I guided his mouth to mine again. Kissing him felt like coming home—as though this was what I had been searching for all along, something that ran deeper than anything I had felt before, even with him. He pushed my dress up a few inches over my thighs, tracing shapes on my skin.

“You look incredible in this dress,” he breathed in my ear, and I giggled.

“You got it for me,” I reminded him. “You must have good taste.”

“Well, I’m here with you, aren’t I?”

“Guess there’s no accounting for every choice.” I grinned into our next kiss, and he wrapped his arms around me and held me even tighter than before. I couldn’t get over how good his body felt on top of mine. After the mess of the last few days, feeling something so secure, so certain, so safe, was everything I needed. I kissed him slowly, in no rush, tasting every part of him. His mouth was so soft and yielding, even with the strength and the weight of his body on top of me.

He pushed my dress up a little farther and slipped his fingers down and between my legs, finding the soft pair of black panties I had slipped into that morning with precisely this night in mind. He brushed his fingers lightly along the very outside of the fabric, the pressure so mild it was almost worse than none at all. The taunt of something more, the tease, was so deliciously perfect, I could hardly bear it.

“Mmm.” I sighed as he brushed his mouth across my throat.

“I think we need to get you naked,” he murmured.

“You do the honors,” I suggested, and he lifted me up so I was kneeling upright on the bed and peeled the dress up slowly over my body. Drawing me close, he unclipped my bra and tossed it aside and then moved back from me to run his hands over my bare flesh.

“You’re so gorgeous,” he said. I closed my eyes and let his touch communicate the same thing as his words. No man had ever made me feel that wanted, that needed before. Because it wasn’t just my body he was talking about. No, I knew it ran deeper than that, far deeper than anything I had shared with anyone prior to him.

“I think it’s only fair we get you naked too.” I moved toward him, unbuttoning his shirt with slightly shaky fingers and pulling it open so I could run my hands over his chest. His skin was warm to the touch, familiar by now, but I could never imagine getting tired of it. He closed his eyes as I carefully undressed him, stripping him down until he was in nothing but his boxers. We lay down on the bed opposite each other, propping our heads up on the pillows so we could look at each other and exchanged smiles that said so much more than anything our words ever could.

He moved toward me suddenly, pushing his hand over my belly and up across my breasts as he kissed me once more. The sudden roughness of his touch sent my head spinning in infinity, and I held on to him for dear life as he massaged my breasts and pushed his tongue into my mouth.

He pulled me on top of him, and I pressed my hands to his chest, feeling his erection against my pussy through my panties. His warm skin against mine, the contours of his muscles beneath it, was enough to bring me back down to Earth. All of this felt so unreal and yet specific at the same time, as though my body was working hard to commit all of this to memory, to fantasy, even as it was happening.

He moved his hand down again, tangling our legs together as he pushed his hand beneath my panties at last. His deft fingers found my clit in an instant, and I squirmed on top of him, parting my legs even further than before. I wanted his cock inside me, but I would take anything I could get at that moment.

“Mmm, you’re so wet already,” he growled, sounding pleased with himself, and his hint of arrogance was enough to send a flood of need for him through me once more. There was something about overconfidence deployed at the right moments that made my heart dance in my chest. He was in control of this now, and I wanted it that way, couldn’t imagine it any other way.

Holden let his fingers trail down and against my slit, stroking soft circles against my entrance as though letting me know what I was in store for. I closed my eyes and buried my face into his shoulder, urging him on, urging me to give him more.

“I want to make love to you,” he murmured and, after everything we had been through, I wasn’t sure we could do it any other way. We had fucked so much before this—that kind of raw, hungry need for each other best expressed with our bodies in an urgency I needed to work out before it filled me to bursting—but now it was different. We had time, and I wanted to take advantage of it, wanted to lose myself in it.

“Make love to me then,” I moaned in his ear, pressing my hips down to him and rocking them back and forth for a moment. He didn’t need telling twice. He reached for a condom and opened it, sheathing himself as he kicked off his boxers. I shifted back, giving him room to get them off, and then he drew me back on top of him. He peeled off my panties slowly, letting his fingertips graze against my skin as he did so, and then pulled me back to him.

He was sitting up with me astride him as I lowered myself down onto his cock, winding his arms so tightly around me, I couldn’t believe he never wanted to let me go. I began to move on top of him, guiding him into me as deeply as he would go. My hips were grinding with purpose against his body, and I had enveloped him inside me, letting him push all the way into me. He was running his hands all over my back, tracing his fingers eagerly over the skin as though he was writing his love for me every way he could think how.

“You feel incredible,” he said as I rode him, and all I could do was cling to him and rock back and forth against him. The pleasure already began to swell in me, to consume me and roll through me, the power of it arcing and rising through my body like it was the only feeling in the world that existed. But it was more than simple pleasure, more than simple desire. It ran deeper than anything I’d ever felt with him. And that was because of him and the way he had opened himself up to me and allowed me into his life, the way he’d drawn me in and filled my life with so much love and so much purpose that I had never known. It was so much what I’d wanted before I met him.

He kissed me again, softly, almost chaste had it not been for what was going on between my legs – it was the kind of kiss that a groom might have given the bride at the end of the ceremony in front of the congregation, and it made my heart swell with adoration for him, as if it hadn’t already gone far enough in that direction.

“Oh.” I panted in his ear, as the intensity of what we were sharing suddenly built and crested within me. The orgasm rolled through me like a rising tide, washing everything away but this moment, this man, this mutual exchange of love and lust. I buried my head into his shoulder, inhaling his scent greedily, loving the way he smelled, tasted, felt. I was addicted to him, well and truly, and nothing was ever going to change that. Nothing.

Moments later, he moved into me one last time, driving his cock deep into my pussy as it contracted with his own orgasm, and he sank his teeth softly into my skin as it hit him. He held himself still for a long while as though any sort of movement would be enough to break the spell at this second. I knew how he felt. I never wanted to pull apart from him, never wanted to let this go, and found myself rocking ever so slightly against him for a few minutes more, squeezing the last out of him that I could.

Eventually, he pulled back and planted a soft kiss on the corner of my mouth before slowly lifting me off his lap and heading to dispose of the condom. Utterly spent, I sprawled out on the bed and lay there bare-ass naked and feeling like I never wanted to put clothes on again as long as I lived.

I was grinning when he returned to the bedroom, slipping down the bed toward me and running his hand up my back. He was leaving an imprint on me, branding himself into my skin. Not that I would have minded if the whole damn world knew I was his and that he was mine.

“That was amazing,” he murmured, and I nodded.

“It really was,” I agreed. “Never… you know, made love before.”

“Well, get used to it,” he teased. “Because if it’s that good—”

He interrupted himself with a yawn and lay back on the bed, and I snuggled up next to him and stroked his hair.

“You should get some rest,” I told him firmly. “It’s been a busy few days. You need it.”

“Same goes for you,” he said through a yawn. “Come here.”

He held his arms out to me, and I cuddled in close to him. I watched as he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep. I smiled as his chest rose and fell, and he settled into a decent rest. I didn’t even want to think how hard these last few days had been for him. Yet he had still made the time for me, despite it all.

“I love you,” I whispered to him, knowing he was asleep. Even if he hadn’t been, my words were so quiet, he would have barely been able to make them out. But what mattered was, they were out there and were in his mind because they were true. I did love him. I didn’t know when I would have the nerve to tell him in person when he was awake, but that day would come. I could hardly wait for it. But for now, enough had already happened, and we both needed some time to gather ourselves. As long as I was there in his arms to do it, I didn’t mind one little bit.