“Please,” he says, closing his eyes, line deep between his brows. “Just let me go.”
“I won’t.”
“Sweetheart,” he says. He opens his eyes, and I feel every drop of his pain as he gazes at me. “You’re so fucking beautiful. So smart. So talented. In every single thing you do. I can’t live knowing that I’ll always be there because I have to be. I’ll only hold you back.”
I run my thumbs over his cheekbones. “You won’t hold me back, Max. You’ll hold me exactly where I need to be. Please.” I lean in and kiss him softly on the lips just as a tear spills out from my eye. “Please,” I say against his mouth. “Do this for me. Stay for me.”
He places his hands over my forearms and I feel his strength, his warmth.
His hesitation.
I pull back, searching his face until he meets my gaze.
“Stay for me,” I say again.
He looks down at my mouth for a moment, then nods. Licks his lips.
Okay.
Okay.
I’m still shaking on the inside, but that energy quickly gets channeled into heat.
I kiss him again, and this time he kisses me back.
Slow, tentative. Just a brush of the lips, a quick slip of the tongue.
It’s enough to get me wet.
I breathe out slowly, gazing up at him.
“You’re not dying before I get a chance to have sex with you.”
Then I am stepping back on the bed, taking off my tank top and throwing it on the ground beside me. I’m topless in front of him, bare and exposed.
His gaze turns to one that’s darkly carnal, nearly menacing. He takes me all in, and I do the same in response. He’s already so hard I don’t think his boxer briefs will be able to contain him for long.
“Are you sure this is what you want?” he asks gruffly, reaching out to touch me, running his wide palms over my breasts, and closing them in over my ribcage before gliding down my waist, marveling at me as he goes.
“Yes,” I whisper hoarsely. “Yes. I want you.”
I love you.
I love you.
Oh my god.
He meets my eyes, coming alive, and I’m so afraid that we both found out how I feel at the same time. The realization is like someone has taken a sledgehammer to my chest, freed every winged thing that was held captive inside me.
I love him.
Fuck.
Then he’s kissing me.
Hard.
Overtaking me.
Pushing me backward on the bed until I’m falling onto the covers.
He’s on top of me in a flash, knee between my legs, spreading my thighs, hands taking hold of my wrists, holding them above my head.
I barely have time to breathe before he’s kissing me again. Tongue sinking deep into my mouth, all pretenses and formalities gone. He’s going to consume me, and I’ve been aching to be consumed.
One hand skirts over my breasts, thumb circling my nipple, kneading the skin and his mouth slides along to the corner of my lips, wet, biting, kissing, licking. My chin, my jaw, I’m sampled, tasted, devoured with urgency that glows between us both, a kick start to the heart.
I gasp for air, arching my back, opening my lungs, and yet it’s like I don’t even need to breathe, I have everything I need right here.
He lets go of my wrists, starts moving down the bed, lips trailing along my body, tongue clearing a path. My skin leaps at his touch, feverish and flushed, as he closes his mouth over my nipple, pulling it in, a long, slow suck that makes me moan, the eyes rolling back in my head.
Holy shit.
He’s just getting started and I’m all ready to let go.
He groans against my breast, sending shockwaves through my nervous system, which already feels like it’s about to have a meltdown. Something nuclear.
Then he keeps moving, pressing his hands against my thighs to part them and then close them again.
I prop myself up on my elbows to watch, my eyes glued to him as he rests between my hips, coming to his knees as he wraps his long fingers around the hem of my booty shorts and underwear. I lift up my hips to help him and, at that, he looks up at me, meeting my gaze.
Good lord.
I think this man is going to eat me for breakfast.
There’s something feral in his stare, like I’m not the only one who’s been freed from a cage, running loose.
He keeps eye contact as he strips me bare, my underwear caught around one ankle, then slides his palms back up my thighs. Runs them underneath, parting them wider, keeps watching me as he slides a finger down my middle, the sound embarrassingly wet.
The corner of his mouth lifts.
His tongue snakes out through his teeth.
Lowers his head between my legs, placing his mouth right over my clit while his finger trails down, diving inside me.