Page 137 of You, As You Are

And she was never supposed to stay.

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

IAIN

It was mid-afternoon,and here he was lying in bed with a goddess beside him.

Iain’s pulse had just about dipped back down to a normal, steady rhythm, his lungs finally taking in air as they should. How hard he’d worked his body today had taken a toll on his muscles, every one of them delightfully sore as he lay on his stomach, one arm across Maisie pulling her in against his side. She was so soft that her every curve conformed to him like the tide did against the cliffs.

He’d chucked the blanket that’d been beneath her to the floor to be washed, leaving his duvet to pull up over them both. It sat in the low dip of his back whilst Maisie lifted her half to her breasts.

“How are you feeling?” he asked her gently.

They’d gone only that one round, but Maisie had given a lot of herself, and Iain didn’t have the strength to even stand. He’d been thoroughly fucked with zero regrets – except for maybe not giving himself the chance to rest after his game that morning. Still, he’d been honest when he’d said that this last hour was about her and what she needed to be comfortable. Everythingshe’d confessed about sex being painful for her he’d taken to heart.

Maisie massaged her fingers through his hair. “A little uncomfortable,” she said, her face turned in the pillow she’d claimed. “I get cramps a lot after sex, but these ones aren’t bad.”

Iain didn’t want her to be inanypain at all. “That doesn’t sound good.”

Maisie gave a one-shouldered shrug, gently sighing. “It’s not great.”

He shifted his hand from her waist with barely any pressure across her belly, and the warmth melted into her skin. “Does this help?”

Tension in Maisie’s shoulders ebbed as she hummed. “Heat helps.” Iain made a mental note to buy something microwaveable for her pains without questioning the thought.

“The internet was useful for looking up your condition,” he said, circling his palm lower where she shifted it. “I won’t pretend to be a know-it-all, but at least I know more, now.”

Maisie blinked at him. “You researched endo?”

“Yes …” Why wouldn’t he? She was trusting him with her body in the most intimate of ways, so yes, he researched her condition.

A smile like sunshine spread on Maisie’s lips. “You’re not a grizzly bear at all. You’re a big ol’ softie, Iain.” She ruffled up the curls on top of his head and Iain feigned trying to escape her reach.

“Alright you, let me keep some of my reputation.”

Maisie chuckled tiredly, a sound like honey being poured into his veins.

“More seriously though, did I do something in particular to cause this?” he asked.

Across her cheeks and chest were still pink and warm from her exertion, but they blotted with more colour, then. “I think it’s more how hard you made me …”

A smirk pulled on Iain’s lips. “Come?”

“Yes … that.” Her eyes flicked away from the smugness on his face for a second.

“I haven’t ever not had to fake it”, my ass.Every time she wanted an orgasm she should just say his name and he would appear from now on.

“There’s a lot of muscle contractions involved,” Maisie continued to say. “Lots of … movement.”

“Trust me, I felt them all around the length of me.” He kissed her upper arm. “You were so amazing, love.”

Iain didn’t think anything of what he’d said, not until Maisie’s silence, the absence of her body rising with a breath beside him.

Love.He hadn’t meant it like—at least, he didn’t think he’d meant it like …

His heart skipped over every other beat.

Some bubble of delusion he’d let himself float within without realising it burst. He’d been ignoring the signs that what was happening between them was more real than just two people giving in to lust and attraction. It hadn’tjustbeen that for him for weeks.

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