Page 83

“You’re always so wet for me,” I murmured against her skin, giving her a little nip before I started kissing a path down her stomach. “I can’t get enough of you, Alicia. I never will.”

She squirmed underneath me, breathing hard as she gripped my shoulders. “Holden, I…”

When she trailed off, I glanced up at her face, wondering if she was finally about to tell me to stop. Honestly, I kept wondering when that was going to happen.

A guy like me should not be allowed to touch a girl like her, but instead, when she finally wrenched her eyes open again, she trailed her fingertips gently across my cheek and smiled. At me.

This fucking girl.

“Can I try?” she asked quietly.

I frowned. “Try what?”

“You know…” Her gaze traveled down the length of my body, settling on the glistening tip of my dick. “That. What you were about to do.”

I blinked fast. Too many times. “You’re asking if you can go down on me?”

“Yes.” That gorgeous pink I was so obsessed with bloomed across her cheeks again as she shifted her weight up on her elbows. “So, can I?”

I blinked again, feeling completely and utterly stupid. Like her question had sucked my brain right out of my body. “Yes. Fuck, yes.”

Shit, that was too enthusiastic, wasn’t it?

She smiled as she watched me lie down on my back beside her. “You’re that willing to let me try something I haven’t done for a very long time and am probably really bad at?”

“I’m that willing to try anything you want. You don’t even have to ask, but that? Yes. Just… yes.”

She sat up beside me, tucking her hair behind her ears as her eyes roamed across my body, her cheeks flushing an even deeper shade of pink. As she bent her head, I closed my eyes and sucked in a deep breath, but I still cursed and crushed the blanket in my fists when her hot mouth hit my skin.

“Fuck, Alicia.” Every single part of me wanted to thrust, fuck, or at the very least move, but I held still as she sank down, her tongue curving around my shaft making me see flashes of light behind my eyes when I screwed them shut. “Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. That feels too good.”

I felt her smile around me, her movements still slow and hesitant, but only for a few minutes before she found her rhythm and nearly slayed me with it. Before I knew what was happening, she was bouncing up and down enthusiastically, her fingers coming up between my legs to cup my balls.

Every other time we’d been together, she’d been the one writhing and squirming, but that sure as hell wasn’t true today. I was halfway out of my mind by the time I tapped out, vaguely wondering when I’d started trusting her enough to drive me to the brink of losing control. And I didn’t mean by making me come. I meant actual control.

As soon as she lifted her head, I didn’t flip her over or slam into her. I looked up into those eyes and offered her my hand, then watched as she climbed into my lap with both of her small hands in mine.

I stayed still as she positioned her entrance above me, moaning out loud when she sank down slowly, completely at her own pace. Still holding her hands when she started moving, I matched the rhythm she set with thrusts of my own, so close that I could barely see straight but refusing to do anything to rush her.

“Holden,” she whispered as her brow furrowed, her grip on my hands tightening. “Oh, God. That feels… I need…”

Without waiting for her to try to form the words, I covered both of her hands in one of mine and reached between us, circling her clit with a fingertip until she stiffened above me. Her head dropped back, her lips parting as she started moving faster.

At this rate, my teeth were going to crack from how hard I was clenching my jaw, but I stayed with her every step of the way. When she finally screamed my name and her muscles started rippling around me, I arched my head into the mattress and let go, coming so hard that my vision blacked out.

For a second in the aftermath, it occurred to me that there was nothing arranged or fake about us anymore. Somewhere along the line, our marriage had become real. The hard stuff, the fun stuff, and the sexy stuff, it was all there, just waiting for us both to admit that maybe, somehow, we wanted to keep doing it.

Together.

CHAPTER 40

ALICIA

Tasha’s bedroom looked like a cardboard-box store had exploded and the debris was packaging on every conceivable surface. There were boxes on the floor, on the bed, and stacked against the wall. Rolls of tape littered her dresser and nightstand, and there were little bits of bubble wrap everywhere.

“Where did all this stuff come from?” I asked, genuinely surprised at the amount of crap she’d accumulated over the last few years. “Where did you even keep it all?”

She pumped her eyebrows at me as she shoved another sweater into a box. “I was the queen of Tetris as a child. If you have that kind of skill, you’ll never run out of space.”