He loved me. I loved him. We were naked. Without ice cream, I didn’t see how this could get much better.

At first, just lying skin-to-skin was enough to send vibrations rumbling through me. He ran his hand up and down my body until I was ready to purr for him. Our mouths met, slanting against each other one way then the other.

Yet every movement was unhurried and swollen with anticipation. I couldn’t decide if it was the most erotic thing I’d ever felt, or if I was going to scream with impatience.

For some reason I was reminded of the sensation of waiting for the subway—that second or two between waiting on the platform and the doors opening. It was the same quiet thrill of excitement knowing that the train was finally approaching. Then, the dull roar and the hot air whooshing down the tunnel to blow my hair back.

Ash thundered into my life and my heart, like taking my first express train after a lifetime of cabs. He’d up-ended everything I thought I wanted, needed, and hoped to have in my life—none of which was the same thing.

Now, it was decided. The lackadaisical way he strummed my body was way… too… fucking… slow.

“Enough warm-up,” I announced. “Time for the first heat.”

I felt his lips curve against my cheek. “Baby, this is a marathon, not a sprint. And clearly you don’t appreciate the competitive advantage of keeping the other player guessing.”

“I’m guessing you’ll be putting your pants back on if you don’t fuck me soon.”

“That’s not very sportsmanlike,” he sighed.

But when he wriggled his way down the bed, my heart stuttered. He knew it was a joke, right? He wasn’t actually leaving, was he?

Oh.

Ooohhh.

He spread my legs and pushed my knees up, opening me up. Before I could even feel shy, he growled against me with satisfaction.

“I love doing this,” he said before touching the tip of his tongue to my clit. His hand on my belly was the only thing that stopped me from arching in pleasure.

“Yes!” I hissed. More more more more.

My legs went over his shoulders and he cupped my ass in his palms. He brought me to his mouth, his lips teasing and his tongue circling, diving, darting.

“Hmmm. I’m going to make you come like this, first,” he promised. His hot breath felt cool against my tender flesh.

Yes, yes he would.

I was so close, but instead of my body folding in on itself with the tension, I opened my hips and let my knees fall to the sides. No more hiding, no more pretenses. I would let him know about every second of my pleasure.

“Here?” he asked, filling me with two fingers while his thumb swiped over my clit.

“Oh god, just like that.” My moan rose in pitch as he doubled down his assault on my senses.

“Touch your tits,” he ordered. “Show me.”

I whimpered, but my hands pushed my breasts up to the ceiling and the pads of my fingertips rolled over the aching tips of my nipples.

“Good girl.”

Yes, I was a good girl—for him. With one last lash of his tongue I fell apart, unable to control the waves radiating from my center.

“There you go,” he said smugly. “God, I love to watch you come.”

A guttural cry escaped me as he pushed me even further, his tongue licking me until I was almost painfully oversensitive. Then his fingers left me, and I nearly panicked at the sudden feeling of emptiness.

“Fuck me!” I clawed at his shoulders.

“Condom,” he gasped.

I twisted around and fumbled in the top drawer of my nightstand. Grrrr! There was too much crap in here! Lip balm, hand cream, hairbrush, post-it notes? Finally I found a foil-wrapped square and threw it at him.

Ash laughed. “A wet wipe? I’m eating you, not hot wings, Lizzie.”

Goddammit! “Stupid orgasm. You killed my brain cells.” It was an honorable death, though.

He reached over me and rummaged through the drawer himself. We both sighed a little in relief once he was sheathed. He waggled the wet wipe at me. “You want to keep this nearby, for after?”

“Smartass.”

“You like my ass.”

I squeezed it as he shifted back between my legs, his arousal heavy and hot against my thigh. As soon as I drew my tongue up his neck, all joking was over. My heart sped up again and my mouth went dry from anticipation—need.

---

He rose over me and kissed me. The taste of my climax was sharp on his lips, but he attacked my mouth the same way he had my pussy—relentlessly. I wrapped my legs around him, digging my heels in to try to pull him into me. From where he was braced over me on his hands and knees, he reared back enough to look me dead in the eye.

His fierce expression held me immobile.

There was no sexy grin, no crooked smirk, no arched eyebrow—just a clenched jaw and an invisible line connecting his heart directly to mine. I wanted to whimper at the triumphant feeling of his cock nudging, pulsing at my entrance, but he held himself maddeningly still.

“Please, just fuck me.”

Something softened in his gaze, and I gasped as he slid an inch into me. It felt so right.

“For the record, Lizzie, I’ve never ‘just fucked’ you.”

I shook my head, even though I knew he was telling the truth.

“I love you,” he said again. Sweat popped out on his forehead as he slowly entered me. It was like he wanted to draw it out, tease every neuron in my brain and every nerve ending in my body one by one.

“I love you, too.” A tear slipped into the hair at my temple.

His brow creased and he paused. “Am I hurting you?”

I shook my head. “I just… love you.” It still felt strange to say, but I was like a toddler learning a swear word for the first time. “I love you, I love you. I love you!” I shouted.

“I know!” he yelled back, then groaned sinfully as I erupted into giggles.

Making love with Ash—because that was absolutely what we were doing—made me feel exposed but protected at the same time. I’d never felt so overcome by unguarded emotion before. It was unnerving, but I knew that however hard I fell, he’d be there to catch me.

It was also a whole lot of fun.

“Do you feel that?” he grunted, rocking deeper into me. “It’s so crazy. It’s like my heart and mind and body are all connected, and you’re holding the strings.”

My hands went from his shoulders to his face, tracing the emotions etched into the lines around his eyes and mouth. “I feel it. I feel you.”

“You don’t know the power you have, baby.”

Power? At that moment, I felt about as omnipotent as a gummy bear. But somehow, lying on my back with Ash thrusting into me, I did feel confident. The best thing about power, I realized, was feeling safe enough to give it up.

His gaze on me was intense. Anxious. It was then that I realized that I did have power over him—the power to break his heart. And he was more than capable of ripping mine to shreds as well.

I wrapped my arms and legs around him. “Trust me.”

He nodded, a bead of sweat running into his eyebrow. “You trust me?”

“I don’t have a choice.”

“Lizzie,” he urged, “you always have a choice. But I’ll do everything I can to deserve it. To deserve you.”

My eyes rolled back as he ground against me. I could feel every inch of him, and only the delicious burning sensation where we were joined told me where I ended and he began.

“Just love me,” I told him.

Wordlessly, he lowered his mouth to mine and began moving faster. We rose together, pushing each other further, faster, closer to the top. There was no competition now—only teamwork.

“Can you come again?” he panted, his hand going between our bodies to seek out that delicious friction point that made me sizzle.

“Think so. Come with me?” I didn’t want to fall alone again. I wanted him with me.

“Always, baby.”

I pulled his hand out from between us. It was enough that every time he bottomed out inside me, the insistent pressure on my clit was driving me wild.

With a short nod, he got what I was silently saying. He laced his fingers through mine and pressed my hands back against the mattress. Planting my feet on the bed, I tilted my pelvis up to meet his every stroke. With each thrust, he grazed over my clit until I was spiraling out of control.

It wasn’t a matter of if I could come again, but if I had any say in the matter at all.

Ash swore, his fingers clenching around mine. “You first. But fucking soon, please.”

As though I’d needed permission, I immediately shattered. Once I did, he groaned and stiffened in the cradle of my body as he poured into me.

The strangest thing was that I didn’t feel “finished”. Instead it was like something had just begun.

He fell on to me, heavier than I expected, but I relished the warm, damp weight of his body. My hands moved unconsciously over his back, and I inhaled as deeply as I could manage.

“Sorry, I’m crushing you.” He lifted up. When I pulled him back down, he chuckled into the crook of my neck. “And apparently you don’t mind.”

“Mmmm.”

“Lizzie?”

“Mmmm?”

“Did you just… sniff me?”

“So what if I did?” Even I could hear the contented smile in my voice. I felt like the Cheshire Cat of sex—like I would appear in a tree somewhere with a badass grin on my face. “You smell good,” I told him with a squeeze.

Ash shook with laughter in my arms. “Maybe this is all just pheromones.”

I couldn’t resist a bad pun. “A fair amount of moaning was done.”

This time his groan wasn’t one of sensual pleasure. “Oh god, that was awful.”

Yet he still laughed—because he loved me.

He slipped away to remove the condom, and I took the opportunity to ogle his very fine ass as he padded to my little kitchen. I pulled the covers up over my body, shivering and sensitized.

“How are you feeling, now?” he asked over his shoulder as he opened the fridge.

I stretched my legs under the quilt, tensing all my muscles and then letting go with a sigh. “Good.”

He turned around. “Just good?”

“Hmmm?” The full frontal view made me warm, inside and out.

Ash Garrison wore nothing but a determined smirk as he returned to the bed with two bottles of water.

“Time to aim for great. Get out another wet wipe, baby. This time you’re on top.”