I’d never liked asking formore. I’d learned that just saying it aloud didn’t necessarily mean I’d get it. But I forced myself to meet Sebastian’s eyes. His fingers slowed, stroking every inch of me as he slid them in and out. He looked to me for approval, and I nodded. He picked up his pace, curling his fingertips into spots that got him moans. His touch was no less pleasurable for his restraint, but it was more deliberate. No less firm but more intimate as he held mygaze.
I rested my head against the door and ground onto him, eyes closed as I urged myself over the edge. I could do this. Iwantedto do this, for Sebastian to be the first man to bridle my orgasm any way hepleased.
“Georgina,” he grated out, “I want to give youmore.”
“Youare.”
“Thendo notlookaway.”
I tilted my chin forward. Sebastian’s brows drew together in yearning or focus, maybe both. I couldn’t see his hand, buried between my thighs, couldn’t really see anything but him. His eyes, intent on mine, told me this was love not war. He had me where he wantedme.
He hadme.
I squeezed his hand, gripped his shoulder, and did my best to hold his stare, keeping my timidity at bay as he coaxed me over the edge. It wasn’t until I was tumbling into my climax, into him, that my eyes fluttered shut, my ears ringing as my body vibrated with all-consuming currents ofpleasure.
When it had passed, I was still in that position, holding onto him, my breath coming hard as I recovered. He let me float down from the moment until, loose-limbed and boneless, my knees buckled. Sebastian caught me, encircling my waist as he stood and lifted me to meet his height. “You don’t, huh?” he asked. “Youcan’t?”
I hid my face in the crook of his neck as he crossed the room. “I didn’t think I could if I wasn’t . . . youknow.”
“I don’t know. I’m new at this. You’ll have to spell it out forme.”
“You’re not new at this,” I said, inhaling his skin’s slightly briny scent. “You do it for aliving.”
“Mmm. But someone once told me I don’t understand women. That I can’t score more than one night. Maybe writing it and living it are two differentthings.”
I pulled back to look at him. “She sounds verywise.”
At the foot of the bed, he nipped my bottom lip. “Don’t make me spank you the way I’vefantasized.”
My insides tightened. I wanted to hear every detail of my counterpart’s daydreams. “What was the subjectagain?”
“You didn’t think you could orgasmwithout. . . ?”
My excitement fizzled. Sebastian already knew the answer, so it wasn’t as if I could feign ignorance. “Love,” Isaid.
“Love,” he repeated, as if trying out theword.
“I usually only orgasm if I’m in love and only during sex. Not from oral, and not with afling.”
“Ah, I see,” hesaid.
The words had sounded much more matter-of-fact in my mind. Aloud, they were weighty with meaning. “I’m not trying to say that I—oh, no.” I squeezed my eyes shut. “I didn’t mean that Iaminlove.”
“I’d have nobody to blame but myself seeing as Iamexceptionally talented at this. All those how-to articles I researched must’ve paidoff.”
I rolled my eyes as my embarrassment vanished. “Here’s one: ‘How to Make a Girl Instantly Regret Sleeping withYou.’”
“We haven’t even slept together yet. At least give me a chance to make you regret it.” He feigned dropping me on the bed but froze midair. “Georgina. Is your neighborwatchingus?”
I gasped, throwing my arms around his neck to hide my chest. Ialwaysdrew the curtains as soon as I walked in the room because nosy Renee’s window was so close, I could nearly count the curls on her head. Some nights, she’d wave at me from her reading chair. “Icompletelyforgot—”
He strengthened his hold on me and turned his back, presumably to hide me, but nowIwas looking out the window ather. “Not this way,” I hissed in his ear. “We just made eyecontact!”
“Well, I’m not turning around so she can get ashow.”
She shook outThe New York Times, but who the hell read newspapers in the evenings? Snoops, that was who. She was clearly pretending so she could sneak glances at us. “We have to close the blinds.” I readjusted my legs around him, starting to feel like a baby koala. “Walk backward,” I said. “Now herdogis at the window. This is gettingobscene.”
“Was she planning to watch us have sex?” he asked as hereversed.
