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There was no thought of finesse or rhythm, no thought of anything other than our mutual pleasure.
Mine started before hers, and I fought to stay with her until the end, even as my chest heaved, my back arched helplessly when heat curled through my veins.
I smothered the sounds coming from my mouth into the curve of her sweat-shiny neck, and when she snapped her thighs against my hips, back curving, my name on her lips, we toppled over the edge together.
I slumped over her. The strength of a hundred men couldn’t haven’t moved me for how lethargic I felt.
She kissed me softly, running her hands over my back and up into my hair. I rolled to my side, keeping her anchored against me, our legs intertwined as we luxuriated in the taste of each other, the sweet sipping of her mouth against mine.
“I knew you’d wreck me.” She sighed happily. I kissed along her jaw, which she tipped so I could reach more of her skin.
“Did you?”
Isabel’s fingers traced the features on my face as she nodded. “The day I met you, I think I knew.”
The lithe line of her back was damp with sweat, and I touched as much of her as I could manage with long sweeps of my palm. “You’ve always been smarter than me about this.”
She laughed. “Not smarter,” she corrected. “More aware, maybe.”
I pushed some of her mussed hair out of her face. “If I’d had any idea, I probably never would’ve walked in the door.”
Just like I hoped she would, Isabel smiled at my honesty. “I know.”
Even though we were fully enmeshed, as many body parts wound together as humanly possible, I curled myself around her and breathed her in. It was cheesy and poetic, the types of thoughts I was never prone to, but Isabel smelled like the peace that I’d been seeking, that I thought she wasn’t capable of bringing. Ironic, given that she blew my life up, resetting it into something that would only work with her presence inside of it.
“I’m glad you did, though,” she whispered. “This is where I’m meant to be.”
I closed my eyes and held her against me. It was easy to imagine that every step of my life had led to this moment. Not just the moment, but to her.
“Me too,” I told her.
Eventually, we pulled the blankets up over us, whispering to each other as the night wore on. I decided, after sweet, gentle touches for the entire time, we were done being in bed.
“You owe me a bath,” I told her.
Her smile was wide and happy. “Do I?”
I nuzzled into her neck and decided she smelled best right there. “Yeah. Do you have any idea of how hard it was knowing you were in there?”
Her hand slid down between my legs, and I breathed out a pained laugh. “Tell me.”
Pecking a hard kiss against her lips, I extracted her hand and got out of bed. “I’ll tell you in there.”
Once we were under the water, the deep soaker tub filled with a lather of clean-smelling bubbles, Isabel turned and faced me, folding her long legs around my back so she was situated in my lap. I smoothed her wet hair off her face.
“This is what I pictured,” I told her.
She swept some bubbles off my shoulder. “Yeah?”
My hand moved under the water, and she gave me a mock-glare when I merely traced circles just to the side of her chest. “Maybe I pictured something a little more X-rated.”
“I think I was too frustrated with you to picture anything dirty,” she said.
I swallowed, choosing my words carefully. Before I spoke, I pressed my palm against the skin over her heart, nothing sexual in the touch, despite the warm weight of her that I was now intimately familiar with. “I’m so sorry I kept pulling away. I didn’t know how”—I paused with a slight shake of my head—“how to make peace with you. With what you made me feel,” I amended.
Isabel wrapped her arms around my neck and hugged me, and we sat like that for a quiet minute, the water lapping gently at our skin.
“Moving on isn’t easy,” she said, pressing a soft kiss to my shoulder, then setting her chin there.
