He didn’t. Because even as he followed right after, erupting into me, he held on.
Still inside me, his forehead dropped against mine.
Neither of us moved.
We just breathed together, ragged, unsteady, trying to regain control over the pace of our hearts, our breaths, the delicious ache in our bodies, and the words. The words that couldn’t be unsaid and now lingered between us.
I’d been too far gone when he said them, so I wrote them off as part of the heat, the urgency. But now they curled around us, settling in the no-space between us.
You’re mine. Fucking mine.
I’d never been his.
Never been anybody’s. By choice.
But now, things I’d never felt before were haunting me. Words I’d never thought I’d use drifted into my orbit, and I found myself needing, yearning, missing.Feeling.
I had feelings!
Not friendship feelings. Not ‘hey, you’re nice, let’s fuck and have coffee’feelings.
Realfeelings. Real, deep, terrifying feelings.
For Sebastian Sawyer.
22
Sebastian
I SCARED THE SHIT OUTof her.
I could see it in her eyes when I finally pulled back and our gazes met.
And I knew that there was no going back. I’d said the words, I meant them, I wanted them to be true.
I wanted her to be mine.
It wasn’t planned, but I couldn’t run away from it anymore. Despite knowing her stand on things like commitment and permanence, relationships, and feelings.
I rolled onto my back.
Usually, Ruby would do the same, or curl against me.
But now, she jumped up like a spring, as if she couldn’t take the tension lying down. She sat up, found a T-shirt, and pulled it over her head.
I crossed my hands under my head and looked at her.
Ruby pivoted to face me, her knees folded beneath her, grazing my ribs.
We never had awhere is this goingconversation, but I knew we were about to. And I knew she’d be freaked out. So I stayed still, hands behind my head, looking at her. Calm.The kind of calm that comes only once you’ve made up your mind.
“I want to be with you,” I said. Straight up.
“You are.”
“Not like that.”
“So how? I can flip over and you can do me from behind,” she tried to joke, her face tight with anxiety she couldn’t hide.
