My stomach flutters with nerves, at what I’m about to do, but I fear if I don’t do it soon I’ll lose my chance. I push back and peel down my boxers. My body strains for her and she licks her lips, practically sending me to my knees with want.
Every time I look at her, the pressure of climax coils and threatens release. Breathe, do algebra, anything to avoid this ending too soon. Ripping open the condom with my teeth, I roll it on and meet Shyann’s hungry, lustfogged eyes.
“You sure?” I need to know I’m not imagining she wants me with the same desperation that I want her.
“Never been more sure of anything in my entire life.”
I close my eyes at the rough tone in her voice and her words of acceptance sending sensations all over my body. Once I’ve regained a sliver of restraint, I crawl up and between her legs. She opens them wide and the heat of her core swallows me.
“Mmm . . . Shy, you feel so good.”
Her hands guide my hips and she presses me forward. Inch by inch, I sink into the relentless grip of her body, stealing my breath. I still, unable to move as I allow myself a second to just be.
She encourages me to move, rolling her hips and gripping my ass. “Move, it’s okay.”
“It’s not.” I pull back and lazily slide in. “This is far, far better than okay.”
Braced on my elbows, I can’t tear my gaze away from her sly grin as I move inside her. The heated clutch of her body around mine sends the signal to drive into her to my muscles. I hold back, going slow so I can watch as every ridge glides against her softness.
I want to kiss her, to suck her lips so deep she becomes part of me, to drink in her essence, hold her captive, lock her away from the pain of the world and never let her go. Without the conscious decision to do so, I pick up rhythm and she meets me thrust for thrust. I remember how parts of her body would make her scream, so I tilt my hips with a long and languid roll. She sucks in a breath, her fingernails biting into my back.
Tension gathers at the base of my spine and pulls tighter than any orgasm I’ve ever felt. “I’m lost to you, Shyann.” I suck her bottom lip into my mouth. “Gone forever.”
Her back arches off the bed and a low and sexy groan falls from her lips. She tightens around me and the extra sensation shoves me off the ledge. I bury my face in her neck and thrust so hard I’m afraid I’ve hurt her, but my name falls from her lips on a heady groan of ecstasy, pulsing around me, milking me and taking my very soul with it.
She whispers something and I go still. No, I must’ve heard that wrong. I slide in and out of her, unable to give up the feeling of being deep inside her, wondering if I give her up if I’ll get this chance again.
The thought cracks my chest in two.
Her hands run up and down my back, soothing the sting of her nail tracks, and a sick part of me hopes she marked me permanently. Left me with proof this isn’t a dream and I had the most beautiful woman I’ve ever known in my bed and in my arms even if for only one night.
“. . . so much. I do.”
I pull back and meet her eyes. Liquid blue staring up at me, her cheeks flushed and her full lips trembling.
“Did I hurt you?”
A tiny smile ticks her lips, but her eyes fill with tears. “No, you didn’t hurt me.”
One drop falls from her eye and I snag it with my finger, rubbing it into my own skin as if I could absorb her pain. “Shy . . . you’re crying.”
She laughs and shakes her head. “I know. I haven’t cried since—” “The night in the river.”
Her smile falls, but she doesn’t seem embarrassed at my bringing up my seeing her naked. I suppose having sex means we’re beyond that now. “Yes, the night in the river. And before that it’d been years.”
I run my thumb along her cheek. “Why now?”
She shrugs and smiles sadly. “Because I’m pathetic, weak . . . and madly in love with you.”
Every muscle in my body turns to stone and I stare openly at her. There’s no way she just said that . . . to me. “W-what?”
She sighs heavily. “Yeah, I do. I love you, Lucas.”
I blink. “What?”
Her hand comes up to cup my cheek. “I. Love. You.”
My eyes slam closed and I push away the thoughts that tell me I’m unworthy, that all this is too much to be true and I must be dead. Somehow, somewhere I was deemed good enough for heaven and I’ve finally made it because outside of heaven this would never happen to someone like me.
I rest my forehead against hers and hold my fingertips to her lips, needing to feel her mouth move to convince myself it’s not a hallucination. “Say it again.”
“I love you, Lucas.”
I suck in a breath at the feel of her lips moving against my skin, the gust of her hot breath as she says the words I never thought I’d hear.
“Please . . .” Let this be real. My fingers tremble against her mouth. “Again.”
“I love you, so much. All of you.”
I rock my head from side to side against hers. “How is that possible?” I move inside her, this time more forceful, overwhelmed by her words.
By her acceptance.