A Cosmic Kind of Love(75)

“Hallie,” he said my name like a prayer, as the fullness of him overwhelmed me. “Are you okay?”

I nodded, lifting my hips. “Don’t stop.”

He brushed his mouth across mine, a whisper of a kiss, each brush a tease of what he could give me, and he did the same with his hips. Gliding slowly in and out. I gasped at the delicious friction. I’d never climaxed during penetrative sex. But staring into Chris’s eyes as he teased my mouth with kisses, as his biceps flexed with his slow thrusts, as his stomach brushed against my trembling belly, I felt it might be possible. No guy had ever made me feel more in the moment, more needed, and that was intoxicating.

I moaned as shivers rippled down my spine with the building tension.

“Oh fuck, Hallie.” Chris bowed his head, gritting his teeth as his hips picked up pace. “Tell me you’re close.”

I was, but I wasn’t going to come in time. “Just come.” I squeezed his ass.

He bared his teeth at me. “Not before you.” He slowed his thrusts.

“Chris, no, I’m good,” I panted, lifting my hips to urge him on.

His eyes flashed with what I’d soon realize was that goddamn perceptiveness of his. “You promised. Tell me what you need.”

“I, uh . . . Chris . . . oh . . . uh . . .” I moaned as he canted his hips at a certain angle. “Touch me, touch me . . . I can’t without . . .” My explanation trailed off as he slipped a hand between my legs, his thumb easily finding my clit.

“Is this what you need?” he asked hoarsely against my mouth, his lips touching mine with each word.

I nodded.

Chris moved his hips as his thumb circled and pressed down on me.

There was no countdown, no warning.

Just like that, my astronaut successfully launched me into the stars, and I was still gasping Chris’s name as he followed me into them.





TWENTY-EIGHT





Chris


A sound my brain couldn’t quite process in that place between sleep and awake pushed me further toward consciousness. Opening my eyes, the hazy vision of Hallie climbing into my bed yanked me closer to waking.

I rolled into her as she rested her head on the pillow, her face becoming clearer as my vision sharpened. Memories of last night made my blood hot. “Where were you?” I asked, my voice gritty with sleep.

She smiled shyly. “Peeing.”

I grinned. The toilet flushing had awoken me, I realized.

My gaze fell to her mouth. I loved her mouth. I wanted that mouth. So I took it. She tasted of mint. I pulled back to ask her if she’d brushed her teeth, but Hallie wasn’t for breaking the kiss.

She kissed me hungrily in a way that took me from zero to a hundred in seconds. I let her roll me, wrapping my arms around her small waist as she straddled me.

Feeling the fabric in my hands, I broke the kiss, my gaze dipping down her body.

She wore my T-shirt.

“As sexy as this is, it needs to go.” I whipped it off her before she could protest.

For a second, Hallie gazed a little unsurely down at me. Her pink hair fell wildly over her rounded breasts, her skin already a little flushed with arousal. Her lips were swollen from all the attention I’d given them last night.

It blew my mind that she had no idea how gorgeous she was. Who were these idiots she’d dated before me?

In fact, I didn’t want to know.

Every woman I’d dated had a past except for my first girlfriend. It had never bothered me, the idea of other men in their beds.

It irritated me to think of Hallie with anyone for two reasons. One, for the first time in my life, I wanted someone so badly, I was jealous. Two, clearly, they’d all been assholes if Hallie felt sex should be all about the guy.

“You’re staring,” she whispered, her palms resting lightly on my chest.

“Hallie Goodman is naked and straddling me,” I answered with a grin. “Of course I’m staring. I’d like to memorize this moment.”

Her spine straightened, her breasts jutting out, nipples tight and tempting. Confidence crept into her touch as she caressed my chest and undulated slowly on me. “Do you need to memorize it?” Hallie leaned down to kiss me. “I was kind of hoping to straddle you naked a lot in the future.”

The very thought made every inch of me tighten with a sense of desperation and need. I wanted that. I wanted her here for as long as she’d have me. “Sounds like an excellent plan to me,” I replied hoarsely as I slid my hand around her nape to bring her lips back to mine.

Not long later, I was inside her again. Goddamn heaven. Watching her ride me, lost in the moment, free of worries, confident that I wanted her as badly as she wanted me was the sexiest thing I’d ever seen. I was just a guy at the end of the day, and the idea that Hallie was so hot for me she forgot her own anxieties and worries made me cocky (and turned on) as hell.

A while later, Hallie followed me into the kitchen wearing my T-shirt again.

“What would Ms. Goodman like for breakfast?” I inquired as I yanked open the refrigerator.

“It’s very hard for me to concentrate when you’re not wearing a shirt.”

I glanced over my shoulder at her, catching her checking me out. I chuckled. “We can keep it together long enough to have breakfast, right?”