Page 63 of Every Heartbeat After

Tess nods, her salt-tousled hair tangling on the bed beneath her. “Absolutely. I want to feel you.Allof you.”

I bite down on my knuckle with a groan. “Woman, you are going to be the death of me.”

“So long as I get to feel you come inside me first,” she teases with a shrug.

I rip my shorts off as quickly as I can. A moment away is still too long. I surge forward, my hand fastening to her jaw so I can tilt her head to align our mouths once more.

Then I wipe that smirk from her lips with a roll of my hips, bringing my cock into her wet heat. Just the tip, but it’s enough to still her breathing, to dilate her pupils till there’s no green left glinting in the moonlight. Her breath spills onto my lips, and I draw it into my lungs, soaking up every part of her that I can.

I trace a finger from her mouth to her throat, then close my hand around its base. Not too tight, just enough to earn that thrill in her gaze. “Are you going to take my cock like a good girl?”

She nods, wrapping her hand around my wrist and squeezing. “Yes, sir.”

“Good.” I squeeze her throat once for good measure, then I bury myself to the hilt.

“Fuck fuck fuck,” she murmurs, rolling her hips wildly against me. She’s so tight, so warm that I have to grind my molars to keep from coming instantly. Damp heat envelops my cock. Over and over again, I slam home, earning gasps from her parted lips. Her breasts bounce with every thrust. Her skin is perfect and creamy in the pale light. Now that my eyes have adjusted, I can see it all. And it’s everything I could’ve wanted and more.

“You look so good with me buried inside you.” And she does. Her pussy has me in a death grip, her lips parted around my base in a way that is deliciously sinful. I rock forward with a steady rhythm, feeling her walls tighten more with every thrust. She’s so close, as close as I am. Not much longer and we’ll be unraveling together.

Her nails scrape my forearm, her throat bobbing beneath my grip as she swallows a gasp. “Come for me, Kit. I want to feel you.”

“So soon?” I drawl.

“Won’t be long before I’m begging you to do it again.”

Begging. That word again, spilling from her pretty mouth, is my undoing. I lose control, thrusting wildly into her, taking everything for myself. She calls out my name, again and again until it’s the pulse that roars in my ears as I empty myself inside her with a guttural moan. Her walls tighten around me, and soon she’s arching, grinding, stealing back every ounce of pleasure I took for myself.

We collapse in a heap of slick limbs and gasping breaths. For a few heartbeats, I can’t even think. My mind is blank save for Tess’s face as she came, the most breathtaking sight I’ve ever seen.

When I’ve gathered my strength enough to move, I slip from inside Tess and rise to my feet on trembling legs. From my spot at the edge of the bed, I watch as my come spills from inside her, and the sight is enough to make me hard again. I have to force myself to walk away. To gather a washcloth from the bathroom and wet it, then return to wipe her clean.

She rolls onto her side, and I crawl into bed behind her, cradling her body against mine and sighing when at last we’re aligned perfectly. This is how it always should be. Tess and me, together. Nothing has ever felt so right.

“That was everything,” I whisper into her hair, because it’s the only word that comes close to describing how I feel, without touching on something I cannot name. Not now, when I’ve only just convinced her I can keep my emotions at bay. Even as I promised it, I knew it was a vow I could not keep. When I get on that plane, my heart won’t just be broken. It’ll be fucking shattered. But that’s my burden to bear, not hers. And I’d gladly do it a million times over to experience the type of bliss I’m feeling right now.

“It was,” she says with a sigh. The heaviness of sleep tugs at the edges of her voice. “I can’t tell if it’s the uncircumcised penis that made the difference, though.”

My chest vibrates with laughter. I bury my face in her hair, but it’s no use. I laugh so loud I’m sure the walls shake with it, and so does she. When one of us has nearly come to grips, the other snorts, and we fall back into it all over again.

“You’re something else,” I tease when at last I’m able to catch my breath.

“Something special?” she asks, turning to gaze at me over her shoulder. Her eyes are bright with the remnants of laughter. Hair a mess. Lips swollen from my kisses. Absolute perfection. The death of me, I’m nearly sure of it.

“Definitely something special.” I force the words out through a tight throat, and her responding nod is nearly imperceptible as her gaze drops to my mouth with a heaviness I sense as much as I see. I kiss her in an attempt to bring the lightheartedness back, but I fear it’s gone for good.

We fall asleep above the covers, beneath the weight of all the things we don’t dare say. But I feel it, and in my dreams, she says it clear as day.

ChapterTwenty-Five

Tess

Today is a happy day.So why do I feel so sad?

I wake with emotion coating my throat like cough syrup. All those years jumping up at the crack of dawn with my dad have finally shown their hand. I lie in the quiet cradle of the morning, watching Kit sleep while grieving a loss that hasn’t happened yet.

I may not love him now, but I could, probably a lot sooner than I’d like to admit. The mere possibility terrifies me. I know better than anyone where all that love goes when the object of it is no longer around to receive it. It festers in your heart like infection in an open wound. The kind that never really heals, instead becoming a burden that weighs you down for the rest of your life.

Last night was incredible. It’s everything I didn’t know I was missing and then some. And my God, do I wish I were the type of person who could let that be it. Let myself be happy with what I was given without yearning for something beyond it. But I’m a woman whose bankroll lies in wishes for more: more years with my parents. More time to be a kid. More of an idea of what the hell I’m supposed to do with a life that could end at any second.

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