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“Monroe. I’m coming.” Like he could have missed the jets of come erupting all over my fist and his stomach. The orgasm felt less like an explosion than usual, more like a wave washing over me. A baptism of sorts, freeing me from long-held fears and beliefs, leaving room only for pleasure.
“Yes.” Eyes fluttering shut, he groaned like he’d been punched, but he seemed more into my orgasm than the pursuit of his own. Indeed, when he helped me untangle myself, he was still fully hard.
“You didn’t finish?” Accepting the towel he passed me, I stretched out next to him, running a hand down his torso. “I wanted to get you off too.”
“Nah. That wasn’t about me.” He smiled and petted my hair which had come loose from my ponytail. “Keep lying here on my chest. You breathing hard and looking all blissed out is a huge turn-on.”
“So you’re saying all I have to do is look pretty?” I batted my eyes at him and danced my fingers across his abs.
“Yep.” He nodded, then groaned as I reached his cock and took a firm hold of it, pushing aside his own hand. “But if you want to help…”
“Always.”
“Kiss me,” he demanded, our lips meeting in an urgent kiss, but it wasn’t long before his head tipped back, eyes shutting.
“What are you thinking about?” I whispered.
“How damn hot you looked. How damn good you felt. How much I love—fuck.” Monroe didn’t finish the thought before he was coming, body curling tight around mine as he came and came, shudders so hard they were almost heaves. And he didn’t need to complete the sentiment for me to know exactly what he’d been saying. And what he’d likely say next.
“Oh my god.” He sounded utterly stunned as he sagged back against the pillow. And yup, regret incoming in three, two, not sticking around for one. I scooted out of bed, dodging his attempts to keep me next to him.
“We’re gonna need another towel.” My voice was strange. Too fast. Too distant. And Monroe knew it, eyes going wide as he made a visible effort to calm his breathing.
“Knox.” His tone was so reasonable as I dashed toward the bathroom, already at the door when he added, “We should talk.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Monroe
“Don’t take it back. Please.” Knox paused by the bathroom door, expression as stricken as I’d seen it. And there went my hope that maybe he hadn’t heard and had simply been unusually focused on post-sex hygiene.
“I wasn’t going to take it back. I couldn’t.” I was many things, but a liar wasn’t one of them. Knox continued to have the wide-eyed look of a deer about to bolt for the tree line, so I tried again. “Sometimes things come out in sex…”
“Or explain it away,” Knox interrupted with a huff, shaking his head like I’d failed to meet his already low expectations for this conversation.
“I’m not trying to wave it away,” I said, even though I’d kind of hoped to do just that. But this was Knox, and if nothing else, he’d earned my trust and my truth. Especially tonight. God, he’d been so spectacularly brave and sexy, pushing his limits. The bigger surprise was that I hadn’t said those three words a hundred times watching him during the sex. Taking a breath, I locked gazes with him. “I didn’t mean to say that aloud, but not intending to say it isn’t the same as not meaning it.”
“You meant it?” He narrowed his eyes.
“Come here.” I held out a hand, gratified when he left his death grip on the doorframe to come perch next to me on the bed. “I love you, Knox.”
“Oh.” He shut his eyes, inhaling deeply, hands clasped in his lap like he was receiving a benediction. “Say it again,” he whispered.
“I love you.” Try three, and the words came easier. Already, they felt so natural on my tongue. Loving Knox wasn’t the hard part. In fact, it was simply an immutable truth of the universe, one I could no more influence than the ocean’s tides.
“Thank you.” It wasn’t precisely the response a person hoped for, but I was the one who’d blurted the words during sex. And Knox’s thank you seemed to come from somewhere deep inside him, husky and heartfelt. “No one’s ever…”
“Fallen so hard for you that they aren’t sure they’ll ever get back up?” I had to go for a little humor but also more of the truth. There was no more hoping I wouldn’t fall or knowing I was likely falling but trying to lessen the impact. I had fallen. Full stop.
“Really?” Knox bit his lip, a new vulnerability in his eyes. In his soft gaze, I saw Rebound, the cocky guy who was everyone’s favorite hookup and no one’s first call. I didn’t regret telling him. The how, maybe. But not the words. He deserved to know. “Because I finished the hall while you were gone? That was just me keeping busy—”
