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Shifting his weight to the side, he grabbed a condom from the bedside drawer, breaking off to fumble with the packet. He rolled it on quickly before she offered to help, because another touch from her and it could be game over.

Maya was reaching for him again, drawing him in, shifting her position to guide him where she wanted.

He took a deep breath to regain some control, desperately searching for an extremely unsexy thought in order to put the brakes on his overexcitement. Boris Johnson in a mankini. Nailed it.

Fixing his gaze on the intensity of her liquid brown eyes, he gradually eased inside her. He soaked up every time she gasped, absorbing every moan as he thrusted. Gently at first, then harder as she spurred him on. She moved with him, coming up to meet him as he stroked in and out.

Sam lifted her arms to pin them above her head, entwining his fingers with hers as he kissed her, tasting her, remembering how he’d pressed her against that wall at age eighteen. How she’d wanted him and how he’d dreamed that they’d be moving on to what they were doing right now.

Suddenly those years of separation ceased to exist, and they were teenagers again, fulfilling all their promises to each other.

His conscious thought faded away, until there was only sensation left. The delicious friction of her body grazing his, the delectable softness of her heat surrounding him. The scent of her filled his lungs, and the sound of her breathy moans all served to drive him insane.

He needed her to come, and he could sense her getting close, the way her breathing was becoming ragged and her movements more urgent. Tiny ripples began to tighten along his shaft, and he leaned down to let his lips brush her ear, trying to control his voice. “I want to hear you call my name. And I don’t mean my middle name.”

She tried to smile, but her climax was clearly too intense. She arched her back, the waves of it beginning to roll over them both.

Sam didn’t know how he’d held out until this point, but now he let it all go. Years of pent-up want and need that he’d buried, brought to life since he’d laid eyes on her in that gold off-the-shoulder top that had made him want to bite her bare skin until she’d begged him to rip the clothing from her body.

Maya clung to him as she was racked with it, calling his name over and over. God, he loved the sound of it.

Holding her tightly, he sank his weight onto her, covering her with his body, protecting her, finally making her his. A sense of unreality overcame him. The woman of his dreams, the love of his life, was here in bed with him, and they’d made each other fall apart at the seams.

He sensed their breathing slow into a satisfied sync, his head resting on her chest as she ran her fingers through his hair.

Her soft voice sounded next to his ear, soothing him, her tone tentative. “Did you mean what you said the other day? That you were in love with me back then?”

Lifting his head, he kissed her thoroughly, attempting to extinguish any doubts with his mouth before his words took over. “I meant it,” he murmured against her lips.

His thoughts drifted for a moment, onto a silver symbol of that love. Not the moon charm that he’d gotten her from the ski team, but its sister star that still lay in a little black jewelry box in his bedside drawer. Tucked where Cat would never have found it and where he now imagined his love had been locked away, waiting to be let out again. Should I tell her? He’d bought it at the same time as the moon, knowing that she’d liked them both, but the star had been from him alone. His intention had been to give it to her that night, when he had been going to ask her to be his girlfriend. He’d had it in his pocket the whole evening.

Meeting her gaze, he decided to keep it secret a little longer. Christmas was coming, after all. “Of course I meant it. You were my first love.”

There was no denying that particular emotion was snowballing wildly, to the point that Sam began to question if he’d ever stopped loving her. But it was too soon to admit that.

Her eyes shining, her voice caught. “You were mine too. I’d liked you for ages, but being around you made me tongue tied. Until we worked together.”

Sam realized that was the reason she used be quiet with him at school, not that she was aloof. It seemed so obvious now.

Pulling him into a lingering kiss, she trailed her fingers down his back. “I’m pretty sure I just died from a pleasure overload and now I’m in heaven. Do you think it was even better because we waited so long? The buildup of anticipation?”

Sam leaned on one arm, stroking her hair. “I can confirm that all my years of pent-up Maya-related energy went into that, so maybe.” He raised his eyebrows. “That does not mean I’m willing to wait another few years to do it again, by the way. I’m pretty sure I’d die if I thought we weren’t moving on to round two soon.”

Maya laughed. “Wow. That’s intense.”

He grinned. “Tell me you disagree.”

“Nope,” she said, sighing. “I cannot. For ’twould be a massive lie.”

Sam rolled to the side to dispose of the condom, then brought her into his chest, spooning her and wrapping his arm over her front. He nuzzled her neck. “Stay over with me.”

She shivered under his touch. “Yes please.”

Pulling the duvet over them both, Sam felt he was cocooned in a warm ball of contentment. The only tiny nag at the back of his mind was that Maya still hadn’t faced the demons of her family’s expectations, and her future in Glenavie still hung in the balance. She’d sent CVs off to those big-city firms to appease her father, and he knew her father’s approval meant a lot to her. What if one of them turned into a job? One that took her away from him?

An icy needle dug into his heart at the thought that she might leave him, but he pushed it away, taking slow, deep inhales of her scent and letting it infuse his lungs, soothing him to sleep.

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