Page 81 of Best Friends, Tennessee

“You are the best thing that’s ever happened to me,” Finn whispered right as I was at the edge. I lost control, feeling heat bloom in my groin before it hit me like a tidal wave. I came, filling the condom inside him, pushing in deep as I collapsed over the front of him.

I was breathing so close to him and he leaned upward, catching me in a kiss right after I came.

I still felt like I was up above the atmosphere, floating somewhere above.

His lips brought me back to Earth. He kissed me more slowly and deeply than he ever had before.

Kissing me like he wassureof it.

God damn it, what the hell was I supposed to do with that feeling? With how good it felt?

I was still breathing heavy as I broke off from him. I was in a daze as I pulled out and discarded the condom.

I still wasn’t ready for any of it to be over. I didn’t want to break from this moment, to come too far back into reality and remember how things had been before.

I wanted to stay here. With him. Withus, together like this. I lay back onto the bed beside him, looking up at the wood ceiling.

From my peripheral vision, I saw him lazily reach an arm over to his nightstand, grabbing a wad of clean tissues, he wiped my chest and stomach, cleaning up the streak he’d left on me before cleaning himself off, too.

We lay there in silence for a moment, breathing deep, the sides of our bodies pressed up against each other, our skin still hot.

“Next time I want to take it on my hands and knees,” he suddenly said, breaking the silence.

I couldn’t help but let out a soft laugh, dazed.

“Here I was, worried you were having regrets, right about now,” I said, noticing a little drawl coming out in my own voice. “But you’re just thinking about how you want itagain?”

He turned his head toward me on the pillow, and when I met his eyes, they were bright.

“I bet you could get so fucking deep if I was on my knees,” he murmured. “Can you imagine?”

I hummed. “Yeah, I can imagine, and I could come to the thought of that if I hadn’t just done it inside you.”

“Wow,” he murmured, pulling in a breath. “Thank you.”

I kept waiting for the moment when things would start to feel weird or tense, but it didn’t come.

I was falling asleep before I could second-guess sleeping in his bed. After a moment I blinked my eyes open, realizing I’d nodded off.

I hummed, shifting in bed. Finn reached over to turn out the light on his table, and glorious darkness surrounded us. He moved and I felt the soft weight of the blanket come down over us.

My heart soared.

Being with him was too good.Hewas too good. Nothing could have felt better right now.

Don’t make me want to stay here.

I shouldn’t want this. Shouldn’t want to belong in Bestens, even if I do.

His arm was around me a moment later. He pulled me in close, pressing a kiss to the side of my head.

“Finn,” I murmured, barely able to form words.

“Yeah?”

“I love you, too, you know.”

My words hung in the air.

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