Page 149 of What We Brave
I stop.
Condom. Fuck. Do I even have?—
"I'm on the pill." She's reading my face. "And I'm clean. Reid and Ialready—" She bites her lip. "If you are too, I want to feel you. Just you."
Fuck.
"I'm clean." They tested the fuck out of me before posting in the sandbox and I haven't been with anyone since I got back. Haven't wanted anyone but her. "You sure?"
"I'm sure."
I push inside her.
The groan that comes out of me is barely human. Dragged up from the bottom of my chest, ripped through my throat.
She's so tight. So hot. Sowet. The slide is easy but she's clenching around me, gripping me, and I have to stop halfway because I can't remember how to breathe.
"Don't stop." Her nails dig into my back. "Blake, don't—I need?—"
I drive forward. Bury myself to the hilt.
For a long moment, neither of us moves.
I'm shaking. Actually shaking. Forearms braced on either side of her head, every muscle locked, trying to hold on to some shred of control.
Losing.
"You feel—" I can't finish. Don't have words. Have never had words for anything that matters. "Laine.Fuck."
"Move." She rolls her hips. The friction makes us both gasp. "Blake,please?—"
I move.
It's not gentle. Not slow. Not the careful, reverent first time she deserves.
It's hard and fast and desperate. I'm fucking her like I'll die if I stop. Like she's the only thing keeping me here. Tethered to this bed, this room, this life.
And she's meeting me thrust for thrust.
Her legs wrap around my waist. Her nails rake down my back. She's making sounds—whimpers and moans and broken gasps of my name—and each one drives me higher. Each one is proof.She's here. She wants this. She wants me.
"Wanted this." I'm babbling. Can't stop. Words just falling out. "Wanted you. So long. So fucking?—"
"Me too." She's crying. Actual tears streaming down her temples into her hair. "Me too, Blake. I wanted—Iwanted?—"
I kiss her. Taste the salt on her cheeks. She sobs into my mouth and I swallow it.
Nothing I ever imagined came close to this. Not once. Every fantasy I had was a shadow. A sketch. This is the real thing and it's so good it terrifies me.
Don't deserve this. Don't deserve her.
But she's pulling me closer. Wrapping herself around me. Her heels digging into my back, her hands in my hair, her mouth against my ear whisperingpleaseandmoreandBlakelike my name is the only word she remembers.
So I give her more.
"Harder." She bites my earlobe. "Blake.Harder."
I shift my angle. Plant my knees. Drive into her with everything I have.
