Page 83 of After You

Maybe he should be strong, nurse his hurt feelings a little longer, remember the pain and regret. But this didn’t feel weak. This felt like…healing. It felt like things that had been broken were getting put back together. Maybe even stronger than before.

“What’s going to keep me looking like this is you holding me, just like this, but without any clothes betweenus.”

Kyle immediately pivoted in the direction of her house and started across thelawn.

She laughed. “You can’t carry me all the way there.”

“Watchme.”

She leaned in and put her mouth near his ear. “We can get there faster if you put me down and werun.”

He dropped her to her feet immediately, grabbed her hand and, laughing, they ran to her mom and dad’s. The back door was, of course, unlocked. As were all back doors in Sapphire Falls. Which was a little crazy and a little great. They burst through the door and into the kitchen. Hannah stripped her shirt over her head as she started for the laundry room, but Kyle reached out and snagged the back of her shorts.

He pulled her to a stop, spun her, and backed her up against the door. Then he kissed her. And kissed her. And kissed her. He held the back of her neck in one hand, the other squeezing her hip as he poured his passion and regret and affection and concern into the kiss. This had to be good for her. He had to be gentle, even as he wanted to rip every stitch of clothing from her body and run his tongue and lips and hands over every inch ofher.

She was wiggling against him now, and he felt her hands slip under the edge of his shirt and start rolling it up his body. The wet cotton definitely didn’t move as smoothly as when it was dry. When she got it to his armpits, he leaned back only enough to help her peel it off. She ran her hands over his pecs and shoulders, down his sides, and over his stomach. The muscles jumped under her touch, and he felt a shiver go through him—desire, anticipation, and yeah, that pure happiness again.

He brought her in for another kiss, thoroughly exploring her mouth, a little lazier this time, but she started wiggling almost right away and making those sighing-moaning sounds that shot straight to hiscock.

He felt her hands at his fly and realized he needed to catch up a little. He moved his hands to the waistband of her shorts, grateful for the baggier cotton. He quickly sent them to her ankles, unable to keep from looking down and taking in her plain white bra and the purple polka-dotted panties.

“I don’t match my underwear and bras anymore,” she said, lowering his zipper.

Her knuckles skimmed over his erection and he sucked in a breath. “I don’t care about matching bras and panties, Hannah.”

“It just seemed so silly to be worried about stuff likethat.”

“Totally silly. Doesn’t matter if they match once they’re on the floor,” he agreed.

She started to pull his jeans over his hips but, as everyone knew, wet denim was a bitch to get off. She yanked and tugged for a few seconds but finally let out a breath. “You’re going to have to doit.”

But he had a better plan at the moment. Keeping his pants on for a little bit seemed like a good idea. So that he could take the time to do some other things they hadn’t done before.

“Laundry room,” he told her, turning her and nudging her in that direction.

She went without argument, grabbing their shirts and her shorts from the floor on her way. Kyle took a second to appreciate how fucking amazing her ass looked in the unmatched purple polka dots. He ran a hand through his wet hair, then started afterher.

Hannah tossed the clothes into the dryer, then turned to face him. She watched him watch her unhook her bra and toss it in too. Then she slipped her pantiesoff.

Kyle could have sworn he actually felt his blood rush to hiscock.

Damn. She looked exactly as he remembered her, and yet different. It was as if his memories of her had dimmed. Real-life, high-definition 3D was…fucking amazing. “You’re gorgeous,” he chokedout.

She gave him a smile and said, “You’ve still got clotheson.”

“Yeah, it’s staying that way for a while.”

She lifted a brow. “Oh?”

“I need some control. Wet denim might be my onlyhope.”

“You don’t need control.” She frowned slightly. “I’m not fragile.”

“That’s not the problem.”

“You’re sure? I don’t want you to go easy onme.”

Christ. She sure as hell wasn’t going easy on him, talking like that. “I intend to go just exactly the way you need me to go,” he told her. “But if I take my pants off, I’m going to thrust first and think later.”

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