His hands moved next, releasing mine only to slip between us. Button by button, he worked my shirt open. Slow. Precise. His lips didn't stop, either, as he worked his way down. By the time he reached the last one, I was shaking a little from how tightly wound I was.
He eased the shirt open, and his lips continued lower. Down my chest. Past my ribs. Then he found the curve of my stomach.
I gasped. The touch was softer than I expected, but it set everything off inside me. My hands gripped at the fabric near my head and curled tighter when he brushed that same spot again, slower, more deliberate. Just to see if I'd react the same way.
I did. Another breath caught in my throat, sharp and involuntary, and I swore I felt him smile against my skin.
His lips kept moving, trailing open kisses across my stomach. The heat of it left me raw and exposed in a way Ihadn't expected. I didn't even know I was sensitive there. I dragged in a breath and let my eyes slip shut. The fabric in my hands bunched tighter as I braced myself, my body already moving toward him without meaning to.
Eli had barely even said a word, but I could feel it in every kiss, every touch. He wanted all of me.
And I was ready to give it to him.
He slipped an arm underneath me to lift me up and ease the shirt from my shoulders. I barely had time to breathe before his lips pressed against mine again – hot, steady, unrelenting. His hand cradled the back of my neck as I kissed him back harder, chasing the heat that kept building between us.
My hands found his waist, and my fingers slid under the hem of his shirt before I gave it a tug. He got the message. He broke the kiss to strip it off and toss it aside. The second it was gone, I pulled him back down. We were skin to skin now, and his warmth spread through me. A low moan escaped me as I arched into the contact.
His hands drifted lower to slip beneath the waistband of my jeans. He hesitated, but I didn't give him time to think about it. I helped him work them off, slow and clumsy and desperate in equal measure. His lips stayed locked on mine through the effort, his breath hot against my skin as he coaxed the fabric off my legs and let everything fall to the floor.
I reached for his belt. The adrenaline made my fingers fumble for a second, but he helped guide my hands, steady and patient, until I worked it loose. I undid his jeans, pushed them down with a little more urgency, and he kicked them the rest of the way off.
Suddenly, there was nothing left in the way. Just skin. Heat. The press of his body against mine, everywhere, all at once.
His arms wrapped around me fully, pulling me in with a desperation that said he couldn’t get close enough. His mouthcrashed into mine again, kissing me as if he meant to pull the air from my lungs. And I let him.
My fingers dug into his back as the heat coiled low and tight, sharp enough to make me tremble. My breath stuttered. My pulse lurched. Every inch of me became raw and hypersensitive under his touch. I barely managed to breathe around it, desperate for something to hold me together as the weight of it all started to crash down.
I couldn’t remember ever wanting someone this badly. And now that I had him, I couldn't stand to let him go.
My legs moved instinctively, one sliding up along his side. Then the other. I hooked them around his waist, pulling him in without a word.
That was all the permission he needed. He leaned in, every inch of him fitting perfectly against me. He paused, just for a second, long enough for his hand to steady at my hip and his forehead to rest gently against mine.
Then his hand slipped down. The first touch made me gasp and jerk up into him as his fingers began to work me open. Slowly, circling, testing, pressing in a way that made my breath stutter. At first, it was just a steady pressure to ease the way for what was coming, making sure I could take him. But it didn't stay slow for long.
He found the right angle, the right rhythm, and everything in me locked up. His fingers moved more deliberately, curling just right to drag the heat through me in waves. Almost immediately, his movements made my back arch and my thighs clamp tighter around him. I couldn't stop moving against him, couldn't stop the quiet, desperate noises spilling out of me.
He kept grinding me right there, watching me squirm and feeling every shiver as my body gave into him. Heat coiled tight and hot, sharper every second, and I was already so far gone I barely recognised myself. My breath came ragged,broken into gasps and quiet curses, and my hands clawed at his back, his arms, anywhere I could hold on. He dragged me right to the edge, and I was sure he'd push me right over.
But right as it was about to hit, his fingers slowed. Just enough to keep me hanging on and aching for more. The pressure eased without letting me go completely, and I was shaking so hard it almost hurt.
Eli didn’t stop touching me, but he switched his focus. His free arm slid behind my back, pulling me in until my chest pressed against his. His hand curled around the back of my neck as his mouth lowered to my throat. His lips brushed just under my jaw, then higher, then down again, unhurried and quiet.
The heat of his breath made me shiver, but it wasn’t the same frantic, edge-of-breaking feeling anymore. Though the burn inside me was still very much there, it began to settle into something warmer, steadier, coiling low again instead of blinding me. I turned my face into his neck to breathe him in.
He kept kissing along my jaw while his touch stayed firm, keeping me near the edge without letting me drift. “You were close, weren’t you?”
My face stayed buried in his neck, but I managed a shaky breath and nodded.
He let out a breath against my throat. His fingers finally slipped free, and the loss made me whimper before I could stop it. My hips twitched once before going still, my chest still heaving against his. He didn’t let me go, though. His arm held firm around me while the other hand smoothed over my thigh, then settled at my waist.
"You're making it very hard for me to be patient right now."
His words sent another shiver through me. My fingers tightened against his back as if that could somehow steady me. My hips pressed against him again, restless, already chasing more before I could think better of it.
I felt him smile against my skin – because of course he caught that – and then he started moving. His arm that had been wrapped around my back slid free, his fingers trailing slow and deliberate down my spine. Both hands started to wander, unhurried but relentless, coaxing the heat back into me bit by bit.
His hands moved in no particular way. Sometimes they tickled the side of my neck as he tipped my head back to capture my mouth in a deep, calming kiss. Sometimes they trailed lower, drifting down my chest to my sides and then my hips. Every pass of his fingers left a trail of heat in its wake and kept me wound up and pliant under him.
