Donal dropped his crutches to the ground, and we stumbled through the narrow hallway of my minuscule apartment toward my bedroom, our lips locked and our hands tugging at each other’s clothes. I pulled Donal’s shirt over his head and sucked in a surprised gasp. I'd known his body was tight--he was a professional athlete after all--but this was next level stuff. He made Marky Mark’s Calvin Klein ad look like Homer Simpson on a bad day. Donal had lines and grooves where I didn’t know lines and grooves could exist. I stared at him in hungry amazement, and with his chest sawing in and out and his eyes black with desire, rubbed my fingers over those rippling waves.

As my hand made contact with his torso, Donal sucked in a breath of his own. “Fuck,” he groaned, pressing my palm to his heated flesh. “I can’t wait to have your hands all over me.”

I raised my eyes from an eight pack I’d only ever seen carved in marble. “You’re beautiful,” I whispered, my voice awed. I’d been with a couple of very handsome men in my time, but they paled in comparison to the one standing shirtless in front of me now.

Donal snaked his hands through my hair and pulled me close. Our lips nearly touching, he said, “You’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”

I felt the color rising in my cheeks and knew my chest would be a blotchy mess of embarrassment if I looked down. I was passably pretty in a natural, girl-next-door kind of way, but there was no denying Donal was way out of my league. Instead of basking in the compliment he’d just given me, I felt unworthy of it. I shook my head, our lips brushing together as I did.

“Don’t you dare say no,” he admonished me, pulling back to stare into my eyes. With his large hands cradling my head, he asked, “Do you know what I see when I look at you?” I shook my head. “I see a woman whose sparkling eyes and wide, bright smile took my breath away from the very first moment I saw it. I look at you and I’m amazed at your effortless beauty, how comfortable you are in your own skin.”

I felt tears welling up in my eyes and tried to bite them back with several deep breaths through my nose. Javier had told me I was beautiful too—at first. I should have known something was off with our relationship when he changed his tune ... when he started asking me to wear different clothes, do my makeup more dramatically, shove my feet into five-inch heels. But I didn’t want to think about Javier anymore. Not while I was being worshipped and adored by a man like Donal. He might be ten years my junior, but I knew in my soul that he was more of a man that Javier ever would be. And I’d wanted to marry the guy.

“But more than that,” he continued, “I see someone so fucking good that I don’t know if I’ll ever be worthy of you. Nothing stops you, nothing keeps you from your dreams.”

A fat tear slipped down my cheek. “My dad’s death did,” I reminded him.

“No,” he said, swiping the tear away with the pad of his thumb. “You found a new dream, a better dream. And you’re chasing it with a single-minded purpose that is inspiring.”

My gut sank when he said that. Donal had had a dream too and mere hours ago, it’d been taken away from him. Because of me.

I leaned into him and rested my cheek against his bare skin. “I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“I ruined your dream,” I said, wrapping my arms tight around his middle and never wanting to let go. “If it weren't for me, you’d be weeks away from making your comeback.”

“Ah, baby … no. This injury was always going to happen. I’d bet you anything in the world, my first scrum back, the same thing would have happened. I hadn’t said anything to anyone, but I’ve been expecting this.”

“What are you going to do now?” I asked, remembering how lost I’d felt when I had to drop out of Harvard.

Donal chuckled and I felt the rumble of his chest under my cheek. Sliding his hands down my body to rest at the base of my spine, he pulled me tighter. Dropping his head forward, he whispered in my ear, “Now, Lauren, I’m going to take you into your bedroom and you’re going to make a man of me.”

I smiled, and slowly led Donal the rest of the way down the hall and into my bedroom, which was the size of my closet in my house back in Los Feliz. This apartment had come fully furnished—if you could even call it that—but I’d insisted on supplying my own mattress when I’d moved in. It had seemed like an indulgence at the time, but now I silently thanked for forethought.

Dropping Donal’s hand, I flipped on the bedside lamp—so much better than the harsh overhead light for hiding my flaws and casting shadows where I wouldn’t want them—and did a quick inventory of the room. I hadn’t brought many belongings with me when I’d moved here; just a framed picture of my family before my dad had died, a small abstract painting that was done by my friend Will, and a vintage silk scarf I’d hung over my headboard to bring some color to the otherwise stark room. Briefly, I wondered what Donal saw when he looked at it. This apartment wasn’t the home of a successful 32-year-old woman. It should be occupied by a girl who’d just graduated college and was striking out on her own for the very first time.

I turned to him, suddenly shy. “So …”

“So,” he answered, his voice gruff, as he took a lumbering step toward me and linked our fingers together, his thumb drawing patterns on my skin. “You okay?”

Am I? I asked myself, giving serious thought to the question. I was about to make love … err, have sex … with the most handsome man I’d ever met, someone who was kind and funny and charming and … a man who wanted me. All things considered, I was better than okay. I was good. Sure, this wasn’t the life I’d imagined for myself, but then again, who actually got that? Certainly not Donal. Not unless you counted what was happening between us now, because if he was to be believed—and I very much thought he was—he was about to get everything he’d wanted from the first moment our eyes had met and locked.

I nodded. “I’m great.” Unclasping our hands and pulling his head down, I tried to convey just how much I wanted this.

He slowed our kiss and brushed my hair back from my face. “I can’t promise this is going to be great for you,” he whispered, “but I plan on making up for it all night long if you’ll let me.”

I traced the slope of his trapezius and goose bumps broke out along his skin. He shivered beneath my touch, his whole body shaking. “It’ll be great,” I told him, “because it’s with you.”

I dropped my head forward and kissed an open-mouthed path across his chest. God, I was obsessed with his body. We had so little time left together, I wanted to lick and touch it and play with it until I boarded my plane back home in a couple of weeks. When I reached his nipple, I circled it with my tongue and Donal let out a long, deep moan.

He grabbed my ass and pulled me in tight, rolling his hips. “If you keep doing that, I’m going to come before I get anywhere near your pussy.”

I paused and flicked my eyes up to find him staring down at me, his jaw clenched. With wicked intent, I circled my lips over the tight little nub and sucked.

Donal wrapped my hair around his fist and yanked, pulling my neck taut. “You’re going to pay for that,” he growled, backing us up toward my mattress. When the back of my thighs hit the edge, he pushed me down. “Scoot all the way back,” he commanded, and I did as he bid until my shoulders hit the headboard. He pressed the knee of his good leg into the mattress and reached forward to grab the waistband of my leggings and underwear. With one good tug, he divested me of both until I lay there, my chest covered and my bottom half completely bared to him.

“Now open your legs, baby.”

Briefly, I considered making him beg and then tossed that notion aside. I already knew what was coming and that it was going to be fucking amazing. This man had a mouth made for sin. Why would I want to delay all that goodness?

As I slid my legs open, Donal climbed atop my mattress, his booted foot hanging off the end, and settled himself between my thighs. He looked up the length of my body and licked his lips. “I want you to come first since I don’t know how long I’ll last,” he said, revealing his vulnerability, just before he licked a path along my seam. Parting my folds with his thumbs, he made another pass with his tongue. “Shit, I’ll never get over how good you taste. Like ripe peaches and vanilla ice cream.”

I seriously doubted that was true, but if he was enjoying himself, who was I to call him on his bullshit?

For the next several minutes, Donal feasted on my pussy until I was writhing on the mattress like a woman possessed by the devil. With alternating licks, sucks, and nibbles, he brought me to the edge of reason and then backed me away—only to do it all over again as soon as I’d caught my breath.

“Please,” I begged, reaching for him. If he didn’t fuck me soon, I might expire from desperation. “I need you.”

Donal raised his head and our gazes locked. Staring back at me was a mixture of greed, lust … and apprehension.

“Come here,” I whispered, drawing him up my body until I could roll him over. “Lay back.”

His eyes flashed with apprehension as I straddled his lap. He was strung tight like a bow, so worried about his ability to perform, that I was afraid to do anything too sudden lest he come prematurely.

“Relax,” I told him, running my hand down his middle to wrap it around the base of his cock. “I got you.” I twisted my wrist and stroked upward, making his back bow off the mattress. He sucked in a hiss between his teeth. I reached into my nightstand and pulled out a condom. After tearing the foil packet with my teeth, I slid it down over the prettiest cock I’d ever set eyes on—long and thick with a shiny head that I couldn’t wait to wrap my lips around.

But first …

I moved onto my knees and guided him to my entrance, coating him with my juices. When I pressed his crown to my clit, Donal screwed his eyes shut and groaned.

“Look at me.” When he did, I pulled a breath into my lungs and slid down the length of him, sheathing him to the root. I held still, giving myself time accommodate to his size.

The entire time, his eyes stayed locked on mine, his jaw clenched tight. Even though I’d wanted to see his face when I took him into my body for the first time, I had to eventually look away, the intensity of his gaze making me think and feel things I had no business thinking or feeling. I cared for Donal, but I couldn’t let this be anything more than it was—a brief fling that would end in a handful of weeks when I returned to my real life in California.

When I’d managed to corral my emotions and could find my voice, I asked, “What do you want?”

His hips rocked forward and he let out a strangled moan. Opening his mouth to speak, Donal’s voice cracked and nothing came out. Clearing his throat, he started again. “I want to pump my dick in and out of your tight pussy until I see stars.”

“How do you want me?” I asked with a slow, provocative swivel of my hips. Bringing my hands to my breasts, I tugged on my nipples and let out a long, low moan of my own. God, he felt so fucking good. I was so full of Donal that I could feel him everywhere. He wasn’t the only one about to blow. I could feel my orgasm building in my core, a tingling of nerve endings and a tightening of my muscles … a building crescendo of bliss.

Donal’s hands found my hips and he rocked me along the length of him. “Just like this,” he said. “I want to watch your face.”

I pressed down to meet every upward thrust of his cock, rocking my hips against him. For several long seconds, he and I moved together in perfect harmony, until the friction of our merged bodies pushed me over the edge and I came with a cry. “Oh god, oh my fucking god!”

He sat up and wrapped his large, strong arms around me and sucked my nipple into his mouth. His hips began to piston in and out of me with a measured, insistent rhythm. I met his thrusts and matched them with my own, until Donal was falling over the edge and taking me with him, his body shuddering as my pussy clenched around his cock.

I collapsed against Donal’s chest and he fell backward onto the mattress, bringing me with him. He captured my lips with hungry urgency, his tongue darting repeatedly inside my mouth like he couldn’t get enough of me. I could taste my musk on his tongue, but I didn’t care. Our tongues danced and curled as his hands swept over my body, touching every part of me he could reach. Beneath me, his cock grew hard again and I let out a throaty laugh.

“Again?”

“I promised you all night, didn’t I?” he asked, sliding out from beneath me and disposing of the used condom. Standing at the edge of my bed, he gestured with his chin toward my nightstand. “You got any more in there?”

I bit my lip and nodded. I might not have had sex since Javier, but I was a modern woman—and a former Girl Scout. That drawer contained a vibrator, lube, extra batteries, condoms, a bottle of Excedrin, and chapstick. I was prepared.

“Then get ready, baby, because we’re going for round two. Lay back and let me do all the work this time.”

And so I did.