Page 80 of Cross the Line
‘Shut up,’ I groan as I press my lips to his, tasting myself on his tongue. ‘I want you inside me.’
He inhales sharply, turning his head to break the kiss. ‘That really what you want?’
‘Yes.’ I hold his face between my palms so he’s forced to look at me. So he can see just how sure I am. ‘So badly.’
He stares up at me with an adoration I want to bask in, but then a flash of disappointment overcomes it. ‘I don’t have a condom,’ he explains. ‘I wasn’t expecting this to happen.’
I kiss him again, hands still cupping his jaw. ‘It’s fine,’ I say when I force myself to break away again. ‘I’m on birth control, and I haven’t been with anyone in . . . in a long time.’
Suddenly, we’re moving, his hands under my ass as he stands, bringing me up with him. ‘I think you already know I don’t have any STDs.’
I stifle my laugh, wrapping my arms around his neck to hold on as he strides across the room. ‘I don’t know. Maybe we should grab one of those IYK Quick Results tests, just to be sure. I hear they’re really accurate.’
‘You’re awful,’ he says as he sets me on the bed and kneels on the edge.
I shoot him a smug grin. ‘You love me anyway.’
‘You’re right. I do.’
My heart stutters as his words wash over me. The comment was a flippant phrase that rolled off my tongue without thought. And I certainly didn’t imagine that kind of reply.
‘Dev . . .’ I whisper, giving him the opportunity to take it back in case he didn’t mean it.
I don’t realize I’m inching away until he grabs me by my calves so I can’t escape. He holds me there and hovers over me, knowing better than to pull me toward him.
‘That’s not how I expected it to come out,’ he admits on a soft, self-deprecating laugh. ‘But that’s how I feel, Willow.’
He cages me in with his arms, but I’m not trapped by him or by his words. I feel . . . safe. With him, I always have, even when we were young and he was encouraging me to be a little reckless. He made sure I never got hurt, and here he is, doing the same thing now. How could I not love him for that?
‘You don’t have to say it back,’ he continues, his nose brushing mine. ‘I don’t expect you to. I know it’s a big thing. But I need you to know.’
I swallow past the lump forming in my throat and blink away the burn behind my eyes. ‘Okay,’ I choke out, but what I really want to tell him bubbles up behind it. ‘I do love you, though.’
It’s his turn to go still, his eyes searching my face the only motion. ‘Fuck,’ he exhales after a beat. ‘That felt even better than I thought it would.’
A giggle escapes me, a surge of giddiness rushing through my veins. Dev loves me. And I love him. If I could go back and tell my thirteen-year-old self that we’d end up here, that girl wouldn’t have believed it. Yet here we are.
‘Does that mean you’ll fuck me now?’ I ask, both teasing and hopeful, and the laugh it drags out of him makes my heart skip a beat.
‘Whatever you want, jaanu,’ he says before kissing away every bit of composure I have left. ‘I’ll give it all to you.’
I’m breathing hard when he reaches behind me to undo the clasp of my bra. When he slips the straps down my arms and lets it float to the floor, my nipples are already pebbled, aching to be touched.
He takes another moment to admire me. ‘Beautiful. You are so beautiful,’ he repeats. I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of hearing it.
He dips his head and takes a nipple into his mouth, rolling it with his tongue, drawing a shaky exhale out of me. When he pulls back to move to my other breast, he covers the first with his hand, saving me from the sting of the AC. It’s so considerate I could cry.
Dev continues his exploration of my body, pressing kisses down my sternum to the softness of my belly. My stomach twists when he hooks his fingers into the waistband of both my shorts and my underwear and gives them a tug, a silent request for me to lift my hips so he can pull them off.
This is it. I know I can back out at any time and he would respect that decision. Not that Iwantto stop this, but . . . shit, this is really happening. Whether reality lives up to all my fantasies remains to be seen. Though, so far, I’ve been more than satisfied by this turn of events.
So I lift for him. And then, finally, every inch of me is bared.
Once more, he takes his time to admire, eyes sweeping over my body, a hard set to his jaw like he’s holding himself back from devouring me. Based on how he lowers his head to resume kissing across my hip bones, he’s about to do just that.
I stop him with a trembling hand when his lips are a hair’s breadth above my most sensitive spot, and he glances up at me in question.
‘Another time,’ I insist, though the heat in his eyes almost makes me regret my choice. ‘I want you inside me.’
