“Beck, we need to slow down, okay? I’m not saying no, but I want to talk first.”
His voice is smooth and calm and flirtatious. Nothing like I’ve ever heard it before. “What is there to talk about?” he says against my lips, then trails kisses down my neck and throat. He nips at my Adam’s apple, and I shiver. “I’m okay, Brody. And I’m serious. I want this. I’ve thought about it. And I…”
He trails off and presses his forehead to mine. A deep sigh brushes against my mouth. “I just want to feel something good. Something that’s mine and doesn’t come with so much pressure attached, you know?”
I do know, but I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t… “I mean, there’s going to be a lot of pressure.”
Beck laughs exasperatedly. “You’re an ass, you know that.”
“You like it.”
“Nope. Not even a little. In fact, I’ve changed my mind. I have somewhere I suddenly need to be.”
He tries to walk away from me, but I grab him by the arm and fling him back. He falls back against the mattress, and I straddle him, so I’ve got him pinned down beneath me. We’re laughing, but I’m looking down into his eyes, deep brown drowning into pools of black. There’s only one other time he’s looked back at me like this.
“Promise you haven’t been hitting the cold medicine?”
Beck laughs again and shakes his head. “No meds, but I might have caught some kind of bug from you this time.”
My stomach flips and my heart beats outside my chest, because that sounded like a declaration of some sort.
“A stupidity bug. So maybe take advantage before I change my mind.”
I kiss my way down his neck, fingertips tickling the bottom hem of his shirt.
“I’d rather you change your mind than have any regrets,” I tell him honestly. “So you have to promise to be a good girl and be honest with me. If at any point you want to stop, we stop. Okay?”
“Okay,” he agrees softly. “I know my safe word, Captain.”
“No.”
“What?”
“No safe word, baby. You don’t need it. We aren’t pretending. It’s you and me, for real this time.”
“For real?”
“That’s right, baby,” I murmur against his lips, pushing his shirt up his chest, his abs flexing as he sits up. I’m straddling his lap, so I can pull his shirt over his head. He removes mine as well, and we press ourselves together, skin to skin, as we work each other’s pants and underwear off.
There’s a bottle of lube and condoms in a storage basket under my bed. I reach down for it and bring them to rest next to Beck’s head. I’m not trying to freak him out, but I want him to have every chance to realize what we’re doing here. That after this, there’s no going back.
He looks at them and grins. “Think there’s enough?”
“Maybe for round one,” I smirk. “But I’ll probably need to start buying them in bulk because I have a feeling I’m not going to be able to get enough of you.”
“Or you could, you know…”
My balls contract as if they’re being summoned to empty inside him at this very moment.
“It’s not like we aren’t both regularly tested, and I’m not doing this with anyone else.”
“I’m not either, but let's think about it some more, okay? I’m not lying to you when I say that the very moment you let me come inside you, I will become an entirely different kind of problem.One you won’t be able to get rid of without setting me on fire or staking me in the chest or something.”
I lean down and take his mouth hard, plastering my body to his. Our cocks slide against each other like long-lost lovers, and I almost lose myself in the feel of his bare skin against mine. “When I mark you from the inside, baby girl, you’re going to know you belong to me.”
“I already said I’m yours.”
“You’ll belong to me in all the ways. Not just your bratty little attitude and your mouth and ass. Down to your marrow, Becky.” I trail my mouth down his body, peppering the skin of his sternum, abs, and happy trail with kisses and pointed words. “You.”—kiss—"Will.”—kiss—"Be.”—lick—“Mine.”
