Page 113 of Never Alone

---

I had thought, before that night, that I knew what this was. I had been with two men in my life, and neither of them had been Cole.

The thing I hadn't known was that you could be looked at, while you were under a man, the way Cole looked at me.

He moved between my thighs. His weight came down on his forearms on either side of my head. His mouth was on my temple, then my jaw, then my mouth.

I made a sound.

He stopped.

"Does it hurt?"

"No."

"Tessa."

"No, it doesn't hurt."

"I don't want to hurt you."

"Cole, stop asking and just?—"

He moved his hips.

I stopped speaking.

I rested on his chest after.

His arm was around me. His hand was on my hip, steady, the thumb running slow across the bone there. The lamp was still on. The sheets were tangled around our legs the way sheets get tangled. My hair was coming loose from where I'd pinned it earlier in the day. I hadn't put it back up.

I tipped my chin up so I could see his face.

He was looking at me. His eyes hadn't closed.

"I'm glad I came back to Havensworth."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Me, too."

I leaned up. I kissed him.

He kissed me back, soft, no rush in it. His hand came up to my jaw and stayed there.

I settled back down on his chest.

A minute went by. Two.

"Cole."

"Yeah."

"That didn't feel like your first time."

His chest moved under my cheek. He was laughing, a little, in the silent Cole way.

"I may have read one of Quinn's books."

---