Not like before, desperate and scared and crashing together.
This is slower. Deeper. His hands cradle my face like I’m something precious. His mouth moves against mine like we have all the time in the world.
I melt into him.
My hands find his chest, his shoulders, the back of his neck. He pulls me closer until I’m standing between his knees, pressed against him, fitting into the space he’s made for me.
“Tell me to stop,” he says against my lips. “If you want me to stop.”
“I don’t want you to stop.”
“Stevie.” My name like a prayer. “I don’t know how to do this. Be gentle. Be... what you deserve.”
“You’re already doing it.” I kiss the corner of his mouth. His jaw. The scar on his cheekbone. “You’re already everything.”
He shudders. Pulls back just enough to look at me.
“Stay tonight,” I whisper before I can lose my nerve. “Stay with me.”
His eyes search my face. Looking for doubt. Hesitation.
He won’t find any.
“Are you sure?”
“I’m sure.” I thread my fingers through his hair. “I want you. I want this.”
He kisses me again.
Harder this time. Hungrier.
I make a sound against his mouth. Desperate. Needy.
He groans. The sound vibrates through my chest, lights up every nerve ending I’ve been ignoring for two weeks.
Two weeks of sitting three feet apart. Of not touching. Of pretending we weren’t both thinking about this exact moment every single second.
His hands slide down my sides, grip my hips, lift me like I weigh nothing. I wrap my legs around him instinctively, gasping against his mouth.
“Bedroom,” I manage. “Down the hall.”
He carries me like gravity works differently when I’m in his arms.
Like I’m not a problem. Not a burden.
I’mwanted.
And when he lays me down on my bed, the bed that’s never felt like mine until right now and looks at me like I’m the only real thing in his world, I know this is the tipping point.
The moment we can’t come back from.
And I don’t want to come back.
I want to fall with him.
Into whatever this is becoming.
Chapter Twenty-One
