Page 77 of Love at First Sighting
Well, a gold-foiled condom, at least.
El snatches it from me, tearing the packet open carefully. She slowly rolls the condom onto me. Her touch is gentle but destructive. She secures it responsibly and I’m ready to die at her hands, her hips, her mouth.
El clutches my hands, places them on her waist, and lets me feign some sense of control as she sinks onto me. Her body tenses and then relaxes, a quiet gasp escaping her lips. Her head tilts to the side as she savors the moment.
She finds a rhythm that pleases us both—slow ebbs and flows of her body and desperate moans. All the force, the teasing, goes away and fades to a total intimacy I’ve never felt before. I’m looking up at her, with beads of sweat running down her chest, and every now and then she opens her eyes to look down at me and smile. She’s happy to be here. With me. Nothing has ever brought me as much joy as making her happy does.
“You’re so perfect,” I groan.
“Oh please. Far from it,” she scoffs. I dig my nails into her thighs and her voice cracks into a quiet whimper. “You feel so good.”
I’m so lost in my desperate hunger for her, all I can think to say is “Thank you?”
El bursts into quiet laughter and leans over me, kissing my forehead, my cheeks, my nose. It’s nice, delightful, and feels like a hug, but it’s also an opportunity to get her even closer to me. I secure my grip on her waist, and she sighs in approval before I turn her onto her back.
I maneuver between her legs, sliding back into her with painful slowness. She grasps my hair and kisses around theshell of my ear, whispering my name over and over and over again. She makes it sound like music.
She tightens around me, her moans growing more desperate. El white-knuckles my bedsheets as she hits another peak with a quiet cry in the crook of my neck. I dive over the edge with her moments later.
We lie there, exhausted and euphoric, toying with each other’s hair, staying wrapped up in each other like we don’t want the moment to end. For a split second, I debate spitting it out—telling her just how much I love her, but the silence is so tauntingly perfect, I can’t imagine breaking it.
My camera is across the room, so I take a picture in my mind with a silentclick, and I know I’ll keep the image of her sleepy, exhilarated smile in my head for as long as I live.
Chapter 23
El
Carter’s alarm is a blaring shock the next morning. We were so lost in each other and our first real date, I forgot it was a weekday. And waking up in a new place feels particularly disorienting until I remember he’s curled up beside me.
He shifts under the covers with a groan but doesn’t emerge from underneath his pillow. I learn Carter is a relatively inoffensive sleeper. He stays on his side of the bed, doesn’t steal sheets, and I didn’t get punched. Occasionally, he’d bump into me, remember I was there, then weave an arm over my waist and fall back asleep.
Carter emerges from beneath his pillow, then rubs his eyes. His hair’s an unkempt mess and sleep hangs in his eyelids. I reach across the blankets and weave my fingers with his.
“You know, I’ve never had a girl stay over before.”
“Never?” I tease.
“Nope. I do tend to be more of a ‘job well done and goodbye’ guy.”
I laugh. “And how does this feel?”
Carter snuggles into me. He pulled his boxers back on tosleep last night, and I’ve been wearing a T-shirt for a band I’ve never heard of. Our knees bump under the covers.
“It feels really great.”
“And the best part,” I say, “is that I won’t go anywhere.”
“You mean I have to go to work?”
“Probably a good idea, but I wouldn’tstopyou if you opted to play hooky to stay with me.”
His expression drops, like he, too, has realized that the second he leaves, we’re shattering the bliss we’ve been in. And on the other side of the glass is a mystery that still needs solving.
“You’re a bad influence.”
I kiss the tip of his nose. “I’ll be here when you get back.”
“You’re going to stay here all day?”
