Lick (Stage Dive, #1)(56)

“Fuck,” he groaned.

“What?”

“Just, just stay still for a minute.”

I scrunched up my nose, concentrated on catching my breath. This sex stuff was tricky. Also, I wanted to memorize every moment of this perfect experience. I didn’t want to forget a thing.

He balanced my back against the shower wall and pushed more fully into me. A startled sound burst out of my mouth. Most closely it resembled “argh”.

“Easy,” he murmured. “You okay?”

I felt really full. Stretched. And it might have felt good. It was hard to tell. I needed him to do something so I could figure out where this new sensation was taking me. “Are you going to move now?”

“If you’re okay now.”

“I’m okay.”

He did move then, watching my face all the while. The slide out lit me up inside in a lovely rush, but the thrust back in got my immediate attention. Whoa. Good or bad, I still couldn’t quite tell. I needed more. He gave it to me, his pelvis shifting against me, keeping the warmth and tension building. My blood felt fever hot, surging through me, burning beneath my skin. I fit my mouth to his, wanting more. Wanting it all. The wet of his mouth and the skill of his tongue. All of him. No one kissed like David. As though kissing me beat breathing, eating, sleeping or anything else he might have otherwise planned to do with the rest of his life.

My back bumped hard against the glass wall and our teeth clinked together. He broke the kiss with a wary look, but he never stopped moving. Harder, faster, he rocked into me. It just got better and better. We needed to do this all the time. Constantly. Nothing else mattered when it was like this between us. Every worry disappeared.

It was so damn good. He was all that I needed.

Then he hit upon some spot inside of me and my whole body seized up, nerves tingling and running riot. My muscles squeezed him tight and he thrust in deep several times in rapid succession. The world blacked out or I closed my eyes. The pressure inside me shattered into a million amazing pieces. It went on and on. My mind left the stratosphere, I was sure of it. Everything sparkled. If it felt anything like that for David, I don’t know how he stayed on his feet. But he did. He stood strong and whole with me clutched tight against him like he’d never let me go.

Eventually, about a decade later, he did set me down. His hands hovered by my waist, just in case. Once my limbs proved trustworthy, he turned me to face the water. With a gentle hand, he cleaned me between my legs. I didn’t get what he was up to at first and tried to back away. Touching anything there right then didn’t seen a smart idea.

“It’s okay,” he said, drawing me back into the spray of water. “Trust me.”

I stood still, flinching out of instinct. He took nothing but care. The whole world seemed weird, everything too close and yet buffered at the same time. Weariness and the best orgasm of my life had undone me.

Next he reached over and turned off the water, stepped out and grabbed two towels. One he tied around his waist, the other he patted me dry with.

“That was good, right?” I asked as he dried off my hair, tending to me. My body still shook and quivered. It seemed like a good sign. My world had been torn apart and remade into some sparkly surreal love-fest thing. If he said it was only okay I might hit him.

“That was f*cking incredible,” he corrected, pulling off his towel and throwing it onto the bathroom counter.

Even my grin quivered. I saw it in the mirror. “Yes. It was.”

“Us together, always is.”

Hand in hand we walked back into the bedroom. Being naked in front of him didn’t feel weird for once. There was no hesitation. He discarded his towel and we climbed onto his giant-sized bed, gravitating naturally toward the middle and each other. We both lay on our sides, face to face. I could slip into a coma, I was so worn out. Such a pity to have to close my eyes when he lay right there in front of me. My husband.

“You swore at me,” he said, eyes amused.

“Did I?”

His hand sat atop of my thigh, his thumb sliding back and forth over my hip bone. “Gonna pretend you don’t remember what you said? Really?”

“No. I remember.” Though I hadn’t meant to say it, neither the cuss word nor the declaration of love. But I had. Big girl panties time. “I said I was in love with you.”

“Mm. People say stuff during sex. It happens.”

He was giving me an out but I couldn’t take it. I wouldn’t take it, no matter how tempting. I wasn’t about to diminish the moment like that.

“I am in love with you.” I said, feeling awkward. The same as when I’d said I trusted him, he was going to leave me hanging here too. I knew it.

His gaze lingered on my face, patient and kind. It hurt. Something inside me felt brittle and he brought it straight to the fore. Love made spelunking look sensible. BASE jumping and wrestling bears couldn’t be far behind. But it was much, much too late to worry. The words were already out there. If love was for fools then so be it. At least I’d be an honest one.

He stroked my face with the back of his fingers. “That was a beautiful thing to say.”

“David, it’s okay—”

“You’re so f*cking important to me,” he said, stopping me short. “I want you to know that.”

“Thank you.” Ouch, not exactly the words I wanted to hear after I admitted I loved him.