“Are you alright?” he murmurs against my lips, searching my face like he’s afraid he’s broken me.
I nod quickly, breathless, my lips curling into a shy, shaky smile.
“Did… did you like it?”
The look he gives me burns me alive.
“You know I did,” he says, pressing a soft kiss to the tip of my nose, a shocking contrast to the hunger in him. “You were fucking incredible, Lucas. Amazing.”
His hand slides lower, cupping me through my shorts, making me gasp. His voice drops, thick with promise.
“And now, baby… It’s my turn. Let me make you cum.”
One dizzying ride on his cock and a shower that feels more like a slow undoing than actual cleaning later, my body is trembling, on the edge of collapse. Every nerve is raw, every muscle heavy, but the only place I want to be is right here—tangled up with Alex in bed, our skin still warm, our breaths still syncing back into something steady.
His hand moves lazily through my hair, fingertips dragging in soothing, absent strokes that make my chest ache with how soft he is with me.
“Where do you want to go for the summer holiday?” he asks, voice low and almost casual, though I know him—he’s already planning. Always planning.
I shrug against his chest and tilt my face up to him.
“I don’t know. As long as I get to spend the summer break with you, I’m good.”
His lips curl, amused. “Getting cheeky these days, I see.”
I roll my eyes, but a grin pushes through. “Fine. Greece. Or the French Riviera.”
After everything that went down with the camera, heartbreak, and finally saying my mind to Nate, Alex had taken me to Bora Bora like he’d promised, like he needed to prove to me the world could still hold beauty. Then, Lapland two weeks later for Christmas, where I’d seen the northern lights on my twenty-first birthday. On New Year’s Eve, no less. It was so magical.
“We can do both,” he murmurs now, pressing a kiss into my hair. “But didn’t you once say you’d like to go back to Thailand?”
“Oh… right.” My voice softens, thoughtful. Spring break comes back to me: Bangkok, where his mother’s family had treated me like I was already theirs, like royalty, with so muchwarmth I hadn’t known what to do with it. Then, Chiang Mai, where I’d fallen in love with everything and never wanted to leave. But spring break was only a week. School dragged me back too soon. Maybe this time, three months would be enough.
Instead of saying any of that, I just whisper, “Thank you.”
His hand stills, then lifts my chin gently so I’m forced to meet his gaze.
“For what?” He asks
I swallow, the words thick.
“Everything,” I murmur. “And more importantly, for loving me and changing my life.”
He cups my face, his thumb brushing along my cheek with unbearable tenderness. And that fuck look, like I am the only thing he sees. Open, unwavering, endless. His love doesn’t dim; it burns brighter, steadier, like he falls for me again every single day. Just like I do with him.
“You don’t have to thank me,” he says softly, voice so deep it vibrates through me. “I keep telling you this, Lucas. I’m the lucky one. Having you here, letting me in, trusting me with your heart… it means more than anything. You give me peace. No amount of power or money will ever be worth what you give me.”
The lump in my throat makes it impossible to argue, even though I want to. He’ll never bend. Instead, I kiss him, trying to tell him everything that my words always fall short on. Every ounce of happiness, every shard of love that overwhelms so much that most times, I don’t know what to do with it.
He shifts, about to roll me beneath him, and I know that look—he’s ready to take me again, and I know my body, even though it’s drained, it can’t resist him. But then my phone shatters the tension, ringing across the nightstand.
He groans softly against my mouth, reluctantly breaking the kiss. He leans over to check the screen, then glances back at me.
“It’s Tyler,” he says.
I’m up in an instant, nearly shoving him back into the pillows. He chuckles, stretching out with that lazy satisfaction of a man who knows I’ll always come back to him.
When Tyler calls, I never miss it. He drops the wildest tea about his job, things that make my jaw drop every time. I grab my phone and settle onto Alex’s lap, straddling him as I swipe to answer. His big hands immediately slide to my hips, tracing idle circles like he refuses to stop touching me, like he can’t get his hands off me.
