I reached up and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Now, I’m going to kiss you.”
I captured her mouth with mine. She made a soft, needy sound in the back of her throat, and her hands came up to fist in my jacket.
This kiss was different from the ones we’d shared on New Year’s Eve. That night had been frantic and hungry—almost dreamlike in its intensity—both of us too afraid to slow down. That if we did, we’d have to think about what we were actually doing, and we’d have to stop.
This was more intentional. More honest. It was even months of longing compressed into the way my lips moved against hers, the way my hands slid down to her waist and pulled her flush against me.
Her robe slipped slightly off her shoulder. She didn’t shrug it back up. Didn’t try to hide.
My thumb ghosted over the ridge of her exposed collarbone, and she tilted her chin toward my touch, her eyelashes fluttering against her cheeks. I traced a path over the curve of her shoulder and down, a barely there caress of her silk-clad breast.
Her lips fell open, and a flush crept up her neck as her breathing turned ragged.
I slid my hand to the small of her back and drew her in until the space between us disappeared.
Her fingers slipped beneath my jacket, nails grazing my shoulders through the thin fabric of my shirt. “You’re wearing too many clothes,” she teased.
“You could help me with that,” I said, my voice rough.
Her lips tilted up, the first smile from her in months that actually reached her eyes. “I suppose I could—if you ask real nice.”
“I’ll get down on my knees and beg if you like.”
“Oh, you’ll be getting down on your knees, all right.” She unknotted the sash at her waist and shrugged her robe off her shoulders, letting it fall in a soft, silken slide down her body.
My mind blanked.
The fairy lights above cast a warm glow over every inch of Stella’s pale skin, highlighting the curve of her stomach, the fullness of her breasts, the tracing of veins beneath her skin, the dark thatch between her thighs.
She was beautiful, and real, and the only woman I’d ever truly wanted.
“Be a good boy, now,” she said softly, her mouth hitching into a sexy smirk as she gently pushed me down. “And eat your dessert.”
I went down without hesitation, my knees hitting the floor before I even realized I’d moved.
I started slow, nosing up the inside of her thigh and inhaling her sweet, musky scent. She shuffled her feet, spreading her legs wider. I nuzzled open-mouthed kisses up the insides of her thighs, feeling her shiver every time I got close to where she wanted me. I wanted to drag this out, to make her beg, but I’d been starving for her too long to play it slow.
Stella’s fingers wound tighter in my hair as I licked a slow stripe up the seam of her pussy, then sucked her plump clit between my lips. She jolted, her hips twitching, and let out a sound that was half laugh, half moan. “Jesus, Cade,” she said, voice high and breathy.
I grinned against her, loving the way she said my name. Loving the way her thighs trembled on either side of my face.
I parted her with my thumbs, opening her up nice and wide, and took in the sight of her—wet, pink, and perfect—before sucking her the way I remember she liked, gentle at first, then harder when she started to grind into my face. I flicked my tongue too, then dragged it slowly back and forth through her folds, again and again, until she was swearing and pulling my hair.
“Yeah, right there.”
She was so wet for me, and I fucking loved it. Getting her off like this, the taste of her, the shake in her voice—all of it. Stella always seemed so unflappable, but here, with my face buried in her cunt, that composure didn’t mean shit.
I dragged my mouth away to catch my breath and stared up at her, my cock straining against my zipper. “Jesus, Stel. You taste so damn good.”
A deep flush crept down her chest. “I forgot how good you are at this,” she breathed, pulling me back where I belonged.
I pressed my tongue harder, then flicked it rhythmically, and she let out this high, keening sound that went straight to my cock. If I wasn’t careful, I was going to come just from eating her.
I continued sucking and licking until Stella’s thighs started to shake, until she made these desperate little sounds that got louder and sweeter the closer she got. I remembered those sounds. They were the soundtrack to all my favorite fantasies. The ones I’d lived on for the past year.
“Cade, I’m—” Her words dissolved into a fractured cry as her body seized, pulsing hot and slick against my mouth.
I rode the wave with her, not letting up, and before she could even catch her breath, I pushed two fingers inside her, curling them to hit that spot she liked, and sucked her swollen clit back between my lips.
