Page 132 of Built to Fall
He leans down, lips at my jaw. My neck. The slope of my shoulder. And I swear I could unravel just from that. From the way he worships without words. From the way he slows down when I start to shake.
“You okay?” he murmurs again.
“Yes.” I don’t recognize my own voice, but I mean it.
His fingers trail down my side and over my stomach. He kisses the space between my breasts. My legs are jelly, and my lungs are underwater. My heart has never felt so loud.
“I want to make this good for you,” he says, and it sounds like a vow. “Tell me if something’s too much or not enough.Anything. Just talk to me. There is nothing you can’t say to me.”
My voice is too tangled in my throat to answer. I know he sees it.
Grant guides me backward, and I let him, falling easily into the bed. Into him. Into this.
I don’t know what tomorrow will look like, or how I’ll feel when the sun comes up. But right now? Right now, I’m not someone’s ex-girlfriend, or cautionary tale, or second choice.
I’m right where I need to be.
We’re both shirtless now, with him bracing his body over mine. Grant’s lips meet mine again while his hands travel up and down my bare waist in tantalizing strokes.
I lift my hips, moving my hands down in an attempt to get my pants off. Grant grabs my wrists before I can continue.
“Hold on,” he says easily. “Not too fast.”
He’s making it so utterly clear that he plans to take his time—which is noble of him—but my entire body is buzzing to the point where I’m not concerned about slowing down the pace.
“It’s fine.” I try to pull my hands out of his grasp. “I’m probably not going to be able to come anyway, so it doesn’t matter.”
“Pretty girl,” Grant sighs, shaking his head. “I know you’re smarter than that.”
“It’s true, Grant. I knowyou’recapable. I just don’t know ifIam.”
“I promise you, your idea of sex and orgasms has been completely overshadowed by a guy who didn’t know what the fuck he was doing. Ever heard the saying 'slow and steady wins the race?'" I nod, almost cringing at his use of it in this situation. “Well, most men haven’t. They’re only worried about getting off as quickly as possible, never stopping to consider that girls don’t work that way. Slow down and enjoy the buildup.”
My heart’s thudding.He’s good.I knew he would be, obviously. But it’s only now that I’m realizing all the sex I’ve had before this was over in a blink. It felt like something I was constantly trying to catch up to, never giving me enough time to adjust to the pace and allowing my body to feel anything more than the initial rush.
Slow and steady—I’ve never realized how much I was missing out on the buildup until now. It has to be the reason my body is feeling more than it ever has. And yet, we’ve barely started.
“I’m not trying to win a race,” he adds, only the very tips of his fingertips touching my skin now. “I’m trying to rewrite the ending.”
I swallow hard. “What if I don’t know what feels good?”
He bites his lip to stop from smiling, almost like he’s trying not to let his arrogance show. “I promise, you’ll know.”
“And if I still can’t?—”
“You’ve gotta trust me, Lina,” he says strongly, his lips ghosting the shell of my ear. “That’s the only way this works. Trust me when I tell you that you will. Because when someone actually listens to your body instead of using it, it changes things.”
I let out a shaky breath. “Sounds nice.”
He dips down to press a kiss to my jaw, then my throat, my collarbone, and all the way down my torso until his lips land on my navel.
As he promises, his pace is heated but measured, and it feels as though he’s holding every nerve in my body in his grasp.
This.This is what I’ve been waiting for.
“Grant,” I whisper, my mouth moving before my brain can fully give it permission. “Touch me. Please.”
Like a moth to a flame, his hands pull my leggings down my thighs, and I pull my ankles up, slipping them off. He throws them somewhere behind him and repositions himself so he’s sitting on the bed before he pulls me to sit on his lap.
