Page 45 of Vital Signs
“Please,” she murmured, her voice breathy, eyes locked on mine. I positioned myself at her entrance, rubbing the head of my cock along her slit, coating it in her arousal before pushing in slowly, inch byinch. She gasped, her walls clenching around me, warm and welcoming.
We moved together gently, my hips rolling in a steady rhythm, deep but unhurried thrusts that let me feel every flutter of her pussy gripping my length. I kept one hand in her hair, tugging lightly to tilt her head back for another kiss, while the other supported my weight above her. Her nails grazed my back as she met each push with a soft lift of her hips.
“You feel so good,” I breathed against her lips, picking up the pace just a touch, savoring the wet sounds of our bodies joining. She whimpered, her breaths coming faster, and I angled my thrusts to brush that spot inside her, drawing out her pleasure.
Anya came first, her body trembling beneath me, pussy pulsing around my cock in soft waves. I followed soon after, burying myself deep as I spilled inside her, a low groan escaping my throat. We stayed connected, breaths mingling, my fingers still weaving through her hair as I kissed her temple.
“Missed you too,” she whispered, a sleepy smile on her face, and I held her close, the world outside the hotel room fading away.
Chapter 29
Desmond
Less than a week post-conference, and the weather was calling for snow. The storm rolled in the way bad ideas do. Slowly at first. Casually mentioned. Easy to ignore until it wasn’t.
I was signing off on labs when I heard Anya’s voice behind me, pitched lighter than usual. “I know,” she said. “I’m just… not excited about it.”
I didn’t look up. I… didn’t evenmeanto listen, but I did anyway.
“The last blizzard knocked my power out for a day and a half,” she continued. “No heat. No hot water. My building manager just shrugged.” A pause. Then, dryly, “Character-building, apparently.”
Something in my chest shifted. I glanced over my shoulder. She stood near the lockers with Liza, arms crossed, shoulders hunched as if she already felt the cold coming. She laughed, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “You know I’d offer my place, but with Jeremey?—”
Anya cut her off. “I’ll survive; I always do.”
And that was the part that did it. Not the power outage. Not the weather warning scrolling across the TV in the waiting area. That quiet, reflexive acceptance. Like discomfort was a baseline she’d learned not to argue with.
I went back to my work. Finished what I was doing. Told myself I was overreacting. But I thought about itallnight.
About her apartment. About the snow piling up, streetlights blinking out, the way the city went quiet and unforgiving when the weather turned. About her sitting alone in the dark, pretending it didn’t bother her.
By the time my shift ended, I had already decided, resonating somewhere deeper than reason. I found her near the exit, tugging on her coat. “Anya,” I said.
She turned. “Yeah?”
“There’s a storm coming,” I said, and I might as well have been kicking my foot back and forth with asidioticas I sounded.
She smiled faintly; the sight did something funny to my stomach. “So I’ve heard.”
“My place won’t lose power,” I continued, just this side of rambling. “Generator. Fireplace. Well stocked and… I’ll be there all weekend.”
Her smile faded. Confusion flickered across her face. “Desmond?—”
“You can stay with me,” I said, cutting in gently. “Just until it passes.”
Silence stretched.
“I have two days off,” I added, because apparently I was incapable of stopping now. “And I can call in sick if I need to. Roads are going to be a mess, anyway.”
She stared at me. “We live in New England,” she said carefully, but I could tell she was fighting back a smile. “The roads will be fine.”
“Maybe,” I replied with a casual shrug. “Maybe everything will be clear. But your apartmentmightnot be fine. This way, you don’t need to worry about groceries. Or heat. Or sitting alone in the dark.”
Her voice softened. “You don’t have to do that.”
I stepped closer, lowering my voice. “I know.”
A beat.
