She made a small sound against my mouth and tightened her grip on my shirt.
"Bedroom," she murmured.
"Your feet," I said against her lips.
"Are fine," she said. "Lizzy cleared me. Stop stalling."
She wrapped her legs around my waist with a sound that was almost a laugh and let me carry her down the hallway.
I laid her back onto the bed and took my time with it.
She watched me from under heavy lids as I reached for the hem of her shirt, her fingers loosening their grip on my shoulders to let me pull it over her head. The early morning light coming through the one window that still had glass turnedeverything soft and golden, and I sat back just enough to look at her.
"You're staring," she said.
"I'm aware."
She reached up and tugged at my shirt. "Then stop staring and do something about it."
I pulled my shirt off and dropped it somewhere and came back down to her, my mouth finding her jaw, her throat, the soft skin below her ear that I already knew made her breath catch. She arched into me and dug her fingers into my back and I worked my way down her neck and across her collarbone until she was squirming beneath me.
"Bee," she said, breathless.
"I've got you."
I unclasped her bra and tossed it aside and took a moment I hadn't earned in weeks just to look at her. All of her. The morning light was generous and I wasn't in a hurry. I palmed the weight of her in both hands and felt her breath hitch before I dipped my head and took my time with my mouth, her fingers coming up to thread through my hair and hold on.
"Bee." My name came out rough and wanting. "Please."
"Not yet."
She made a sound that was equal parts frustrated and desperate and I smiled against her skin before I moved lower, my mouth tracing down her sternum, across her ribs, her stomach. She made a sharp sound when I hooked my fingers into the waistband of her sweats and pulled them down her legs, taking everything with them.
I pressed a kiss to the inside of her knee.
"You're doing this on purpose," she said.
"Doing what?"
"Going slow."
I pressed another kiss to the inside of her thigh. "Yes."
She made a noise that was half frustration and half something else entirely and I smiled against her skin before I gave her what she was asking for.
She came apart fast. Weeks of fear and adrenaline and holding herself together finally having somewhere to go, her fingers twisting in my hair and her thighs shaking and my name coming out of her in a way I planned on spending the rest of my life earning. I worked her through every second of it, her hips rolling against me, her whole body finally letting go of everything it had been carrying.
I worked my way back up her body while she was still catching her breath.
"Hi," she managed.
"Hi."
She reached for my belt. "Off."
I got rid of the rest of my clothes and settled between her thighs and she pulled me down to her mouth again, slower this time, her hands moving up my back like she was mapping me. I felt her wrap around me as I notched myself at her entrance and paused there, just long enough to feel her shift beneath me with impatience.
"Hey," she said softly when I pulled back to look at her.
