Yet again, he had given me what I’d needed without faltering. He’d let me fall apart in his arms, and he’d held me close all throughout the night. He hadn’t tried to fill the silence with words or cliches.
I hadn’t realized how desperately I’d needed a night away from my parents until I’d gotten it. After crying myself to sleep, I’d slept more restfully than I had all week. I didn’t doubt being in Dare’s arms had something to do with that.
While he slept, I studied him…noting all the things about him I loved. The dimples in his cheeks when he smiled, the fullness of his lips and how they seemed to fit so perfectly over mine. How his hands seemed molded to hold mine.
Being held by Dare made me feel protected and alive all at once. I knew he would shelter me from any storm. He wasn’t afraid to get caught in the torrential downpour, he wasn’t afraid of hard times.
It should be easy to give him what he wanted—to admit what he meant to me. So why wasn’t it? Why did I have to compartmentalize everything?
My feelings for Dare didn’t alarm me nearly as much as my fear that despite those feelings, we wouldn’t be able to make it work between us. That the outside influences would taint the beautiful thing we’d built and crush it.
All I knew for certain was I didn’t wantusto stop.
“What’s got your pretty little head all twisted?” Dare asked, his sleepy voice rousing me from my entangled thoughts.
I glanced at him, finding him watching me with tenderness. “Everything,” I sighed, wondering where to begin.
“Can you be a little more specific?” Dare teased, drawing me closer. He brushed the hair out of my face, his eyes reaching into the depths of my soul, searching for answers.
“I’m tired of hiding us, but I’m afraid, Dare,” I admitted, the truth heavy on my tongue.
“Of what?”
“My dad’s reaction, for one…but also, people not taking me seriously as a musician. A guy can screw whoever he wants on his trek to the top and nobody bats an eye, but it’s not the same for women, Dare.”
He cupped my face with his hand and ran his thumb over the side of my jaw.
“It’s not going to be like that, and if it is…so what? Fuck what people say, and fuck what they think. So long as you’re happy. Are you happy with me?” he asked, his eyes boring into me.
“Yes.”
“Then fuck the noise,” Dare said. He lowered his lips to mine, claiming them with his own. He kissed me deeply, making sure I felt it in every nerve ending in my body.
He rolled me while he kissed me, so I was on my back and he was over top of me. Dare settled between my legs, never breaking the kiss. His hands started roaming my body, cupping my breasts, trailing down the length of my torso, his fingers disappearing into the waistline of the boxers I wore, brushing against my slick folds.
Distracted, I broke the kiss and moaned, arching into his touch. He watched as I came undone around his expert fingers. After making me orgasm, he brought his fingers to his mouth, sucking the pleasure off them.
“I love the taste of you.” His voice was thick with need, and I could feel him against my leg—pulsing with desire.
“I need you inside me,” I pleaded, looking up at him as I pulled off the shirt I was wearing and tossed it to the floor.
He grabbed me, moving me so my back was to the mattress, then he slowly dragged the boxers down my legs, peppering kisses to the tender flesh on my inner thigh.
Dare positioned himself over top of me, his thick tip rubbing against my heated core. He stilled and let out a breath as my fingers dug into his shoulders. I tugged him closer, wanting to be connected in every way.
The feel of his actual skin on mine was sheer bliss. I arched my hips, drawing him in almost halfway. He couldn’t seem to stop himself from thrusting the rest of the way in, filling me. Sheathed in me fully for the first time without a barrier, he glanced down at me.
He looked like he was struggling to hold on to his restraint. “Connor…”
Though I’d always used condoms before, I’d been on birth control pills since I was seventeen years old to help with my cycles, and this felt too good to put a stop to. “Please, Dare. I just want to feel you.”
Reading something in my expression, he nodded, giving me exactly what I asked for. He pulled out slowly, taking his time sinking back in. He watched my face, reading the pleasure in my expression like he got off on just that alone.
Each thrust brought me closer and closer to the edge. I could feel the orgasm building with a slow intensity.
The tempo increased, Dare picking up speed as my walls contracted around him. “Come for me, Connor,” he said, his gruff words against my ear the final push I needed to fall.
I gasped, arching into it.
