“Babe?”

Blinking awake I smile, “Hey handsome.”

Tobias’s blue eyes are shining in the sunlight that slivers through our curtains. “Hey beautiful.” He rolls on top of me and pins my arm, his erection pressing against my thigh. Instantly my body responds with interest, tummy clenching and my legs spreading a little so he can squeeze in. He knees them open wider, kissing my neck to rasp, “You sore?”

“Of course I am. But I’ll warm up if you go slow.”

He growls into my flesh, “That I can do,” heating it with his breath.

“You’re so hard,” I murmur as he angles his hips so he can penetrate me without using his hands. “How long have you been up?”

“Few minutes. Woke up half-mast but then was watching you sleep and bam. He came to full attention.” He meets my eyes, his darkening with lust as he starts pressing in. “That good?”

I gaze up at him, sliding my fingers up his thick neck. “Mmhmm.” His skin gets goosebumps under my gentle touch and he closes his eyes on a pleasure-frown. Half-inch by half-inch he fills me, my legs opening more for him, my sore pussy warming up with his tenderness. As he reaches the farthest point inside my core he holds there and meets my happy look. “How’d you sleep?”

He grins, “Good, you?”

“Feel rested but probably was only a couple hours, huh?”

“Haven’t looked.” My nose gets kissed as he begins to slowly pull out and push back in. “Had a dream about you, babe.”

“You did?” My breath hitches as he plunges in deeply and holds there.

“We were on the beach.”

“Well, that’s not too strange since we were on one last night, and oh my God, that feels so good.”

He chuckles and pulls almost all the way out again. “In my dream we were in Mykonos.”

“Greece?”

He nods, closing his eyes as he rises up like a merman, chest wide and neck stretched long. “Fuck you’re so wet. Still sore?”

Running my hand over his abs I murmur, “All of this is delicious. Keep going slow though because I like the way it feels.” He dips down, gazing at me with his teeth gritting. “I overheard someone ask you about Greece at the gym.”

“Yeah, it’s beautiful there. I want you to meet my Grandma. Though she hates the Swedes.”

“I’m not Swedish! And who hates the Swedes? They’re so nice! Oh God, just like that.”

I moan as he distracts me with powerful thrusting, taking one of my legs and laying it on his immense shoulder. He’s giving me no time to ruminate over his desire to introduce me to his family.

“She barely speaks English so I don’t know why she hates ‘em. But you learn Greek and you can ask her,” he winks then starts thrusting just a little faster.

We moan together and he scoops me up and, burying his face in my neck, biting me and massaging with his teeth in perfect time to his smooth penetration. Crying out and clawing into his spine, I arch my back. Tobias roars and hisses as he restrains himself.

Despite how many times we’ve gone through this, I moan into his ear, “Cum inside me.”

“Hannah, fuck, don’t do that to me,” he groans. “I want to cum so bad, but you don’t want to be tethered to me for the rest of your life.”

Don’t I?

I hate him for saying that.

Pushing him off me I grimace as our bodies separate. He hisses and palms himself, holding still for a minute. But it’s too late. He was so near the edge. “Fuck,” he grumbles as his cock explodes with one stroke.

He jumps off the bed.

So do I.

The messy king size is between us.

Both of us are grabbing our heads, raking our hair as we catch our breaths.

Yin and yang’s frustration personified.

“Hannah, what do you want from me? Why get pissed?”

“We should have just used a condom,” I mumble, in an effort to calm my temper.

“But we didn’t! So I had to pull out.”

“You didn’t have to!”

He stutters after a series of angry blinks, “Yeah, I fuckin’ did!”

“You know how that makes me feel?” I cry out, throwing up my arms.

He shouts, “I don’t know, SAFE?!”

“Nooooo. Yes. I don’t know.” Collapsing onto a chair with my head in my hands I search for what I’m trying to say. Dropping them I meet his eyes. “You know what I felt when you were inside me, Tobias?”

His voice drops to a lower timbre, curious. “No. What?”

“Whole. And then I came, because of you. And I wanted you to cum with me, but you have to pull out and then I’m not with you anymore. It’s all you then. By yourself. I’m left out of it.”

“But you did it to me, babe,” he implores me, walking closer.

“I know, but then you separate for…the finale!” Gazing at him, I hesitate. “It just feels not as good.”

He squats down, heavy hands on my bare knees, heavy package dangling. “It doesn’t feel near as good, but without a condom it’s taking too much of a chance, and I fucking care about you.” He trails off, biting his lip and frowning.

Our foreheads come together and I whisper, “Why did you say that, about the tethering.”

“Because my life is unpredictable. And you hate the media. Buzz is what sells tickets. I need them talking about me. It’s the exact opposite of what you want.”

Hearing that aloud inspires a lump in my throat.

Because I can’t argue it.

I hate the press.

I do anything to avoid them.

“They scare me.”

“I get it,” he mutters, his thumbs lightly caressing my knees. “When a fight goes bad the piranhas come out for feeding time. I know what it’s like, but my skin is thick. And I know I need them as much as they need me.”

I nod just a little. I have nothing else to say. To be so close to something great, yet knowing it’s going to end, is excruciating.

After a moment of awkward silence he asks, “Breakfast? Let’s get some food downstairs.”

“I can’t go down in my party dress, and I have no shoes.”

“Right,” he mutters. “Look, I can’t take you looking sad. We’re going to spend today together and every other day you’re here. Your cousins are just gonna have to accept my being a part of the vacation. We’re not saying goodbye right now.”

He searches me, noticing I winced when he said the word goodbye.

“Okay,” I smile, but it’s forced.

His eyes narrow and his jaw clenches before he stutters, “You want to just call it quits now?”

“No!” Touching his face I shake my head. “No, I want to do that, what you just said. Let’s enjoy each other.” Closing my eyes I moan, “Why is this so hard? I just met you! I feel so silly.”

He guides me to standing and lifts me up, laying us both on the bed. This is the reason we shouldn’t know when death is coming, all the good moments become bittersweet.

Tobias and I kiss, telling each other things that words just aren’t able to. Will I find another man like this? Whose weird animalistic eating habits make me only smile and want to watch them forever? Whose eyes I could vanish in for hours? Whose touch sends hot shivers into my bloodstream? A man like Tobias who understands what it’s like having been raised without a parent we longed to know? Who wants to protect me from the media and not thrust me into it to further his own career?

Not for one minute did he entertain the possibility that being with me could help him gain additional attention, a hook for reporters to write about and help sell more tickets. Instead he’s made no effort to rope me in, or sell me on how we could work. He’s respected my life, my fears, and is giving me up because of them even though he cares about me.

In between devouring each other, we stayed awake most of the night, talking.

He shared with me how his mom had apologized once for her failings. He’d been traveling the country but had returned home for Christmas. She’d had tears in her eyes, which was rare, and he’d tried to forgive her, but in his head he heard himself thinking, it’s too late. The damage is done. Two weeks later when he awoke from a nightmare where she’d been killed, he called her up at three in the morning, and woke her up to say, “I forgive you, Mom.”

Until he imagined her gone, he hadn’t known how much he cared. “Fucking killed me to tell her I loved her, after all the times she’d let me down, but I did it.”

But waking up in his arms and sharing breath was what made me certain that I don’t want this to end. What man could be more interesting than him? I just can’t see it.

As he pulls away from our kiss his eyes brighten. “I’ve got an idea. You wanna take a shower?”

Curious, I nod. “That sounds good.”

His hand travels down my naked body and he shakes his head, “I want you again. I want to live in these curves.”

“Then take me.”

He climbs off the bed and strolls to his suitcase, sifting through it to find a pair of blue jeans. He pulls them on and jogs his head to me as he zips. “You go shower. I’ll be back in about fifteen.”

Watching him grab a form-fitting Henley shirt to drag over his head, I ask, “Where are you going?”

“I said I’ve got an idea. It’s a surprise.” As he sits down to pull his socks and boots on, he pauses and mutters, “Shit, guess I have to ask, what size shoe are you?”

“Nine. Are you going shopping for me?!!”

He lunges over the bed and gives me a quick kiss before snatching his room key off the dresser on his way out. At the door he looks into the hallway, and then over his shoulder to say, “They didn’t pick our tray up yet! Slackers.”

The door clicks behind him.