Page 45 of Crumbling Truth
Dinner was only the briefest of interludes, then Theo put his renewed energy to good use until we collapsed into a heap of exhaustion. With his fingers sifting through my hair, I realized I was hovering at the edge of sleep.
“Will you stay?” I mumbled into his bare skin.
“As long as I won’t be punished for breaking your rules.”
I huffed a laugh. “Rules, shmools. Sleepovers are hereby allowed by royal decree.”
“Good,” he said, kissing the top of my head as he pulled the blanket over us. “Now get some sleep.”
I awoke at some point during the night, disoriented by the feeling of his big, warm body beside me. When I shifted, he tugged me into his arms, brushed his lips over my hair, and ran a reassuring hand up and down my back until I drifted off again.
Pale sunlight streamed through the windows, shimmering off the curtains, when I woke up in the morning. Theo’s arms were still wrapped around me, clutching me to his chest like a favorite teddy bear. I stretched as much as I could, but I froze when I inadvertently rubbed against his impressive erection.
Theo made a sleepy sound in my ear. “Again, you insatiable woman?”
I lifted my head to look at the greatly depleted supply of condoms, finding only one left on the bedside table. “Just thought we might as well finish this off with a bang,” I joked,causing him to snort a laugh against my hair. “You’ll have to restock after that. I’m sure the town will be very excited about your purchase.”
“Oh, Christ,” he muttered. “I’ll drive into the next town. Wear a disguise. Bribe a teenager outside of the gas station to run in for me.”
Laughing at his horrified tone, I leaned over and grabbed the last packet. We both watched as I reached down to stroke him first, admiring the way that velvet hardness leapt against my hand. While my fingertips grazed the underside of his crown, I leaned over to nip his jaw.
“I’ll make it worth your while,” I promised, then rolled the condom slowly down his cock. I shoved him onto his back and straddled his hips. “Do we have a deal?”
Theo groaned quietly. “God, yes. I’m at your mercy.”
This was new, this powerful woman who’d been hidden somewhere deep inside me, the kind of woman who took charge, who played an equal role in the bedroom.
And it was glorious.
I held his gaze as I sank slowly downward, watching his eyes darken to a rich coffee brown as I drew him deeper. When he was fully sheathed within me, I paused, tilting my head back at the sheer pleasure of it. His hands were tight on my hips and, fuck, I’d never criticize those curves again, not as long as I could remember the feel of his clinging fingers holding me right there, tight against him.
“Esther,” he said hoarsely, but that was all.
When I lifted up again on my knees, dragging along his length, he groaned again and dropped his head back onto the pillows.
I ran my palms up his stomach, over his chest, across his shoulders. The muscles rippled under my hands, his expression stark and intense as I kept every rise and fall to the same slow,infuriating pace. It was only when I bit my lip to hide a smile that he realized I was doing it on purpose, goading him into action.
“You little minx,” he growled.
Sitting up suddenly, he wrapped his arms around my lower back to keep me from toppling off of him and resumed the same sensual torture he’d been inflicting on my breasts the night before. I gasped at the heat of his mouth, the pulse of sensation as he tugged at my nipple, the way he pressed upward into me, not faster but harder.
I didn’t notice he had moved one arm until his thumb brushed between us, circling my clit with measured precision. Within seconds, I shattered, my back bowing over the steely band of his forearm. For a second, he stilled, letting the waves of release sweep through me as I caught my breath, then he rolled us over and grinned down at me.
I laughed breathlessly, but it morphed into a moan when he drew my knee up past his hip and thrust deep.
“Oh, god. Yes. There.”
The words slipped past my lips, barely coherent, but he heard them and growled against my throat. “You like that, do you?” he asked, nuzzling his nose along my jaw. “You feel so fucking perfect around me.”
Whether it was the new angle, the words, or the husky roughness of his voice in my ear, it didn’t take long before I was barreling toward another orgasm, whimpering and writhing underneath him. He rose up onto his knees, braced his hands on either side of my shoulders, and watched my face with a concentration that normally would have made me self-conscious.
From Theo, it felt like a caress, like a gift—his eagerness to see my pleasure was as baffling as it was beautiful.
When the climax burst through me with shuddering intensity, he thrust hard one final time and followed me over the edge.From my haze of pleasure, I watched him reluctantly pull out to throw away the condom, then he was drawing me into his arms, his heart beating wildly under my ear as our skin cooled.
I must have dozed off again, because when I blinked my eyes open, the room seemed brighter than before. Theo’s fingers threaded lightly through my hair, lifting the strands off my back before letting them fall again.
Everything about him was so different from Steve, it was like I’d entered a new reality altogether. Considerate, sweet, dedicated to my pleasure in a way I’d never experienced—I let the beauty of it wash over my body, languid and peaceful.
