“Just like that,” Ward murmured, already out of breath.
“Only because I love you,” I repeated, just because. Just because I was allowed to say it, because I loved the way the words felt in my mouth as much as I loved the way Ward’s cock felt inside me. I loved him, so so much, and I was allowed to say so now. As often as I wanted. Forever.
Laughter bubbled up in my chest at the thought of that,forever, forever with Ward, and I couldn’t help kissing him again as we rocked together, keeping Ward’s slow pace. His hands roamed all over me, as though he was trying to mark every inch of my skin.
I didn’t mind if he did. I didn’t mind if he tattooed “Property of Ward” across my butt.
I was his. I’d always been his. He’d loved me, and he’d let me go, and now I was back.
I didn’t plan to go anywhere ever again. Not unless I could take him with me.
“Love being with you like this,” Ward murmured, fingertips tracing patterns on my back now. “Feels so good.”
“We’re meant to be like this,” I said, resting my forehead against his, wanting to be as close as I could to him.
“Yeah,” Ward agreed. “Yeah,” he repeated. “I think we are.”
He was smiling against my mouth when I kissed him again, and I’d never get enough of that. All I could think was that I had a lifetime of this ahead of me and I was the luckiest man in the world because of it. Who else could say they got to be in love with their best friend?
Andthe sex was incredible. Bonus.
I lost track of everything else I was doing in favor of kissing Ward like it was our first time and our last time and all the times in-between, wondering if he was still keeping a mental count, smiling to myself as I realized he definitely was. That wasWard, and I never wanted him to change.
I loved every little sound he made, every gasp and hitched breath, every moan, every laugh and giggle and grunt and whimper. Every sign that he was enjoying this as much as I was, every time he fell into rhythm with me, every touch of his fingers, every taste of his mouth, the salt of his skin, the scent of his soap and shampoo and sweat.
All of Ward was everything I wanted. Always.
As we moved together, tucked away in our own little world, touching and kissing and laughing, I was surer than ever that I’d made the right decision.
Part of me wanted it to last forever, but the way Ward felt was too good to hold out against. He must’ve known, because before I’d even thought to ask his hand was skimming down my belly, making me hiss as his fingers circled my cock.
I loved the way he touched me. I could feel how much he cared about me in every brush of his skin against mine. No one else had ever touched me like Ward did.
Another hiss escaped me as he thumbed the head, swiping beaded precome down my length, the sticky sound of it doing all kinds of things to me. Sex with Ward got to be messy and free andreal, unlike anything I’d had with anyone else.
“Like that?” Ward asked, breathless and beaming and so beautiful I could have wept.
And I got to see him like this. All the time. As often as I wanted.
“Like you,” I said, bending down to kiss him again, hips speeding up as I rocked between the gentle touch of his hand and the hard length of his cock, burying my face in the crook of his neck as everything became too much.
“I got you,” Ward panted in my ear, nipping at the lobe, his free hand digging deep into the flesh of my butt, urging me on. “I got you, Ryder. I love you.”
With anyone else I might have been embarrassed to admitthatwas what did it. But this was Ward, and I was allowed to come my brains out at the thought of him being as in love with me as I was with him.
Overwhelmed, I bit down on his neck as my back arched, stifling a shout that half of Otter Bay would have heard otherwise.
Ward swore under his breath and jerked up into me, hard and exactly what I needed, fucking me through both of our orgasms as I rode the waves of it, the bliss of being with someone I could feel so close to that right now, in this moment, we felt like one person.
This was what all those scripts I’d read meant, I thought, when they talked about soulmates.
If I had a soulmate, Ward was definitely it.
I let Ward roll us both onto our sides, mouth going dry as I watched him lick come off his fingers like it was frosting.
“For the record, it’s really hot when you do that,” I said
“Do what?” Ward asked, licking a final drop off his thumb.
