He laughed, the sound a bit shocked, and he collapsed back down. His legs were still twitching. “That was…I don’t know what to say, but it was fucking amazing.”
He attempted to shove his arms under my back but only got as far as my shoulders. That seemed to be enough though. He held me in a tight grip, his nose nuzzling against my neck, running up the length of my tendon, and then he mouthed at my pulse like he was trying to chase the last bit of ecstasy thrumming between us.
“We’re going to need to clean up,” he said after a long forever of nuzzling. “But I don’t think I can walk for a while.”
“Let me help.”
He eased up, and I helped roll him over as we both grimaced. The come between us made an uncomfortable squelching sound as we peeled fully apart, and his eyes widened when he saw how much there was.
“It’s been a while,” I confessed, rubbing the back of my neck.
His hand touched my jaw, urging my eyes up. “For me too.”
I stared at him, then leaned in, hesitant because I wasn’t sure I was allowed to still kiss him. But he met me halfway, easy like we’d been doing this our entire lives. And fuck, it seemed like it. No part of him felt like a stranger.
I didn’t know what he did for his sixteenth birthday, or what his favorite color was, or his address, but my soul knew him in ways it had never known another person.
I didn’t believe in fate, or a god, or even a real cosmic purpose in the universe. But I believed in him.
Ten
ATLAS
It tookme a moment to realize I was awake, the room dimly lit from the hazy glow peeking out through the window curtains, my limbs heavy and warm.
I slept?
Oh god, I slept. Like, I actually went unconscious and stayed that way until morning. And fuck, I’d had the best dream. The best?—
There was a warm hand pressed to the center of my chest, almost like it was seeking out my heartbeat, and for a moment, I felt an almost violent rush of panic. But when I opened my eyes, I was met with a mop of dark brown hair and a profile smashed into my ribs, and then I remembered.
It wasn’t a dream. Not one second of it had been a dream.
It was Ryan. My angel.
The way he touched me, the way he’d kissed me, and pulled my hair, and left me seeing a shower of sparks, that had been real. The way he’d been careful without being careful at all had me swooning to the point I felt like I was going to lose all control hadn’t been a fantasy.
He hadn’t asked once if I was okay. He hadn’t tried back or to make last night softer for my own good. He simply observedme, and in spite of not actually knowing me, he seemed to instinctively know what I needed, and he’d given it to me.
I felt like a starving man finally fed, though I was still craving more.
It had been perfect and not enough all at once.
My bladder was screaming at me now, and my legs felt tingly, but the discomfort of it all was worth it to have a few more minutes with him lying on my chest. The last several hours had been a whirlwind of shock and disbelief. I’d come here in hopes of finding him, yes, but I never expected to find him like this.
I never expected to have him so willing, so eager.
He groaned softly. Something subconscious must have noticed the change in my breathing, and he started to rub his face back and forth across my chest. His own exhales became more shallow, and I could feel the moment he’d gone from the sleep-heavy dream world to aware because he tensed the way I’d done when I realized where I was.
And who I was with.
I felt the brush of his eyelashes against my neck as he blinked, and his fingers flexed over my heart before he turned his head and looked up at me. Our gazes locked, and his ears darkened with a blush.
“Um. Morning?”
I lifted a brow.
Ryan sucked in a breath through his nose, started to open his mouth, then quickly turned his head and covered a yawn with his hand. “Sorry, shit. My mouth tastes like actual ass and probably smells worse.”
