"Th-there," I stutter. "Right there?—"
He growls and drives into me again and again, hitting that spot relentlessly. One hand slides between us, thumb circling my clit, and I'm climbing fast, higher than before. My whole body tightens, coiling, ready to snap.
"Come for me, Blue," he orders, voice rough with need. "Let me feel your pussy grasping for me." He thrusts harder three more times.
I shatter into spasms, clenching around him so hard he curses, hips stuttering. The blinding pleasure rolls through me in endless waves.
He follows moments later, burying himself deep and spilling inside me with a low, guttural groan, until hot liquid soaks the sheets underneath me.
We stay locked together, breathing hard, sweat-slicked skin cooling slowly. He presses soft kisses to my temple, my cheek, the corner of my mouth. Eventually, he pulls out gently, leaving all of him behind.
There was no condom, and we both knew it. The intimacy of that, of him marking me inside, makes fresh heat bloom low in my belly even though I'm spent.
He rolls us so I'm draped across his chest, fingers stroking lazily through my hair, undoing what's left of my updo. I listen to his heartbeat slow under my ear.
"Mine," he murmurs, so quietly I almost miss it.
I press a kiss over his heart. "Yours."
And in the quiet aftermath, with his arms wrapped around me and the scent of us thick in the air, I know there's no going back.
But I never wanted to. I knew that before I let him own me.
CHAPTER THIRTY
Red
Morning light slips through the narrow gap in the curtains, pale and quiet, the kind that pretends it has no intention of exposing anything. Blue is already awake. I know because she isn't beside me anymore, and the absence pulls at my attention faster than any alarm ever could.
I find her in the kitchen, barefoot, hair twisted into a loose knot that's already coming undone. My T-shirt hangs off one shoulder, the soft cotton sliding against skin I shouldn't know so well. She's humming while the coffee brews, swaying slightly as if the world has finally decided to move at her pace.
I sneak behind her, slide my arms around her waist, and inhale deeply while murmuring in her hair, "Morning, Bluebird."
She turns her head, her smile immediately lighting up the room and me, hitting me harder than it should.
"You're up," she says, like it's a gift.
"I was scared you left," I admit, and kiss the side of her neck.
Her smile grows. She spins. Her arms wrap around my waist, and she presses her cheek against my chest. Her warm breath teases my skin. She tilts her head back, eyes bright, mouth curved with certainty. "I'll never leave you."
Never.
It feels different today than yesterday, although I'm not immune to the fact that I still have no idea how to make things public between us without ruining my career and possibly her life. I push the worry aside, too high from our night together, and ask, "Did you sleep?"
"Yes. Like, I really slept."
My fingers settle at the nape of her neck. I don't pull her closer. I don't push her away. I stay suspended in that narrow space where everything still looks survivable and praise, "That's good."
She studies my face, searching for something, then seems to decide she has found what she wants. Her lips brush my jaw, slow, deliberate, as she announces, "I made plans."
That word lands wrong. Plans belong to people with futures that aren't already burning at the edges.
"For later," she adds quickly. "Nothing big. I just thought…normal things."
Normal.
It's another word that shouldn't be allowed after nights like ours.
