Licking the taste of Aly’s cunt off my lips, my head—my heart—everything softened.

Well, everything but my dick. I was so hard it hurt. But I didn’t want to rush. This could be the last time I’d ever get to be with Aly like this. I wanted it to be good for her. Leave an impression. If orgasms were all I could offer, I’d make damn sure they were the best she’d ever had.

Aly deserved more than that, of course. She deserved the world. I just wasn’t the sort of bloke who could give it to her without burning down her life.

“I’m sure,” she said. “Kind of.”

My heart contracted. She was shaking. I brushed her hair out of her face. “You don’t sound very sure.”

“We can try it on. It’s just for tonight, right?”

The words—the correct reply—got stuck in my throat. I cleared it, running a hand down Aly’s side. Her breath hitched. “Yes. Just for tonight.”

“Then okay.” She put her hand on my chest, right where my heart was throbbing, and looked me in the eye. “Why Robert? I’ve never heard anyone call you that.”

The tip of my dick brushed against the warm skin on her hip. My whole body leapt; I sucked a breath through my teeth. I canted my hips back. She was literally burning me. Touching her burned me.

How to explain to her that Robert made me feel like a different man? Rob was who I was to the world. The playboy. The fuck up. But Robert—Robert was his own man. He wasn’t tied down by his past. The demons that lived there.

I was Robert, just for tonight.

“It makes me feel different,” I began. I waited for her to roll her eyes or laugh, but she didn’t. Those eyes were kind. Intent. Had anyone ever taken the time to listen—really listen—to what I had to say? My mother had when I was little. But since then… “You’re trying on sweetheart. I’m trying on Robert.”

Aly’s pretty lips moved into a smile, her trembling gone now. “The adult version of Rob.” She traced her fingertip over my collarbone. “I like this Robert.”

“He likes you.”

“Are you going to start referring to yourself in the third person now?” Her eyes danced.

So did my pulse. I found myself grinning. “Will it get you off again if he does?”

Aly pretended to think about it for a minute. “I think Robert is going to get me off regardless.”

“With pleasure.”

I reached down and guided my middle finger up her pussy, back to front. She was still so wet. So swollen. Her knees fell apart. She started breathing hard again. I ducked my head and sucked on her neck.

I circled her clit with my knuckle. She dug her hand into my hair and tugged at it.

“Robert?”

I lifted my head. Met her eyes. “Yeah?”

They were serious. “I mean it. You’ve been wonderful. Don’t stop.”

“Don’t stop what?” I teased, squeezing her clit between two knuckles now.

“That.” Aly gasped, her eyes going a little hazy. “But also you. Don’t stop being you.”

I looked at her. Swallowed my heart. “How about neither of us stops being who we are? Just for tonight. Not who we’re told to be. Not who we think we should be or were born to be. Just us, yeah?”

She nodded. “I love it. Yes.”

Her hand on my chest, my hand between her legs, it hit me that Aly trusted me. When she’d told me about Kit’s fake engagement, I’d only thought about how Kit might actually think I was trustworthy. But now I realized that Aly was the one who’d confided in me. She’d believed enough in my ability, my honor, to share a massive secret. She’d trusted me enough to come out with me tonight. Come home with me tonight.

She’d trusted me with her body just now. I’d felt it—the moment she surrendered and trusted me to hold her up. Have her. She’d been shaking, she’d been scared, but she’d fallen into me anyway.

And that made me feel…a lot of things.

Happy. A little angry. More than a little scared.

“I won’t stop,” I said.

Rolling her hips against my hand, she pleaded, “Show me.”

I closed my eyes. I couldn’t tell her about the things she made me feel. It wasn’t fair to her. I wasn’t worthy of her. But I could show her how I felt. I’d tell her with my body how desperate I was for her, and how much I enjoyed her company, and how she made me wish I was the kind of man who was worthy of her strength. Her confidence. Her goodness.

The kind of man who wouldn’t hurt her.

Reaching across the bed, I grabbed a condom. I winced as I put it on. I was ready to fucking explode.

Aly watched with full eyes. I grabbed her hands—both—by the wrists. Lifted them above her head as I rolled on top of her, the tips of her breasts brushing against my chest. I swallowed. She was so soft. Vulnerable. Beautiful. I curled my body around hers as best I could, like I was a cover, a shield to protect her from whatever invisible audience might be watching us.

She bent her legs, her calves firm against my sides. My cock rested on her belly; her cunt was splayed open against my root, wet and needy. I rolled my hips, once, and kissed her jaw, the hollow beneath her ear. She arched into me, panting. Moaning. Her eyes still on mine.

I loved the little sounds she made.

Gathering her wrists in one hand, I held them there while I reached down with the other. Lifted my hips and held my dick. I guided my tip to her clit, circling it there. Aly’s eyes fluttered shut. I knew her; knew she wasn’t ready to come again. Not quite. But if I could last inside her for a while, I could get her there.

I wanted to get her there. I couldn’t give her the world, but I could make her come.

Aly cried out, louder, when I dragged myself up and down her cunt. Taking my time like this was making me tremble. But I refused to make the mistake of rushing like I had before. I knew better now.

Rushing with a girl like Aly was fucking criminal.

At last I settled myself at her entrance. She opened her eyes and met mine.

I pushed, just a little, leaning my weight into her. I sunk inside slowly, gritting my teeth as I set my free hand beside her head.

Hot. Tight. Soft. Her eyes and her cunt and her sighs—all this softness. My balls tightened. Sensation prickled at the base of my spine.

I stopped. Hung my head and tried to catch my breath.

“Robert,” Aly breathed. “You okay?”

“Uh-huh,” I said, even as I shook my head.

What the hell was happening to me? This is what I was good at. This is what I could control. So why’d I feel like I was losing it with each passing heartbeat?

Looking up, I rolled my hips. Fell into her, because she felt so good and I was so confused and I wanted her so bloody bad.

I rocked into her, once twice, going deeper each time until I was buried to the hilt. Aly’s eyes followed mine, her breath catching when I pulled back, thrust forward. Her hips rose to meet me, and she bent her legs even more, her knees hitting my ribs now.

My strokes evened out, rolling, gutting, smooth. We began to move together. It wasn’t slow or fast or messy or clean. It just was. The two of us gave and took in equal measure, our skin growing damp with sweat and our breaths ragged between us. The air smelled like sex and Aly’s perfume, and for a second I thought I’d died and gone to heaven.

I was beginning to feel desperate. For what, I didn’t know.

Aly pressed her lips to my chin, just underneath my jaw. Just a hint of the slick inside of her bottom lip.

“Sweetheart,” I sputtered, looking down at her. Her face was flushed, color high and bright. Hair everywhere. Lips swollen, pink.

Blue-green eyes open. I rocked my hips, going deeper than before, and she gasped. Her pussy tightened around me, once.

God, I wanted to kiss her. Take that gasp in my mouth, soothe it with my tongue.

I slid my other hand—the one holding her wrists—up, twining it with one of hers. Our fingers tangled.

She squeezed mine.

I groaned. I couldn’t hold back my orgasm much longer. My rhythm was getting frenzied; I couldn’t control it. Her other hand moved to my low back, pressing me into her. Making me see red.

The sensation, sharp, gathered low in my abdomen. And then I crested the hill, free-falling into the orgasm that rose up suddenly to meet me. We collided, and I hit the pavement hard, the impact leaving me reeling and blind and gasping. I didn’t recognize the sound I made. All I could feel was an insistent, almost painful throb as I emptied myself into her, my body going taut. The shockwaves pounded through me. Kept pounding. You’d think we hadn’t fucked in years for how big and loud this orgasm was.

I shut my eyes, leaning my forehead against hers. The next thing I knew, I felt her fingers between us, slipping over her pussy. She was fluttering around me again, her walls trembling. Her body was hard and tight underneath mine, ripe for release.

Aly was going to come again.

“Let me help you,” I breathed.

“No.” Her voice was breathy. “I’m—Robert, I’m there—”

Aly came crashing down, too, her cunt milking me with a vise-like grip as her walls collapsed. It made me dizzy, how fucking good it felt.

It made me feel like my chest had been hollowed out.

I opened my eyes. Aly’s were still closed. Her brow was furrowed again. Could I kiss her there? It was stupid. Dangerous. But I felt this urgent need to do it anyway.

Staying inside her—she felt too bloody good—I bent my neck and covered the lines between her eyebrows with my lips.

She went still.

“Not okay?” I asked, pulling back a little.

The furrow stayed there for a beat. Then she relaxed her face, letting out the breath she’d been holding. She opened her eyes.

Our faces were a breath apart. Noses touching. Her eyes were full. Sated.

Curious.

I didn’t want to kiss her. I needed to.

“I should go get cleaned up,” she said. She curled her hand around the nape of my neck.

“Whatever you need, sweetheart.”

Aly didn’t move. My heart skipped a beat.

I gave her nose a little nudge with mine. I was so close. We were so fucking close.

This was so fucking dangerous.

I’d agreed to her rules, and I wasn’t about to break them. She’d have to be the one to do that.

Her lips parted.

And then she pressed them to mine.