Page 82 of What Remains

She lifted her knuckles and gave a faint, almost hesitant knock against the old wooden door.

The door swung open. Seth stood there, halfway through pulling a shirt over his head. He froze, arms raised, his bare torso exposed.

"Sorry—I was changing." He didn't step aside. "Is everything okay?"

Josie drew a shaky breath, then crossed the room in two strides and pushed herself into his arms.

Her mouth found his with none of the careful hesitation of the barnyard. This kiss didn't ask; it demanded. He made a rough sound of surprise that dissolved into a murmur as his arms locked around her. One hand slid up her spine, pressing her closer, while the other cradled the nape of her neck, fingers threading into her hair with a tenderness that finally answered months of stolen glances. He deepened the kiss, and she opened for him, every unspoken word dissolving into the taste of coffee on his tongue and the solid feel of his shoulders under her hands.

They stumbled backward in a clumsy, urgent tangle, neither willing to break apart for more than a heartbeat, until the backs of his knees met the bed. He sat hard, the mattress dipping, and drew her down with him so she straddled his lap, her knees sinking into the bedding on either side of his hips. Her thin dress rode up her thighs as she settled, and she found the hard, unmistakable ridge of him through his half-open pants—hot, straining—so clearly it made her breath hitch. She rocked against him once, slow and deliberate, then again with intent, and the friction sent a sharp pulse of pleasure through her even as it dragged a broken groan out of him.

"Josie—" Her name came half-kissed into her lips, his voice already wrecked, his hands gripping her hips as if he couldn't decide whether to still her or urge her on.

"I don't want to wait." She whispered it against his mouth, warm and certain, her fingers rising to frame his face. "Not anymore."

Something in him settled then—a question finally answered. His hands moved with purpose, steady despite the heat thrumming under his skin, working each button of her dress free until the fabric parted down her front. He eased the sleeves from her shoulders with deliberate care, pushing the material down her arms until it pooled at her waist. The sudden exposure drew a shiver across her skin, but she didn't look away, and neither did he. He paused only to look at her—eyes dark with equal parts hunger and reverence—taking in the flush spreading over her chest, the lift of her breathing, her nipples drawn tight in the open air. Then his mouth traveled down her throat, open and warm, lingering at the hollow where her pulse raced before moving lower. When he closed his lips around one peak and sucked gently, tongue circling in a slow, wet pull, Josie arched with a moan she couldn't have held back if she'd tried, back bowing, fingers threading into his hair to cradle him against her while pleasure sparked sharp and sweet through her.

She pushed at his waistband, fingers curling into the fabric, dragging it over the sharp cut of his hips. He lifted for her at once, heels digging into the mattress so she could shove the material down and free him completely—thick and flushed, the skin smooth and burning hot, the blunt head already glistening. The first press of her damp skin against the rigid heat of his, all yielding softness and hard muscle, wrung a shudder from them both—a shared jolt that rippled through muscle and breath alike of wanting finally arriving at this single, trembling point.

She rose onto her knees, dress bunched at her waist, and reached between their bodies to guide him. Her fingers wrapped loosely around him, steadying the thick shaft as she notched the broad head against her entrance, her body yielding to the blunt pressure. Then she sank down—slow, deliberate, taking all of him. The stretch burned sweet and deep; each fraction of him that disappeared inside her drew a shaky exhale from them both, until at last he settled to the hilt, filling her completely.

They stayed like that, foreheads pressed together, breathing the same warm, unsteady air. The simple fact of him inside her, solid and deep, unraveled every coherent thought. There was only the thrum of his pulse where their bodies met and the fine tremor running through her own thighs.

Then she began to move.

Slow rolls of her hips set the rhythm, deep and unhurried. Each grind was a slow discovery, dragging the length of him against a deep, aching pleasure that made her breath hitched and her body clench, pulling him impossibly deeper. The friction built in slow waves rather than sharp spikes, slick and hot; she could trace every ridge of him sliding against her inner walls, the stretch now edged with pure, melting pleasure that radiated through her belly and down her thighs.

Seth's warm hands gripped her waist, fingers splayed wide as if to maximize contact. Initially, they merely guided—steadying her trembling knees, helping her find the angle that made them both shudder. But as the heat intensified and her movements grew erratic, his grip tightened, urging her faster, thumbs pressing into the hollows of her hips in a silent plea for more.

He thrust up to meet her, the lift of his hips driving him impossibly deeper with each downward roll. The wet, rhythmic sound of their joining filled the quiet room. Each stroke pulled helpless sounds from her throat: broken moans, shaky gasps, a higher cry when he struck that perfect spot. Each answering thrust made her clutch tighter at his shoulders, nails biting into muscle, forehead still pressed to his, their breath mingling—the raw intimacy nearly as overwhelming as the pleasure itself.

Emotion swelled alongside the heat. She saw the fierce tenderness in his gaze even now. An ache, deeper than lust, bloomed in her chest every time he bottomed out and lingered a heartbeat too long. Pleasure layered itself in steady, relentless waves, coiling low in her belly, tightening her around him until every movement grew sharper, sweeter, more necessary. She moved for both of them, and he met her stroke for stroke, locked together in the same rising tide.

"God, Josie—" His voice cracked on her name, raw from somewhere deep in his chest where control had already frayed. Awe and desperation hung in the sound for half a heartbeat before he moved.

He flipped them without breaking their connection—one strong arm banding around her back, the other braced against the mattress as he rolled them in a single fluid motion. She landed among the rumpled sheets, the shift driving him deeper and tearing a shared, shaky breath from them both. He settled over her, weight on his forearms, and began to drive into her with long, powerful strokes. The new angle let him sink farther, pressing against the deep ache that made her body clench helplessly around him.

One of her legs hooked high around his waist, heel digging into the small of his back to pull him closer. The other he held open, fingers gentle but firm on the soft underside of her thigh. She followed his gaze and saw what he was watching with such dark, hungry focus—the thick length of him disappearing into her again and again. Her body took him to the hilt on every stroke, and his breath stuttered, his eyes finding hers again, lost in the intensity of it.

He reached between them, sliding his hand down the sweat-slick plane of her belly until his thumb found her clit—slick, aching, exquisitely sensitive. He circled it in slow, deliberate strokes, timed to the drive of his hips, each firm pass matching the thick slide of him inside her. That dual pleasure shattered her.

Orgasm crashed through her in a sudden, overwhelming wave. She came hard, back arching off the mattress, crying out his name in a voice that broke with the force of it. Her inner walls pulsed around him in strong spasms, milking him in hot, involuntary ripples that pulled at every inch of his buried length.

It dragged him over the edge with her. He drove forward one final time, burying himself to the hilt, hips locked tight against hers as he spilled inside her in thick, pulsing surges. A low, broken groan tore from his throat, muffled against her skin as he pressed his face into the curve of her neck, breath hot and ragged. The release rolled through him in long, shuddering waves—intense—his body trembling with every deep throb while the last of the pleasure wrung him out completely.

For a long while, neither of them moved, the world narrowed to the quiet aftermath and their slowing breaths. Seth stayed buried inside her, still joined, his weight carefully braced so he wouldn't crush her. The solid heat of him covered her; every subtle shift sent aftershocks flickering through them both. His lips brushed soft, open-mouthed kisses along her jaw, lingering beneath her ear, then trailing unhurried across her cheek and into the damp hair at her temple, tasting salt and the faint sweetness of her skin. Each kiss was a quiet question, soft and searching, as if he were mapping the reality of her being there.

When he finally lifted his head, the movement came reluctantly, unwilling to break even that small contact. His eyes had gone darker than she'd ever seen them shining with something raw and unguarded, full of everything the barn kiss had only begun to say: the fierce protectiveness, the stunned gratitude, the depth of feeling he had never found words for. In that gaze, she saw the end of the careful distance they had kept and the simple, overwhelming relief of its collapse.

He brushed a strand of sweat-damp hair from her face, fingertips trailing along her temple and down the curve of her cheek as though committing her to memory. The touch was so light it was barely there, a stark contrast to the hunger of moments before.

"Stay," he whispered, the single word rough-edged and aching against her lips.

Josie answered without words. She lifted her hands to cup his face and pulled him down into another slow, lingering kiss. Her mouth moved against his with a tender certainty that needed no words. Her arms wrapped tight around him—one hand sliding into his hair, the other splayed across the broad plane of his back—holding him as if she never intended to let go, as if she could anchor them both here, joined and safe, for as long as the night would allow.

Chapter 19

Seth & Coffee