Page 86 of Embers

“Yeah. I’m feeling so good.”

“Nothin’s ever felt better than this. Bein’ inside you like this. Nothin’ in my whole life.”

“I feel…” I whimper as he rolls his hips. “I feel that way too.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.” Since he can’t keep still, I start to move over him with a slow, steady rhythm. “You’ve always felt like home to me.”

He makes a choked sound. Jerks his head to the side. It takes him a minute to respond. “You’re home to me too, baby. Always have been.”

“I know.”

I do know. And I don’t think I can ever doubt it again. The assurance of it fills me, drives me to ride him harder, faster. Soon I’m bouncing over him eagerly, and he’s gripping my bottom to hold me in place closely enough so his cock doesn’t slip out.

He’s opened his eyes again. They’re hot and primal as he watches my breasts jiggle, my braids sway, my face tighten as I make shameless little grunts in time with my motion, the ones that sound almost childish.

“Fuck, baby. Look at you go. Take everythin’ you want. Take everythin’. It’s all yours. All of me is yours.”

I sob out from pleasure—both at his words and the peaking sensations. My body shudders through a hard orgasm, and it keeps coming because Cal starts rubbing my clit.

Tears are streaming down my face when I’ve finally ridden out the climax. I’m breathless and sated and overwhelmed with feelings, but it’s not over yet. Not until Cal comes too.

So I start riding him intentionally again, squeezing my pussy around his cock.

“Fuck!” His nostrils are flaring, and he’s pumping his hips up hard into me, huffing and grunting and still holding on to my butt. “Fuck, baby, I love you.”

“I love you too, Cal. So come. Come for me. I want you to let go.”

He makes a strangled sound as he falls out of rhythm. He’s moving so vigorously beneath me that I’m having to hold on to his shoulders.

“I love you, Cal! Let go.”

This time he’s able to do it. He lets out a loud bellow. His body jerks and shakes as a wash of pure pleasure floods his face, his eyes. He keeps twitching even afterward, as if he’s still feeling too much to handle.

Then he pulls me down into his arms with a hoarse groan. He rubs his face against mine.

“I love you,” I tell him again, softly this time. “And I’m not scared anymore.”

He sucks in a sharp breath and lifts my head so he can see my face.

“I mean it. I’m not scared. I know you’re never going to leave me again. And I want to be with you all the way. Be with you forever. There’s never going to be anyone else for me.”

He can’t even speak, but I can feel what he’s feeling. He gives me a clumsy kiss and holds me almost bruisingly.

It’s a long time before his body softens and he’s able to murmur, “I never thought I’d get you again. Not in any way. And definitely not like this. Not after I broke us so bad.”

“I didn’t think so either, but I can see we’ve both come a long way.” My body is tired, relaxed, sated in a way it hasn’t been in so long. Like it’s finally gotten what it needed. I snuggle against him. “I can be whole without you. I did learn that, and I needed to know it. But I still think… I’ll always think… I’m a little more whole with you.”

* * *

It’s a month later when I’m in the bunk room at New Haven, packing up my few belongings.

“I keep telling myself it’s a good thing,” Faith says. She’s sitting on the edge of the mattress, ostensibly here to “help” me pack but mostly just keeping me company.

So is Anna, who is currently on a break from Maria’s crew and has been staying at New Haven for the past couple of weeks. “It is a good thing,” Anna says with a smile, handing me the pretty red coat Cal gave me the Christmas before last.

It won’t fit in my bag, so I drape the coat over it.

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