Our kiss turns molten and Stella lines me up with her entrance, nothing between us.

“Jasper. I need you. Please.” She arches her hips upward, pressing my tip inside.

“Should I get a condom?” I ask as her slick heat wraps around the crown of my cock.

Fuck.I’m barely inside her and I already know she’s going to ruin me. I want Stella bare and raw. I don’t want anything between us.

She shakes her head.

For a split second I imagine burying myself so deep in Stella, filling her with my cum, and putting a baby inside her. It’s not a rational thought. We’re not there yet, but it’s what I want for our future. Seeing Stella pregnant with our child.

“I’m on birth control.” She snaps me out of my foolish thoughts. “I’ve been tested. I’m good.”

“Same,” I confirm.

Holding her gaze, I rock my hips forward, pushing all the way inside her.

For a moment, I hold myself still, indulging in the feeling of her stretched around me. Her muscles contract, then relax as she adjusts to my size.

I start to give her short strokes, slowly working myself in and out until my cock is fully coated in her wetness and she can take all of me at once.

“Jasper.” She clings to me while I pump into her over and over. Thrusting my hips in tempo with her soft moans. “God.” She sighs. “It’s so good.”

“I know, baby. We fit together perfectly.”

Being inside Stella is everything and nothing I could have imagined.

It’s the culmination of every feeling I’ve had over the last two decades.

With every stroke, I’m telling her how I feel.

I’ve waited for you.

I want this with you.

I love you.

I hold myself deep inside her, giving her measured strokes, as the soft patch of hair between her thighs tickles the base of my cock. A tingling sensation starts to build at the base of my spine.

Stella’s face says it all. Pleasure. Connection.Trust. This thing between us is as deep as I’m buried inside her.

“Come on, Stell. I need to feel you come. I need you to milk every inch of me.”

I thrust into her again. This time her hands drop to my ass to hold me still inside her. A moment later, she spasms around me, squeezing my cock and pulling me impossibly deeper. Relief washes over me as I strokeone, two, threemore times before I spill inside her.

I pull back to look at her and notice her eyes are glassy.

I hold her face in my hands. “Don’t cry, Stell.”

“I’m not,” she says defiantly, all while tilting her head up toward the ceiling to keep the tears at her lash line from dropping. “It’s hormones, and the holidays, and I don’t know…everything.”

“I know.” Because I know exactly how she’s feeling. I’ve had these feelings for much longer. What I’ve had years to process is hitting Stella like a tidal wave, and all I want to do is hold her until she can find her equilibrium again.

I kiss her softly, then wrap her in my arms. After a while our kisses become deeper, then Stella reaches between us, stroking me until I’m rigid and the frenzy of having each other starts over again.

TWENTY-TWO

STELLA