Page 97 of About to Fall

“I've got you,” I murmured against his skin. “I've got you.”

I started to move—slow at first, savouring it, feeling every inch of him around me. But I wanted more. Wanted to see him.

“Turn over.”

He made a sound of protest when I pulled out but he obeyed—rolling onto his back, legs falling open, looking up at me with those dark eyes blown wide with want. The front of his jock was soaked through, dark red with precum, his cock straining against the fabric. The cherry blossom pendant and the gold key lay against his chest, right over his heart, rising and falling with every ragged breath.

“I want to watch,” I said. “I want us both to watch.”

I positioned myself between his thighs and pushed back in—slower this time, letting us both see where we were joined. His head fell back against the pillows, mouth open, chest heaving. I held still for a moment, letting him adjust, letting us both feel it.

“Fuck—Nicky—you feel—”

“I know.” I lowered myself over him, found his mouth, kissed him deep and slow. “I know.”

When he was ready, I started to move. Unhurried. Rolling my hips in long, deliberate strokes that made him gasp against my lips every time I bottomed out. His legs wrapped around my waist, pulling me deeper. His hands roamed my back, my shoulders, traced the line of my spine with a tenderness that made my chest ache. Like he was memorizing me by touch.

I pulled back just enough to watch his face as I rolled my hips. The flush spreading down his neck. His lips parted and swollen. The cherry blossom pendant shifting against his chest with every thrust.

“You're so beautiful like this,” I told him. “I like you needy.”

“I’ve been waiting all day,” he breathed, voice breaking on the words. “Thought about this through dinner—through dessert—every time you pressed that fucking button—”

I reached between us and freed him from the jock. He was slick with precum, twitching in my hand, and when I stroked him in time with my thrusts he arched into it with a sound that unraveled me.

“That's it. Let me hear you.”

His hands found my face. Pulled me down. Kissed me like he was trying to pour everything he couldn't say into my mouth. I kissed him back just as desperately, my hand never stopping, our foreheads pressed together, breathing the same air.

“Nicky—I'm close—”

“Me too. Look at me.”

His eyes found mine. Glassy. So open it almost hurt.

“You're mine,” I said quietly. Not a question.

“Yours.” The word came out like a confession. “Always yours.”

I kissed him one more time—soft, slow—and felt him shatter. His whole body tensed, back bowing off the sheets, my name dragged from his throat as he spilled between us. The feeling of him clenching around me, the look on his face, the word always still hanging in the air—it pulled me over the edge with him. I buried myself deep and came, filling him for the first time.

I collapsed on top of him and we lay tangled in his sheets. Breathing hard. Neither of us willing to move.

“Merry Christmas to me,” Adrian mumbled into my shoulder.

I pressed a kiss to his hair and held him against my chest.

This wasn't just good sex. This wasn't just companionship or convenience. This was something else entirely. Something I told myself I had to stop chasing if I wanted to stop getting hurt.

Adrian's breathing had evened out against my shoulder. His hand was resting over my heart like it belonged there. The bracelet he'd given me caught the dim light from the window—gold and diamonds and a promise I was only beginning to understand.

Fall seven times, get up eight.

I'd been falling for weeks now. Maybe since he'd stepped between me and Renaud in that corridor and said someone needed to say it like protecting me was instinct. Maybe since Osaka when he'd kissed me and the whole world rearranged itself. Maybe since the gym when he'd worked the cramp out of my calf with steady hands and steadier eyes—the ones that always saw past the golden veneer to whatever was actually underneath.

I was falling. And for the first time in a long time, I wasn't afraid of where I'd land.

Because Adrian would be there. Eighth time. Ninth time. However many it took.