Caroline found herself in front of a familiar door. Just like she had at Arturo’s room, she didn’t bother knocking. She pushed open the door and found Tre propped on one elbow on his bed, fiddling around on his laptop.

He looked up and grinned at her immediately. “Hi!”

He closed the laptop and summoned her inside. She stepped in on numb feet. To her, he looked like heat personified. And she was so cold. He said something to her that she didn’t quite hear. Like he was speaking to her through a layer of ice. She wanted to hold her hands out to him, warm herself at his hearth, but she found that she couldn’t lift her hands.

“I kissed Arturo,” she told him.

He went still for a second and then sighed. “I thought that might happen.” He sounded sad and a little nervous. But not angry. “Was it, uh, was it as good as our kiss?”

The memory of the kiss she’d shared with Tre flooded her, but it wasn’t enough. It wasn’t warm enough to thaw the block of ice inside her. She was freezing from the inside out; she worried that if the ice Arturo had put into her made it to her heart she’d die.

“I’m cold, Tre.”

“Caroline?” Realizing something was very, very wrong, Tre rose to his feet and stepped toward her. “Love, what is it?”

She blinked at him through a cloud and saw something blue flicker between them. It was bright, like lightning.

“Jesus,” he growled and lunged forward as she swayed. He picked her up in his arms and stared down at her. He’d never, as long as he lived, forget the blood-freezing terror of watching her eyes roll back in her head as blue energy began to cocoon her. Kissing Arturo had done something horrible to her. It was the same blue death that had happened to everyone who came in contact with Arturo. It was killing her.

Tre’s mind raced as he turned on his heel and jogged to the bathroom that connected to his bedroom. He thanked God he’d had the audacity to pick a room with an ensuite because he needed to get her into warm water immediately. He knew what she was feeling. He’d been critically injured by Arturo just like this. He knew that warm water was a sort of ancient medicine that would wash this away.

Tre flicked on the shower and, without bothering to remove her clothes or his, stepped right in. The water was freezing for a full ten seconds before it began to warm. He kicked the stopper into the drain at the bottom of the tub and laid down with her, letting the shower fill up the bath. She stirred and shivered. He watched as the blue energy that had been wrapping her up started to drain away into the water.

He realized, in a sort of dim confusion, that the energy hadn’t tried to enter her or strangle her the way it had with Jean Luc—it was merely surrounding her.

Caroline let out a soft sob and clung to Tre as the water rose up to her elbows. He tightened his grip around her as she tightened hers around him. His heartbeat raced so fast it was as if it were a single buzzing line of tension within him. It occurred to him that he should shout for help from the others.

But then the water covered her shoulder and Caroline went lax. She lifted her head, her wet hair swirling around him and when she looked at him, it was with her eyes, her regular Caroline eyes. He knew she was going to be alright.

“You’re so warm,” she whispered.

“That’s the water, love.”

She blinked down, as if surprised to see that they were in a bathtub together. “Oh. No. Trust me. It’s you.” She blinked again. “We’re dressed. In the tub.”

“I was kind of in a hurry to get you in the water.”

“It’s gone, right? The blue?” She held up a hand to inspect and turned to him.

He nodded. “I watched it leave you. How do you feel?”

“On the outside I feel warm. But on the inside I still feel cold.”

He stiffened. “Is Arturo’s energy inside you still?”

“No.” She shook her head after a second, taking stock of her feelings. “It’s not that kind of cold, I don’t think. It’s something else.” She leaned forward and pressed her wet lips to his. A jolt of heat bloomed between them. “That helps.”

A relieved chuckle came out of him. “Ohhhhhkay. I think you need to get checked out by Martine and then get a good night’s sleep.”

He sat up in the water and frowned when he realized how much of a mess their wet clothes were going to make on the bathroom floor.

“Not without you.”

“What?” He turned to Caroline who was standing beside him.

“I’m not sleeping without you.” She reached down to her pajama top and slicked it right off, dropping it back into the tub.

Tre’s eyes followed the shirt’s path through the air and into the water. It swirled to the bottom of the tub like a blue cloud of ink. As he watched, another blue article of clothing hit the water. Her pajama shorts. They swayed and settled in the water. He thought of seaweed dancing in the current. And then one more piece of clothing joined. A pair of powder pink panties, swirling to the bottom of the tub.

He dimly heard a splashing noise that he knew was Caroline stepping out of the tub. He didn’t take his eyes off the underwater clothes. He knew what he’d see when he looked up.

He’d see a naked Caroline Clifton. And then his life as he knew it would be over. So instead of looking up at her, he just looked down at the clothes at the bottom of the tub.

Something touched his midsection and it was her soft hands at the bottom of his T-shirt. He let her strip it off of him. Still, he looked away. He watched his green T make a life at the bottom of the tub with her pajamas. He watched two white socks join his shirt and it made him smile to realize that she’d been butt naked except for those socks just a second ago. Her fingers tangled with the button of his jeans. He pressed the flat of his hand against her fingers and stilled her.

“Tre,” she whispered, though his gaze stayed away from her. “Make me warm like you’re warm. Give me some of your warmth. I’m so cold. Make me warm.”

He knew what she was asking for. But he only dimly understood what it would mean. He removed his hand and let her finish opening his jeans. It took both of their hands to shove his jeans down and wrestle his legs out of them because wet denim was more effectively constricting than fishing line when it came down to it.

Tre stepped out of the tub and stared down at his own dripping feet. She was three feet away in the brightly lit bathroom. Equally naked. Dripping wet. Breathing. Alive. Cold and needing warmth. She needed him. She’d been scared, hurt. She’d come to him. She wanted him.

He raised his eyes to her all at once.

He realized then that he’d never really understood what the word ‘stunning’ actually meant. He’d always just thought it meant ‘very pretty’. But that’s not what it meant at all. Here she was, the perfect example of stunning in the true sense of the word. Seeing her there stunned him. He felt as if he were caught in the beam of some hypnotizing light, drawing him forward into a new world. She was beautiful, yes, there was no doubt about that. Her small breasts were high and proud on her chest, her nipples a rose pink just like the lips of her sex that peeked from a tidy little thatch of silk hair. Her hips curved audaciously out, creating an unusual silhouette. She was deliciously pear shaped, her graceful shoulders and elegant neck accenting the illusion. Her hair was darker than normal, wet as it was, and hung clumpily over one shoulder. Drips of water raced themselves for the honor of slicking down her body.

But it wasn’t the physical that stunned him. It was something else. He had the strangest sense of deja vu for a moment. She was looking at him and he was looking back. Her pretty, round face was open and curious and excited and heated. She looked at him with longing and desire and something that he couldn’t put his finger on. He hadn’t been here before. He knew that without question. But also, this feeling inside him was familiar.

He stepped forward and so did she, but they didn’t meet. They walked a small circle around one another, almost as if it had been choreographed. They were close enough to feel the heat kick off one another’s skin; he could scent her exhales on the air.

The light was so bright, but not harsh. It, too, had a certain kind of heat to it. They circled again, stepping toward and away from one another at the same time.

“Do you feel that?” she whispered in her perfect Caroline voice. She circled one finger in the air to indicate the way the light and the heat were following them in a circle.

He did feel it. Strange as it was, he did. “It’s like a whirlpool.”

“Exactly.” Her eyes held his. “A whirlpool of warmth.” She stopped circling and stepped toward him. “And want.”

“And want,” he agreed. And then he stepped forward and slipped his arms around her back, banding her to his chest.

Her forehead hit the skin of his neck as he bent down to hug her to him. It felt so good, he returned the favor, nuzzling into her throat. Her arms came around him too, and one of her feet laid gently over the top of his. Their knees knocked against one another as they entwined their legs. His cock pressed into the softness of her belly and the heat that had been whirlpooling swirled faster, closing in on the two of them.

Unwilling to let go of each other, they stumbled clumsily from the bathroom to the bedroom, tipping to the side when their legs hit the edge of the bed. She shivered and Tre wasted zero time getting both of them under the covers where they continued to hug and tangle and nuzzle.

He planted his temple against hers and then slowly, firmly traced their foreheads together and placed his other temple on the other side of her. She tipped back and jammed the sides of their noses together. They both laughed when their plugged nostrils made Tre’s breath whistle. Her eyelashes drew a picture on his cheek and he kissed the messy part of her hair. They were still wet and when her hands left their chokehold on his back, the cool air that replaced her heat made him shiver.

Her breasts jammed against his chest. Caroline could barely get a hand between them to trace his collarbone where the leaves of green originated. But she got one good trace in before he rolled them so that he was on top of her. She automatically locked her ankles around his back and her arms around his neck. As sexual a position as it was, it was also something else. Tre got that same deja vu feeling again.

“I feel—” he tried and then shook his head.

“What?” she asked softly.

“I almost feel like I’ve been here before, with you.”

“I think,” she whispered slowly, “it was always supposed to happen just like this.”

Her fingers zipped down his spine as she let her heels trace down the back of his legs. She had a shockingly firm, heavy touch that delighted and aroused Tre. He felt like she was anchoring him to the earth. That there was nothing that she would let get in between them. There was nothing that could rip him from her.

Tre had a combination of born swagger and hard-won sexual skill. He was used to being in the driver’s seat, to leading sex in one direction or another based on his partner’s reactions. He got the feeling, though, when Caroline stuck her tongue out one corner of her mouth in concentration and stretched her leg down as far as she could to press the pad of her foot firmly against his, that he had somehow stumbled upon his perfect sexual equal. Like they were two halves of one broken coin. He’d never felt that way before and a wave of relief, surprisingly, washed over him.

“I’ve never touched foot bottoms with someone before,” he whispered, a smile on his lips.

“Me neither.” She grinned and it was that friendly Caroline smile of hers, all white teeth and lines at the corners of her eyes, that finally reeled him in.

His eyes on her mouth, Tre dropped his head and immediately met her tongue with his. She was right there with him.

Caroline had never been so warm in her entire life. She remembered learning once that heat was simply the vibration of atoms. And now she understood that on a personal level. Every lick of Tre’s tongue into her mouth had her about to come apart at the seams. She was wrapped in warmth, drowning in it. She couldn’t even remember what it felt like to be cold. She’d never been less lonely in her entire life.

She was filled to the brim with Tre. Surrounded by him. And surrounding him, too. She knew without a doubt that he was as overwhelmed and swept away as she was. If she needed proof, all she had to do was drop her mouth to his neck and bite. Which she did.

“Shit, Caroline,” he groaned, jutting his hips forward and pressing his cock into her stomach. “Are we—Is this—What’s—” he gave up and just groaned again, rolling with her so that she was laid out over top of him.

She stretched out over him, her toes pressing against his hairy ankles and her hands tangling in his hair. He held the full weight of her and it didn’t seem like enough. He wanted her to crush the breath out of him. He wanted there to be no more choices. He wanted to not be able to think.

If he thought about anything right now, he was going to ruin this swirling world of warmth and want that had somehow dropped down over them and trapped the two of them inside. He could either crack a metaphorical window and let the two of them catch their breath, or he could make sure the metaphorical doors were locked and keep them lost in this world.

Her tongue answered the question for him. He was lost in her kiss, her flavor, her eager devouring of him.

Caroline delighted in Tre’s flavor. He was so different than anyone she’d ever kissed before. He was slightly minty from toothpaste, but she tasted something smooth as well, almost almond-like. Her nose knocked his glasses and she reared back.

“Can I take your glasses off?” she asked, rearing back to straddle him, her hands floating in the air on either side of his head.

“Yeah.” But his hands gripped her wrists when she moved forward. “But first let me just look at you for a minute.”

“Oh.” Caroline pulled her hands back and tried not to wiggle as his eyes made their way inch by inch over her body, lingering at her breasts and the flare of her waist.

“Want me to stand up?” she asked, genuinely curious if he’d want to look at all of her in this same unhurried way.

“Yes,” he answered immediately.

She rose off of him and stood a few steps away from the bed, turning slowly so that he could get the whole picture.

Tre groaned and his head slipped off from where he’d been balancing it on his palm. “Your ass. Jesus. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a prettier backside.”

Caroline looked back over her shoulder. “I always liked it, too. Makes it hard to find pants that fit, though.”

Caroline looked thoughtfully up at Tre and stepped forward to pull his glasses off his face. She danced back before he could reach for her and this time she was the one who was doing the memorizing.

He lay on his side, one palm balancing his chin and the other palm flat on the bed, his arm crossing over his body. Without his glasses, his face appeared longer, his eyes greener, his hair redder. His long body draped over the bed, the coppery hair on his legs catching the dim light. He had so many more muscles than the first time she’d seen him naked two months ago. His shoulders were defined and stately, his forearms corded. His chest was wider and shadowed, though it was hard to see all the muscle definition through his tattoos. It was not hard to see the V of muscles that arrowed down toward his groin. And that was where Caroline allowed her eyes to bottom out. The gloriousness that was Tre’s dick.

Her fingers played absently in the ends of her hair as she stared at him there. Under her direct gaze, she watched it grow another inch, spearing up toward his stomach. She’d only ever seen him flaccid before. And if she’d been honest with herself, she’d been partial to it even then. He’d been kind of square and pink and friendly looking. Now, however? Friendly wasn’t quite the right word. His cock was still square and thick, but also much longer than she’d imagined it would be.

His size was intimidating, especially considering that it was still growing, even as she watched. But there was something extremely appealing about it as well. She took a step forward, but then stopped and kept looking.

Peter would never have let her do this. Look her fill without prompting her to move on to the big show. In fact, Peter hadn’t liked to do anything that wasn’t an extremely fast whirlwind of lust that was usually over almost before Caroline had realized it had begun. And he really didn’t like leaving the lights on. Sex with Peter had not been visual. It had usually been under the covers. With most of his clothes on.

Tre watched her carefully as she took another step toward the bed. His tattoos were swirls of greens and oranges and reds and purples and blues. Most tattoos that she’d seen had some sort of substantially black outline. But not Tre’s. There was almost no black in Tre’s designs. From what she could see, they were all color. She set a knee at the edge of the bed and still he just looked at her, still as could be. She reached forward and felt as if she were about to dive into a jungle of color. His tattoos gave the strangest illusion that he was a world all unto himself. She wanted to dive inside him. To wrap herself in him.

Caroline planted one hand on Tre’s shoulder and pressed against him, hard. He didn’t fall back. He pushed forward into her hand. She lifted her other knee to the edge of the mattress so that she balanced there, leaned over him. With no preamble, Caroline leaned down and kissed the top of his cock. He stiffened in surprise but didn’t say anything or pull away or push closer. He just continued to watch her.

She was eye level with his cock, staring at it in what seemed to be some sort of meet and greet that Tre would not have interrupted even if someone were to have busted into his room waving a bazooka. He was fascinated by her innocent sexiness; there was no ‘maybe’ with Caroline. He could feel her. She was all in. She was exactly where she wanted to be. She didn’t need Tre to seduce her or convince her that this was right. She was already there.

Desire for her had him by the throat and he had it pinned right back. Tre’s blood thrummed under his surface like a rushing river under a layer of ice. His demeanor was calm, his palm planted flat against the bed, laying casually on his side. But all he really wanted to do was press her flat against the bed, give her all his weight, push into her wetness until her eyes rolled back in her head.

As he watched, Caroline lowered her head again and this time she really tasted him. The head of his cock disappeared into her mouth and her warm, perfect tongue swirled around him like a lollipop. “Gah—fuck.”

She eyed him, smiled around his cock, went very serious and swallowed him to the back of her throat and beyond.

“Fuck!”
Caroline choked and pulled off of him, coughing a little. “You’re big,” she told him. She turned back to his cock. “Bigger than I’m used to.”

Tre wasn’t generally a chest thumper. He’d never quite understood the preening masculinity of dudes trying to out-man one another, in a bar or on a basketball court. To him, in a lot of ways, comparing oneself to other dudes made masculinity seem fragile. He didn’t care how he compared. He wasn’t a show-off and he wasn’t shy. He was just Tre. He’d never cared how he stacked up in comparison. But hearing Caroline tell him that he was bigger than she was used to set off some sort of primal party deep within Tre. He wanted to swing from the branches, backflip off a waterfall, get his sperm count tested just so he could post that shit online where Peter fucking Clifton could see. Cuz fuck that guy.

But that was the last Tre thought about anything but Caroline, because she swallowed him down again and suddenly he was on his back, his hands drowning in her damp, chestnut hair. That vanilla scent of hers swamped him and bursts of color exploded behind his clamped shut eyelids.

Caroline was in heaven. Tre was vibrating beneath her, kicking off heat and grunting with every greedy tug of her mouth. She felt powerful and euphoric and completely connected to him.

With one more grunt, Tre leaned up and tugged her off of him. She flopped sideways, looking up at him from his lap and he landed his mouth on hers. “Do that forever,” he said against her lips.

And she proceeded to follow directions. She turned and sucked him to the back of her throat again, this time letting her hand work the bottom of his shaft. Tre saw stars as he leaned back on his palms and experimentally jutted his hips upward. She moaned and worked him harder so he did it again. And again.

“Love,” he groaned as he felt his finish line screaming toward him. “Caroline.”

She nodded, and started to work him faster. Harder. Most women might have backed off at that particular moment, knowing that the show might be over after the dude gets off. But Tre realized that she was trusting him to take care of her no matter what. And that turned him on beyond belief. He couldn’t have stopped now if he wanted to. Even if she pulled off of him, he was going to come.

“I’m gonna come, love,” he told her, wanting her to be prepared.

She didn’t respond, just took him to the back of her throat and swallowed around and around him.

He fell back and thrust his hips up, his hands in her hair, holding her in place while he shoved himself in her mouth. His eyes rolled, his body spasmed and he lost himself in her mouth. Pleasure like Tre had never known knifed its way out of him. His orgasm was sharp and achy all at once—he shook with it, groaning and breathless. He fell limp and sweaty back to the bed and she fell with him, her cheek planted on his thigh, her breath coming in puffs of hot against his stomach.

He threw an elbow over his eyes and tried to remind himself how to breathe. His toes tingled. He could have sworn he could feel the end of each strand of hair in his head. He felt as if she’d hooked him up to a car battery.

Tre peeked down at Caroline and instantly laughed, because she was staring up at him, that huge white smile on her face. He’d never seen her look so proud or so happy before.

“Let’s play a game,” he told her, still chuckling as he took her by the shoulders and spread her out on the bed, belly down. He sat up next to her and carefully swished the hair off her back, giving him an ungodly pretty view of her whole perfect backside. Her spine was a graceful dip along her back, her ass was round and impertinent, rising up dramatically from the smooth arch of her back and the long lines of her legs. She rested her cheek on her hands and looked up at him.

“What kind of game?”

“I’m gonna draw on your back and you’re gonna guess what it is.”

“Okay!”

He smiled to himself. He’d known she would like this. He started out simple. The ABCs. Stars, hearts, things she would recognize. He started to lose her when he switched into words in cursive.

“I don’t know,” she told him. “Do it again.”

He wrote something across her back with one of his fingertips. Something he could barely believe he was writing. Something he would never ever say out loud to her. He was writing paragraphs to her. Starting at her shoulder blades and working his way all the way down to the dimples above her hip bones. She stopped guessing and her eyes fluttered closed in pleasure at the feeling of him effectively giving her a back scratch. If she knew what he was writing to her, she showed no sign of it.

Tre wrote the words into her skin a hundred times, calling himself a fool every minute of it. Because of course he wanted to keep her. There wasn’t a man alive who wouldn’t want to keep Caroline. But the point wasn’t what Tre wanted. The point was what he was capable of. And he knew, without a doubt, that he was not capable of loving Caroline the way she deserved. He couldn’t give her that.

He didn’t want to think about that right now. What he wanted was to think about all the things he could give her. All the ways he could make her happy. Give her pleasure.

It was with that in mind that Caroline felt Tre’s hand work its way south over her back. This time, he didn’t return to her shoulder blades. He smoothed a hand over her ass, his thumb pressing lightly into her crease.

When Tre’s hand made its way all the way down, slipping lightly through her wetness, she went completely tight and he went completely lax. He groaned, just like he had when she’d been going down on him. She was beginning to love that noise of his. His forehead planted itself between her shoulder blades and his free hand gripped her at the place where her shoulder met her neck.

“I want inside you,” he said against her skin.

In answer, Caroline tipped her ass up toward him, making one of his fingers slip slightly into her. She gasped and Tre took the invitation for what it was. His middle finger worked into her wetness while his index finger sought out her clit. He was so gentle, so teasing with her pussy but he gave her even more of his weight at her back and his hand at her shoulder clamped down hard.

Caroline was in heaven. She felt as if he was belting her in, readying her for a roller coaster of some sort. As if he was strapping her to a rocket ship. She wanted more weight, more restraint. She didn’t want to think about anything but that finger of his that was painting circles around her clit.

So she didn’t. She utterly lost herself. Her hips worked, her breath huffed, her skin slicked over with sweat. Caroline’s feet tangled in the sheets until Tre tossed a heavy leg over the backs of her knees and pinned her there as well. His chest expanded and contracted against her fast and faster as he worked her. She was so wet, so perfect, so hot against his hand.

He changed his grip at her shoulder so that his forearm was across her shoulder blades, his hand grabbing her ribs on the opposite side. Her hands reached up and gripped the bars of the headboard until her knuckles were white as her pussy started to contract around his fingers. Her head was tossed back as she tightened and Tre tasted the skin along the divot of her spine. He jammed his cock against her hip as she writhed and took his weight and rose for him.

She tried to push up to her knees but he held her down and twisted his hand inside her, finding her G spot and petting it like crazy.

“Tre!” she whispered desperately, the white sheet clenched between her even-whiter teeth. He lifted his head to see her gorgeous brown eyes fling open and dilate violently. She was unseeing, unmoving, frozen, tight and clasping so hard around his fingers that he thought she might pass out.

When she collapsed back against the bed, Tre pulled his hand out of hers and shifted over her. He planted an elbow on either side of her ribs and slid his hard cock against her ass.

Her breath was choppy and emotional and joyous as it tore its way out of her. She lifted her hips up against him, inviting him in.

“Love,” he groaned against her neck, licking at the salty layer of sweat there. “I don’t have any condoms.”

“Mine are in my room,” she murmured back. “Are you clean? I know you would never put me in danger.”

“Never,” he said immediately. “I’m clean.” He paused. “I’ve never done that before, though. Had sex without a condom.”

She turned her head to the side so he could see her expression. “Me neither,” she said quietly. “I don’t think I ever really trusted Peter. Even at the beginning. Definitely not at the end.”

Tre shifted and redistributed his weight, so that his cock smashed down between them, the broadside pressing insistently against her wetness. “Are you sure?” he asked her, while teasing the hell out of both of them by pressing forward, slicking himself up.

She pushed back against him. “Completely. Please. Now.”

He tipped his hips forward and pushed forward into her wetness. Tre clamped his teeth and groaned when he sank into her an experimental inch. She pushed back and he thrust forward and sank to the hilt inside her.

“Fuck.” He dropped his head to her neck and she turned her head to kiss him. Tre pulled back and thrust and found that he couldn’t get nearly close enough to her this way. He slid a hand underneath her and gripped her waist, pulling both of them up so that she sat on his lap, facing away from him. Caroline still gripped the bars of the headboard as Tre settled his temple against hers and stared down her front, fully appreciating the view. One hand found her breasts and the other found her clit as he started to power upwards, into her. He could use both the power in his hips and the bend in his legs to thrust into her and he was taking them up off the bed.

Caroline couldn’t concentrate on any one thing. Not the rough way he tugged at her nipples, making them pay attention, or the sweet way he played with her clit, or the breath-ending way he pistoned up into her body. A man had never been so deep inside her and Caroline was lit up with it. She felt as if she were deep inside a thundercloud, getting up close and personal with lightning bolts, but never knowing when or where they were about to strike.

Her head leaned back against his shoulder and he sucked at her neck. His heat was overwhelming. His hand stopped playing with her breasts, and like he did before, he just banded her to his chest. Like he needed her tight and close. She couldn’t get enough, she’d never felt so safe in her entire life. Her hands gripped the headboard even tighter as he worked her clit so sweetly. Suddenly he stopped thrusting. He just pushed deep inside and held and let her work herself on him. He was so powerful inside her, so hot and all-consuming. His fingers never stopped on her clit and Caroline dropped one hand and joined him there. Together, both of them, worked her right into an orgasm. She went tight and hot. She wondered if her cells would ever stop vibrating. Tre stuck with her right through it until she fell forward, her hands gripping the headboard and her forehead in the crook of her elbow.

Tre’s arm went from gripping her chest to gripping her waist as he smashed her to him. He tipped them forward, so that he was on his knees behind her and one of his hands joined hers on the headboard. He supported his weight there as he pumped into her from behind. He was furious, manic, gone. He rode her wildly, feeling her perfect body continue to clench him from the inside.

Tre pulled out at the last second, and in a preternatural sort of understanding, Caroline quickly flipped over. He pumped himself twice and exploded onto her belly and breasts. She gasped and breathed and reached for him and Tre collapsed over top of her. The moment before could have been pornographic, but to Tre, it was simply beautiful. He could feel himself between them, cooling quickly and making them sticky. But his forehead was against hers, her eyes were open, point-blank into his, her fingers gripped his back. And there was nothing pornographic about it. He’d simply never been closer to another human being in his entire life.

Their lips found one another and they melted into the kiss. Their noses occasionally switching sides as he clasped her head to his.

Finally, he worried his weight might be too much for her and he rolled to the side, wincing at the sticky feeling.

She kissed him one more time and then rolled to her feet beside the bed. “Let’s shower. And then let’s do all of that again.”