His gaze flicked up to mine. The connection between us thrummed—subtle and wordless, a thread binding us firmly to each other.
“Do you?” he asked, his eyes dark. “I don’t want to push you. It doesn’t need to be like that yet. Or ever, if you don’t want that.”
I decided, then and there, that I was all in. Reed was my person. Hell, I’d probably decided that a long time ago. The night we’d first met, most likely.
Swallowing hard, I nodded.
Reed’s eyes lingered on mine a moment longer. Then he kissed me, almost tentatively, as though not quite sure I’d allow it.
And then I kissed him back, letting the heat of his lips against mine ignite me, my body responding to him, hardening, my pulse quickening. Showing him, with my actions, with my touch, that I wanted this, too.
We grappled for each other, our hands sliding across each other’s bodies, our lips pressed together. It wasn’t gentle and it couldn’t be, not with the way either of us felt. It was filled with his need, and with my own.
I knew what was coming next—what I wanted to give him. I was ready.
With someone else, I wouldn’t have been. But this was Reed. And it wasn’t about sex or lust. It was about claiming the connection between us on purpose. About anchoring him. About reminding him he still had breath in his lungs, he still had something warm and real and good to hold onto, even in the midst of the darkness. It was about showing him he wasn’t alone.
I pulled back to press my forehead to his, both of us breathing hard. “I want to make love to you.”
His eyes flashed—gold, then darker again—and his voice caught. “You’re—You’re ready for that?”
Heat seared through me. I could feel his desire, his desperate longing for the closeness my touch would bring, and most of all, his bone-deep need for me to take control.
And still, even feeling that way, he was willing to put my needs before his own.
“Yes,” I said simply. Nothing had ever been so crystal clear to me.
I stood up and took him by the hand. Wordlessly, I guided us toward the bed. When I turned back to him, Reed’s eyes were pure gold.
I pulled his shirt over his head, then my own.
Though hunger blazed in his eyes, he let me take control, his pants coming down and then mine, until we were both standing next to the bed, naked and filled with need.
My cock went fully hard, my body responding to him as if my center of gravity had shifted and he had become my true north. There was no fear or trepidation. This was Reed and it was me. And there was nothing to be afraid of anymore.
I sat him down on the edge of the bed and dropped to my knees, shouldering his legs apart. His cock was hard and already leaking pre-cum. I took his length in my hand and lowered my head. I had never done this before, but I wanted to. I wanted to give him the same pleasure he’d given me.
“Harris, you don’t need to—”
“Yeah, I do,” I growled, a flash of possessiveness tearing through me. I looked back up to find his eyes pure gold and fixed intently on what I was about to do. “I want to give you pleasure, unless you tell me no.Areyou going to tell me no?”
Wordlessly, Reed shook his head, his lips parted with desire.
“Then relax and let me drive.”
The tension drained out of him at my words. He nodded, a flash of gratitude in his eyes.
I lowered my lips to the head of his cock and licked the tip, tasting the saltiness of him. A thrill of nervous anticipation shot up my spine, but it wasn’t a bad feeling. Like being at the top of a roller coaster, right before the plunge.
I put my lips over his cock and took him down as far as I could go, the way he’d done to me.
He let out a strangled groan, his hands clutching at the bedspread.
I paused, taking in the warmth and thickness of him in my mouth. Then, trying to mimic what he had done to me, I bobbed my head up and down experimentally, keeping my lips tight around him, letting my tongue lave his shaft.
“Holy fuck,” he gasped.
I took that as a sign I was doing something right.
