“I’ve got you,” he said. And then his hips rolled forward in a slow, deliberate thrust, followed by long, deep strokes that hit every nerve ending like he’d studied a map of my body.
I clawed at him, my nails digging into his skin hard enough to leave marks. He groaned at the sensation, his movements quickening, deepening, driving into me with an intensity that tore his name from my throat with each breath.
“Don’t…stop…” I chanted, my voice breaking into a staccato rhythm. I could feel myself climbing toward another peak and I needed more. Every muscle, every cell was electrified, driven by a single animalistic need.
Cole curled his hand behind my knee and lifted my leg, bracing my calf over his shoulder. The motion was a counterpoint to the wild, relentless force of his hips, but when the new angle let him sink even deeper, I let out a sound that would have scared me if I didn’t realize it came from my body.
“It’s good, huh? You like that? You like how I fuck this pussy, Harper?”
It was all I could do to nod, my mouth falling open as Cole’s teeth grazed my collarbone, and then he was kissing me, open-mouthed and wild while he drove into me with a punishing rhythm. I felt myself unravel, the wave rising again, higher and higher. I was close, so close, and he could tell.
He slowed, then snapped his hips in a hard thrust that made my whole body convulse. “I need to feel you come.”
“You already know me well enough to know what I need,” I shot back.
He grinned, clearly enjoying my sass, and slipped a hand between our bodies. His thumb found my clit and the addedstimulation was too much. My eyes locked on his face, watching every shadow that crossed his features.
“Cole! Oh my God! Oh, fuck, I’m gonna?—”
“Yeah. Me too, gorgeous. Come on, girl. We’ll go together.”
With a guttural cry, every muscle in my body went rigid, fire streaking through me as I pulsed around him. I couldn’t speak, only gasp his name over and over, barely enunciating the syllables.
Cole shuddered, a long, drawn out, “Yessss…” spilling from his clenched teeth. His thrusts turned into hard, quick bursts like he was chasing a high. I forced breath into my lungs, still trembling, the aftershocks still making me shiver.
He buried himself deep and released with a groan that was all surrender. He chanted my name against my neck, the tension arcing through his body until he was spent.
Cole grew limp and collapsed, his body a large, hot, heavy blanket I never wanted to kick off. He immediately pulled me against him so that I was draped across his chest.
I giggled, the sound bubbling up from somewhere deep in my chest. I looked up at him, propping my chin on his sternum.
“When are we projected to make it to a bed?”
* * *
“I heard you earlier,” I said quietly.
After we actually made it to his bed and enjoyed each other again, we rested in a tangled and sweaty heap. I lay across his body, head on his chest.
“When?” Cole mumbled.
“You know, before you grounded me with a good fucking.”
He snorted. “Had to calm them histrionics, girl. Get your head on straight.”
“Yeah, whatever,” I said, landing a light slap to his skin. “I’m serious. I want to protect you—I need to protect you. I don’t know how.”
Cole’s hand stroked slow paths up and down my back. “You don’t have to protect me. You need to protect yourself.”
“It’s not fair to you to focus on myself.”
“Life’s not fair, Harper. You know that better than most people.”
I did know that. But I didn’t have to like it. And I didn’t ever think I could live by it.
This put Cole and me at the softest, most gentle of impasses.
Finally I sat up, kicking the sheets off my legs. “I need to go.”
