Page 58 of Second Song

He wasn’t deep before. He is now.

I choke, overwhelmed, and I’ve never been more grateful that he’s observant. I let out a sound of loss when he pulls out. He muffles it with a kiss before backing me out into the hallway, where he opens one door and then another, finally finding a bed still strewn with my work clothes that he shoves aside.

He’s on top, back inside me, and I’m so close to coming.

It’s right there. Almost. My climax hurtles to the edge of a cliff only to pause instead of falling.

Liam slows, then speeds up, and it takes an age to compute that these deep and fast thrusts only last until I’m at that edge again. He slows each time, grinding into me in slow-motion, and I’m dying, drowning in a cycle that leaves me shaking and gripping his shoulders the same way as when I left crescents in his wetsuit.

I can’t let go. Can’t answer when he asks, “Yeah?” for a third time, not that I’m counting. I can barely coordinate bracing one arm over my head when everything we’ve done for long and sweaty minutes ratchets even higher and even harder until?—

He fucks me into free-fall and I don’t care if I land on rocks as long as I’m with him.

I don’t even care that I’m shaking with come spattering all over my chest, not when I’ve landed on a bed of phoenix feathers or in a crater filled with poppy petals. I’m blissed out.

And blurry.

So is he. There’s too much distance between us for me to focus. I squint to see he’s getting himself off, so I roll over and kneel up.

He’s in me again then, and words like more or harder can’t describe the way he curls around me, thrusting slow and steady until he shudders and fucks me faster. And after? He pulls me onto my side, pressing my face against the crook of his neck and shoulder like the very first day I met him, and that’s even better.

I don’t know how long we lie together. I just know there’s a mark from my mouth on the base of his neck that I have no memory of making and that he sketches shapes on my stomach.

His low rumble as he does so isn’t exactly a tune. It still sounds good, a song he doesn’t need words for, so I bask and listen, seeing notes as if they hang in the air above us both, and I never want to forget this. Not what we just did or Liam’s long sigh like he’s good and rested. “Is it me,” he finally asks, “or has it gone really quiet?”

I don’t know why my eyes prick.

I just know that he murmurs, “So fucking peaceful,” and if I knew how to extend that peace for him?

I’d make it happen in a heartbeat.

23

ROWAN

A clock still ticks. Eventually, he tunes into it. “They’ll miss you soon, Mr. Popular.”

I’m warm already. More heat spreads at him using the same name as Luke. “You heard that?”

“I’ve got tinnitus, Row, not complete loss of hearing.” His lips brush my chest. “So, how long until a horde of kids come looking for you?”

“A while.” I don’t know for sure. I just don’t want to hurry, that’s all. Not now we’ve traded places. We must have—my head is full of buzzing static. Not that I mind. I’d switch with him for longer if it kept him relaxed and easy. It’s just weird because static isn’t only in my head and isn’t limited to my hearing. This whole-body feeling is wild, electricity still coursing. I’m buzzing like when we drove back from the moors. I’m also aching, but even that’s good. So good that I trace the shell of his ear when really what I want to do is purr like a house cat. Or roll him over and do it all over again, I feel so fucking amazing. I settle for asking a question. “What can you hear right now?”

“Now?” He draws in a final deep breath and lifts his head, propping himself up on an elbow. My chest cools as his gaze shifts to the bedroom door. “A clock somewhere out there.” He rests a palm on my chest. “Your heart.” He rumbles like a much bigger cat than I just pictured, doing it again when I run a hand through his hair, and his eyelids lower. “Nothing else.” He hums as I keep stroking. I’m in no hurry to stop, not while enjoying the contrast of longer strands compared to shorter prickles, but doesn’t that define us?

We’re contrasts as well, nothing like each other but here we are, tuned into the same wavelength. I can’t keep in my own hum of satisfaction until he adds, “Apart from drumming.” He opens his eyes and cocks his head. “Or is that just me?”

I cock an ear. “No, I can hear it.” I sit up because now that I listen for it, I know what this banging signals. “Shit. I hoped Teo would go and eat with the other boarders. Spend some time being social.” I look at the door, and maybe Liam really does share a wavelength with me.

“You want to go find him?”

Nope. I don’t want Liam to move a muscle, but we both stop at the bathroom where I explain while washing.

“He’s all on his own.”

“And you know how that feels, right?”

“What?”

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