There was nothing between us now.
She held herself above me on her hands and looked at me. I looked at her.
I put both palms flat against her ribs and ran them up her body, slow. Her skin was warm. Her breath was high. Her hair was still falling forward on either side of my face.
She lowered herself onto me.
The whole room went still.
I'd thought about it in the eight weeks of meeting her on her porch, in her kitchen, and in her bed. I never got the shape of it right. The shape of it was her holding herself above me on her hands, her eyes not leaving my face, the slow settle, and the small breath that came out of her at the same moment one came out of me.
She didn't move for a beat.
I didn't move for a beat.
Then she started to move.
She moved slowly.
Her hands were flat on my chest. Her hips rocked against mine. The pace was hers. The decision was hers. I never had to give her either one. She took them.
I put my hands on her waist.
I let her go.
She picked the pace up in her own time. Her hair came loose from the knot. Her breath got higher. She bent down over me, and I caught her mouth, and she said my name against my mouth. I said hers back. We weren't quiet about any of it.
I pulled her down by the back of the neck.
I rolled my hips up under hers, harder this time.
"Easton."
"Yeah."
"Yeah."
That was the lastyeahfor a while.
She let go in waves on top of me. The lamp was still on. My hands were still on her waist, and I watched her face. I didn't stop watching it.
I went after her.
I held her against my chest until both of us came back to the room.
Later, the lamp was off.
She was asleep on my chest within the next breath.
I lay there a long time after.
Across Maple, my house was dark. The boxes were where I'd left them. She said it first. She told me when she fell. She pinned me to my back, and she took me at my word.
I hadn't had any of that before.
I had it now.
CHAPTER 19
