I nod, finding the last vestiges of my energy to meet him stroke for stroke, chasing what feels good as our bodies find the perfect rhythm.
"I can't," Elijah chokes out. "I'm so close, I—fuck."
He grits his teeth, throwing his head back.
"Angel."
"Yes."
Fuck, I want him to come inside me so badly. I want him to fill me up. I want to feel his cock pulse as he?—
Holy fuck.
"That's it, Angel."
Elijah swallows my scream when I come one last time with him as he finishes inside of me.
When our lips fall apart, he rests his cheek against my chest, listening to the thunder of my heart raging in my chest.
I brush his hair from his face, mixing paint with sweat as he catches his breath.
"Happy birthday," I say with a laugh, and feel more than hear his returning chuckle.
"Best one I've ever had."
I hold him tighter, wishing I could freeze this moment. Keep us here, paint-stained and tangled together, where nothing bad can reach us.
But I know better.
The calm never lasts.
18
THE OTHER ME
AURORA
It gets harder every time I have to leave them.
But at least there's the distraction of essay writing and Maisie's ability to make conversation out of anything.
She sets a paper coffee cup next to me at the table, slipping into the neighboring seat.
"They were out of caramel," she says. "I took a guess and grabbed you a peppermint mocha. You seem like a mint chocolate girl."
"I'm an as-long-as-there's-coffee-in-it girl," I whisper back, even though this area of the library is all but deserted this late into the evening. I take a long sip, and sigh. "Thanks."
It's the second time we've met up to compare notes and work on our essays since last week. I'd been coming up with excuses to say no the first few times she asked, but the guys said I needed to lean into my life here. Do 'normal' college things. Like make friends.
Something I've never been particularly good at.
Maisie pulls out her laptop and a notepad, her emerald-painted fingernails clicking over the keys as she brings up her essay, which looks like it's already mostly done. Fuck, I'm barelya quarter of the way into mine and still considering scrapping everything I wrote to start again with a different topic.
I sigh and take a couple more sips of my coffee, praying for divine inspiration in the form of adequate caffeination.
"Is that all you have so far?" Maisie asks with a wince, indicating my half-empty page of text and the blinking cursor on my MacBook screen.
I groan and close it. I can't exactly tell her I've been epically distracted by a revenge plot to take down a billionaire casino magnate who is also an art thief that stole from the other art thieves I'm currently in bed with.Literally.
