Page 85 of Heart & Hope

I huff a soft chuckle. Always with the vehicle talk. My hair, almost dry again, falls over my shoulders and surrounds his face as I rise up on my knees. He moves his soft, wide tip against my entrance, and my breath hitches. His face is strained as his hands return to my hips, and I suck back a sob. Emotion is commandeering this ship, as it always does when he is around.

His chest plummets as I hover in place. And when I lower a little, he groans, his grip turning so tight on my hips it bites. A few inches lower and my entire world is going to change. Tell that to the heat searing a hole in my heart, the fire lancing through my veins, and the threads of my scattered soul that are weaving back together after decades of not feeling loved.

It takes a moment to rein in my thundering heart and process the feelings now flinging around my heart like rogue javelins. The ones that I have suppressed for years after growing up in a house where affection was considered unnecessary. And love, well, that was something my parents and family never discussed, let alone showed.

I sink onto him and watch as his face wrecks in front of me.

“Ru—”

I snatch his face between my hands and devour his mouth before he can say a word. And when I rise back up, feeling every long, hard inch of him, I whimper against his lips.

Fuck me.

All the way to Sunday, Reed Rawlins.

Oh. My. God.

His hands are in my hair. Lips and a little teeth close over my hard nipple, and I take up a steady rhythm. Back arched and moans cascading from my mouth, heaven will never compare to Reed inside me. “Gorgeous man, you are everything.”

“Steady, beautiful. God, you’re perfect. Too fast and this ain’t gonna last long.”

He clamps down on my hips, driving further inside me, and I buck, heat spiraling in my center as lava tracks up my spine, heading toward release.

Never before has anyone sent me over that cliff while inside me. And the feeling working up to it is so intense. Driving me to the brink of no return faster and faster with every long, controlled stroke. I cup his face with my hands and tilt his head up. When I take in those gorgeous green eyes, the words I want to say to him solidify, squashed down by the rock that wedges its way into my airways. But my face must be etched with a thousand phrases, because he says, “I know, Rubes.”

I slap a hand over my mouth to hide the stupid fucking emotion that is bubbling up through my insides.

“Hey, you’re okay. I will always take care of you, baby. It’s my privilege.”

I suck in a handful of breaths and recover, not wanting to cry during our first time. “Where did you come from?” I whisper, running a hand through his hair.

“Sometimes God gets it right, beautiful.”

I huff a strangled laugh and bend down. “You’re not supposed to be thinking about God right now.”

A laugh rumbles through him, and he sweeps his arms underneath me, flipping us over. But he pulls out and I’m on my stomach a heartbeat later. Rough hands pull my hips up, and he sinks into me again. So much deeper, the fit tighter. I slam my hands onto the rustic headboard.

“Damn, Ruby, I can barely control myself,” he pants.

“Then don’t.”

“Jesus, baby.”

I widen my knees and push back with every stroke. The stretch is incredible. And I plummet toward sweet agony faster than before. And when Reed grabs my hair and leans over, dotting kisses down my spine, gooseflesh ignites along my spine, sending me over the edge.

“Reed! Oh, don’t stop. Plea?—”

The words accelerate into a cry as I contract around him, wave after wave, and he meets me there, with long, fast strokes that make my mouth water and my heart fling against my breastbone, like a captured bird.

When I catch my breath and the last wave is wrung from my body, I grind back into him. Still, even after that soul-shattering orgasm, I am desperate for him. I push off the headboard, rising up on my knees until my sweaty back meets his chest.

“Baby, you’re ruining this man for anyone else.”

I slide my hand up and behind his neck and drag his mouth down, kissing his lips. “Good.”

“Want some more, baby?”

“Yes,” I rasp, resting my head back on his shoulder.

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