Page 50 of Until You Found Me

He settles between her legs, slicking himself on her arousal, teetering on the edge of something he isn’t sure how to handle. The wetness at her opening gathers on his tip and he pushes with the smallest thrust that does nothing more than apply pressure.

She winces and he stalls, afraid to hurt her, but she lifts her hips in encouragement, a crease of concentration forming between those pretty blue eyes when he tries again.

He’s so scared that his body will fail him, but the only way to know is to go forward. She’s slick enough that once he commits to the action with a proper effort, her body opens for him, allowing the swollen tip to nestle inside.

Her lips part on a delicate gasp, blunt nails curving against his biceps. Lamplight glows off her skin, and he’s never seen anything more beautiful than Tessa gazing up at him. He’s vaguely aware that neither of them has taken their shirts off yet when the peaks of her nipples harden under the cotton. He dips his head to brush his nose across the fabric, then wraps his lips around one through the thin barrier in a brief suck born of desperation.

Logan’s racing mind is overwhelmed by countless options, leaving him uncertain. He lets her nipple go, feeling her inner muscles constrict and release, squeezing him as she runs lazy fingertips through his hair and down his cheek.

His name falls from her lips, long legs easing away from where they held his hips to fall open, offering him permission to push in to the hilt. He should take that invitation, but he’s distracted by the affection for him on her face that curls around his heart, prompting a flutter. He shifts the smallest bit, massaging her entrance once, twice, three times, his uncertainty melting away when instead of withering on contact, he only grows harder.

In the back of his mind, he’s been waiting for her to force the issue. To pull him into her with a roll of her eyes and impale herself without much thought to how he felt about any of it, but she is slack and patient beneath him like she told him she would be.

He’s safe with her, he realizes, and that completes the perfect storm that has him coming with a surprised grunt, caught offguard by how quickly it sneaks up on him and how strongly his body spasms, until the mattress shivers under them both. He drops his head, filling her at a shallow depth without a single full thrust, only the thick tip resting inside. Then his body tightens even further and instinct pushes him another inch deeper, his temple nuzzling hers and his back bowing. Any hope of staying connected is long gone the moment he’s spent, and he slips out of her, arms trembling with his effort until he collapses against her chest.

His mind is blank. His brain has come to a screeching halt and then it kickstarts again to bombard him with emotion. Part of him wants to escape because this is still a failure of a different kind. He came so quickly and she didn’t come at all. Another part seeks out comfort in her, pushing his face against her neck with a shuddering breath.

Careful arms wrap around him and soft lips press to his hairline, his cheek, his forehead.

In all his worries, he never considered that he would come too fast. Only that he wouldn’t come at all or wouldn’t stay hard. Now he’s on the flip side of that coin and his entire world view is rocked to its core.

He can feel his semen against his belly where her center is pushed to his torso. He lifts his head, ready to beg forgiveness, but she presses a finger to his lips.

“Don’t you dare apologize,” she says. “Do you remember what I said about everything feeling like the first time?”

He nods.

“I’m so happy this one was with you.”

Everything is brand new, she told him. She doesn’t have full memories of this beyond her nightmares and so maybe he popped her second, imaginary cherrywithout realizing it, and in every way that counts, she did the same for him.

He rolls away, staring up at the ceiling, and lifts his hand to linger in mid-air, pleased when she laces their fingers together. All those thoughts he couldn’t harness before compete for attention, but one screams louder than the rest, impossible to ignore.

He’s falling in love with her.

Chapter 12

Logan isn’t allowed in the room with her at first. Something about needing to make sure she’s here of her own free will, whatever that means. It’s therapy, not the witness protection program.

She has little choice but to comply unless she wants to forgo the session and at first she considers doing just that. Go back to the trailer and keep forgetting she had a whole other life, but her daughter is still out there somewhere. That child deserves more than Tessa dragging her feet.

She leaves an agitated Logan in the waiting room and follows the therapist Audrey recommended into a tranquil, if sterile, office. She answers his questions about her former life, based on her limited memories, and keeps her eyes fixed on the door.

“You’re uneasy without him.” Victor pushes his glasses up his nose and scribbles on a notepad.

“Is that a question? What are you writing?”

“Notes for myself for later. And it can be a question if you have an answer.”

Tessa frowns at how everything feels like a trick. “I feel more comfortable when Logan’s with me.”

“And yet you only just met. Do you have any thoughts aboutthat?”

“I’m here to talk about my past, not him.”

“Fair enough. I can only work with what’s presented to me, though, and your dependence on him is obvious. I’m not saying it’s right or wrong, only that it could be a form of trauma bonding and to be aware of that.”

“Trauma bonding?” That sounds about right even before she has any idea what it means. Of course, everything and everyone in her life revolves around trauma of some sort, even Logan.

---