“I love you,” I repeat, steadier this time. “I love you when you’re yelling at me in a rink. I love you when you’re shaking and doing it anyway. I love you when you’re looking at me like I’m worth more than a grant on a spreadsheet.”
Her breath leaves her in a shudder.
“I thought—” She laughs, wet and incredulous. “I thought if I ever heard those words again, they’d feel like a trap. Or like pressure. But they don’t. They just feel…” She trails off, searching. “True,” she finishes finally.
I brace myself for the out. For theI’m not ready, or thewe can take it slow, or any variation ofnot yet.
Instead, she reaches for my face with both hands, fingers framing my cheeks, eyes burning.
“I love you too,” she says, voice shaking but unflinching. “I think I started somewhere between the quad and the first time you made me laugh in that awful student lounge. I’ve been trying to not drown in it ever since.”
Something in my chest just… breaks. Or heals. It’s the same sensation—too big for a ribcage.
“Good,” I say, and it comes out wrecked. “Because I’m not going anywhere.”
“Then shut up,” she whispers, leaning in. “And prove it.”
I do.
I kiss her hard, swallowing the sound she makes, hands sliding from her waist to her hips to pull her flush against me. The friction is electric, denim on denim, heat on heat. I need to feel skin. I need to erase every barrier between us until there’s nothing left but this.
We stumble up from the couch, lips never breaking contact, hands grappling with clothes.
I pull her shirt over her head and toss it somewhere I’ll never be able to find it later. She tugs mine off with a determination that makes me laugh into her mouth. We make it to the bedroom by feel more than sight, bumping into the wall once and dissolving into ridiculous, giddy giggles that feel like a pressure valve finally letting off steam.
In my room, the shadows feel familiar instead of threatening. I catch a glimpse of my gear bag in the corner, the white goaliemask keychain she bought me catching a sliver of streetlight. A claim. A mark.
I smile against her throat.
The bed creaks under our combined weight. She falls back onto the mattress, hair fanned around her, cheeks flushed, eyes huge and trusting. I take a moment to simply look at her, beautiful and bare. Her breasts rise and fall with her soft breathing, full and perfectly rounded. The curve of her waist is graceful, pulling my eyes down to the soft, dark curls nestled between her thighs. Her legs stretch out, long and elegant, a work of art I can't wait to explore again.
“Hi,” I say, because my brain is short-circuiting and that’s apparently all I’ve got.
She snorts, a breathless, beautiful sound. “Hi.”
I drag a hand down my face. “You’re going to kill me.”
“Not if you get over here,” she says. “You promised ‘not going anywhere,’ remember?”
I climb over her, caging her in with my arms. She wraps her legs around my waist like it’s the most natural thing she’s ever done.
We kiss until my lips ache, until my jaw hurts, until my head is spinning. Every time I think we’re about to crest and come down, we find another angle, another way to wind each other tighter.
I trail my mouth down her throat, over the pulse fluttering madly at the base of her neck, lower. Her skin tastes like salt and sweetness. Her hands are in my hair, gripping tight, not pushing me away but holding me there.
When my mouth finds her breast, she arches off the mattress with a sharp gasp.
“Declan,” she breathes, my name broken into syllables.
I worship her. Inch by inch. Rib by rib. My hands span her waist, thumbing the soft skin there, marveling at the fact that she’s letting me touch her like this. That she wants this.
I move lower, kissing the curve of her stomach, the dip of her hipbone. Her muscles jump under my mouth.
“I want to taste you,” I murmur against her skin, the words vibrating through her. “Tell me if it’s too much.”
Her fingers tighten in my hair. “It’s not too much.”
I settle between her legs, hooking her knees over my shoulders. Her pussy is open to me. Exposed. Beautiful. I press a kiss to the inside of her thigh, feeling the tremor running through her, and then I find her clit.
