted his head. I stared into his eyes. “I’ve never been anyone’s only.”

 

That made my heart ache for him as I raised my hand, pressing my palm against his cheek. “You’re my first,” I whispered. “You’re…you’re my only.”

 

His lips parted. “You can’t say that and not mean it.”

 

I held his gaze as my chest swelled. “I mean it.”

 

He smoothed his thumb over my lip. “I really am a lucky son of a bitch.”

 

Before I could process that, his mouth replaced his thumb. It was like those words had formed some kind of unbreakable bond, and that kiss sealed it. Like we were making our own prophecy, our own fate that couldn’t be unwritten.

 

“We aren’t going to do this,” he said.

 

My eyes flew open. “What?”

 

He laughed softly and then groaned. “Yeah, I can’t even believe I’m saying that, but there’re other firsts I want from you. Other things that I want as mine before we move to that.”

 

“But—”

 

“That’s what I want,” he told me as he shifted, sliding his hand down my stomach, between my thighs. “This is what I want.” His hand folded over me, and my hips rose. “And there are a lot of ways I want it. A lot of ways I’m going to make it mine.”

 

Oh geez.

 

He slipped a finger through the wetness and then inside me. My entire body tensed, and as he began to move his finger slowly, he watched me. “That’s one of the ways.”

 

“Seth.”

 

His eyes flared bright and he did something with his hand that caused my head to kick back and my breath to come out in short, quick pants. “You’re so beautiful like this,” he said, twisting so that his gaze dragged down the length of me, to where his hand was. “You have no idea.”

 

My hips were moving in rhythm to his hand, and the sounds that were coming out of my mouth would probably embarrass me later, but right then, I couldn’t care less. I threaded my other hand through his hair.

 

“There’s another first I want.”

 

The smile that appeared on his face was nothing short of sinful. I caught a glimpse of it before he kissed me deeply and then worked his way down, lingering in some areas more than others. He kissed a path around my belly button and then slipped his tongue in, and by then my hips were grinding against his hand. I was so close that, when he pulled his hand away, I cried out.

 

And then he kissed me where his hand had been.

 

“Seth,” I hissed, my fingers tightening in his hair. “I…I’ve never done this either.”

 

“Figured that, Josie.”

 

“But, seriously, I haven’t—”

 

“I know. And it’s all mine,” he said. “Relax.”

 

I couldn’t relax for a thousand reasons. He was between my legs, his breath warm against my thigh as he blazed a path to my center. When his mouth closed over me, heat flooded my veins and he made a sound that reminded me of a man starved.

 

“So fucking sweet,” he said.

 

My heart doubled its beat as he kissed me just like he’d kissed my mouth. Slow and soft at first, and then deeper and wetter and hotter until I was squirming so much that he placed a hand on my lower stomach, holding me, guiding my hips to match the thrusts of his tongue. Sensation pounded through me, intense and beautiful. I didn’t think how intimate this was, but instead I reveled in how perfect it was with him.

 

“Seth,” I breathed out his name.

 

He went deeper and faster, and I was aware of his hips moving, as if he couldn’t control himself, and something about that made me run red-hot. Somehow I innately knew he was as close as I was, and I wanted that. I took a breath, but the coil deep inside me sprung. I cried out, and I heard his husky, throaty sound against the softest part of me. The release pounded through me, stealing my breath, as I liquefied under the crushing, pulsing and throbbing whirl of sensations.

 

Seth stayed with me, easing me down and slowing it all until I could catch my breath. My hand slipped from his hair, falling limply to my stomach. He kissed me one more time, then each of my thighs, before he lifted up.

 

Through a haze, I thought his expression looked kind of startled, a little knocked off his axis. That was okay. He’d blown my axis apart.

 

Climbing up me, he kissed me softly, and there was a mingled taste of both of us. “You okay?” he asked. “Perfect,” I murmured. “I have no bones.” He chuckled. “I’ll be right back.”

 

“Uh-huh.”

 

His face softened as he pushed off the bed. Reaching down, he grabbed a quilt and dragged it up to my waist. It felt long enough to cover all of me, but when his gaze fell to my breasts, I figured he’d done that on purpose.

 

With eyes half-open, I watched him stop at the dresser and pull out another pair of boxers. He looked over his shoulder at me and winked. “That was a first for me.”

 

Completely unashamed.

 

I loved it.

 

I grinned a little as he disappeared into the bathroom. I heard water running, and I imagined he was cleaning himself up. He returned in a few seconds, and I hadn’t moved an inch.

 

He climbed into the bed, sliding an arm under my back. He rolled me onto my side and then he hauled me back, nestling my butt into the cradle of his hips. His arm was tight around my waist, our bodies sealed together.

 

“You still with me?” he asked.

 

“I…” It took a moment to gather my wits. “I never knew it could be like that.”

 

Seth pressed a kiss against my bare shoulder, and then he shattered my heart a little. “Neither did I.”

 

 

 

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