Page 35 of Spark

“Not really. Not enough to stop.” She leaned forward, her hair falling around her face and his, and she kissed him, matching the way she stroked his tongue with the way she rolled her hips.

He gripped them and lifted his, meeting hers, taking her even deeper. “That okay?”

She nodded, her hair tickling his chest. “So good. It’s like our bodies were meant to fit together.”

He’d thought the same thing since the first time he sank inside her. It wasn’t just their bodies, though. All of her, inside and out, was made for all of him.

Hattie started to move faster, inner muscles already clenching.

“You gonna come for me already, sweetness?”

“Yes. Oh God.” She fell forward and kissed him again.

Dex wrapped his arms around her, rolled her to her back, and took over. His gaze clashed with hers, and neither of them could look away.

Dex watched as she came for him, her lips parting before she called his name.

The way she clenched around him set Dex off. He went with her, burying his face against the side of her throat, chanting her name over and over as he came hard for the second time that night.

Hattie kept her arms around him, soft hands moving over his back, stroking his skin as he continued to roll into her gently, savoring every last second he got to be inside her.

He slid his mouth up the side of her neck and along her jaw, and sucked on her delicate earlobe, chuckling when she squirmed.

“Fuck, I love you.” The words slipped free all on their own without him thinking, as easy as breathing, like the most natural thing in the world.

And he knew he’d made a huge mistake when Hattie stiffened under him.

“No, you don’t,” she whispered. “You can’t.”

Perhaps he should have backpedaled, said he didn’t mean it, that it was just something that he said in the heat of the moment, or pretended he never said it at all.

But he couldn’t. He couldn’t lie, not to her. Not about the way he felt about her.

Dex lifted his head and caught her gaze with his own. “I know it seems sudden, I do, but—”

“Sudden?” She started to struggle under him.

Dex quickly moved, climbing off her. “Hattie—”

“It’s been two weeks. People don’t fall in love in two weeks.”

“I have…I did.”

“Dex, no. This is too much, too soon.”

He felt like his heart was being shredded in his chest. “It’s not, not for me. You don’t have to say it back. You don’t have to—”

“This is, it’s…I can’t do this. I came here to break free, to take control of my life…this is, it’s just too much, too complicated. I don’t need complicated in my life. That’s all I’ve ever had and I…I don’t want it.”

“Fuck, Hattie, will you just listen to me—”

“I need you to leave.”

“What?” he rasped.

“Please, Dex. I want you to leave.”

“Hang on a minute. Can’t we talk about this—”