CHAPTER 32 (1)

The last time I kissed Emily Carlton in her bed was eighteen months ago. We were different people then. I’m reminded how different as her eyes flash up at me. “What the hell?” Emily demands. She’s naked and beautiful and, apparently, pissed. I roll off her and onto my back. I can still taste her, and the way she fell apart under my hands and mouth left me nowhere near satisfied, but I force out the words I need to say. “Tonight was about you. Giving you what I wanted to give you then.” “You’re overthinking this.” She shifts over me, and I bite back the groan at the feel of her. “Stop thinking. Just be here with me. I know you want to.” She’s killing me—with her voice and her intentions and the way she responds. My cock is swollen and leaking at the thought of making her mine. But the second I make her mine, I’m hers, too. And even though I want her back, I’m grasping for some semblance of control. She’s so fucking sweet, with a new edge I love every bit as much as the sweetness. Unable to resist, I prop myself up on my elbows and tug her lips down to mine. My fingers tangle in her silky hair, wrapping it around my hand like I’ve been thinking about all semester until she opens over me. I used to tease Emily Carlton for wearing her heart on her sleeve, but I feel as if I’m the one who’s exposed. I want to bury myself inside her so deep she can’t get me out. Not now, not ever. Her breasts graze my bare chest, making my impatient dick swell even more. This time when her hands drop to the button on my jeans, I don’t stop her. Not when she works the zipper down, makes a little groan in her throat as she sees the hard ridge of my cock, the wet spot on my boxer briefs. Not when she reaches inside, her aroused gaze meeting mine. My eyes fall shut as her hand wraps around my shaft. Her touch is warm and soft and a cruel tease. I want to be inside her yesterday. “Holy fuck, Six.” I whisper it like a prayer. She helps me work my jeans off. I get up long enough to find a condom from my wallet and roll it on while she watches, breathless. “Wait,” she murmurs when I shift over her again. I laugh softly. “You were the one so anxious to do this.” “But I want to savor it, too.” I can’t speak. So, I kiss her instead as I wedge myself between her soft thighs. I nudge her opening, groaning into her mouth because she’s so hot and wet. Every part of me pulses as I press inside an inch at a time. I watch her face, see her eyes go dark as she gasps when I fill her. There’s my girl. Mine now. Always. “You okay?” I ask when I’m halfway inside her. She nods, swallowing. She’s tight and hot and slick and perfect. “I know. It’s a lot to take in,” I say. Her hand slaps my chest, and I grin as I bend to kiss her again. Her panting breaths mingle with mine as I sink all way in. My head drops back as the feel of what we’re doing overtakes me. When she wraps her legs around me, urging me to move, I shake my head. “We gotta go slow, or I’m going to lose control.” “I don’t want slow, and I don’t want you in control.” She licks lips swollen from my kisses. “I want to free-fall.” Fuck. I can’t hold back when she talks like that. When I sink back inside her, she arches her back to meet me, her face transformed with desire. I want to give her so much pleasure she can’t come without thinking of me. Every stroke is a memory I need to preserve. She’s tight and soft, and I could explore the contradiction forever. Except that tonight we’ve got somewhere to be. I’ve waited for this girl for years, and I’m not waiting another second. I build her up, toeing the line between deliberate and reckless. This might be our first time together, but I know her. I know how she thinks, how she feels, what emotions make her lips tremble and her eyes glow. Tonight, I’m going to learn how to make her scream. My mouth claims hers, swallowing every sound and breath. I’m greedy for all of her, any of her, and I won’t let a single element of her reaction go to waste. Emily’s hips lift to meet mine, and I lift her higher so I’m in control, so I can go deeper. I tear my lips from hers to drag them down her jaw, the long, beautiful neck she’s offering up. “Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God.” Her chants spur me on. We’re in this together, Six. You and me. When she squeezes around me, her nails digging into my skin as she moans my name… I die. I swear my heart stops. I never want to spend a moment on this planet without knowing that expression of delirious pleasure on her face, without having it imprinted on my mind, in my soul. I will destroy any man who even thinks about her like this. I can’t hold back. I come. It’s everything I ever dreamed and some things I wouldn’t dare. I pulse for fucking ages, my abs clenching as I try to think of a way I can stay inside her like this forever because nothing will ever be as good as this moment. When we come down, I reluctantly roll us so she’s on top because I don’t want to crush her. We lie like that, me stroking her hair and staring at the faded white ceiling, until something buzzes near my head. Emily twists, moving off me to grab her phone from the nightstand. “It’s Rica. She saw the shoe, but she needs to get into the room.” I force my languid body off the bed, grabbing a box of tissues to clean up. My attention lands on a vase of flowers. “Nice gift. Should I be jealous?” “It’s from Dad and Haley.” “You gotta tell them.” I try for casual, but Emily stiffens anyway as she tugs a long T-shirt over her head. I might not have earned the right to tell her what to do, but she must see how futile keeping her education from him is, how much worse she’s making it with every day she puts it off. “I will when I’m ready.” She narrows her gaze. “I liked your mouth better twenty minutes ago.” “I’m sure you did.” I step closer, watch her eyes darken as I do.