His forehead lolled into the dip of my shoulder with a grunt. “If you don’t stop that I’m going to come in my pants like a teenage boy.”
I laughed softly as I gripped him tightly. “That long, huh?”
“It doesn’t help that I’ve dreamed of having you again for the last nineteen years.” He ground his thigh between my legs and surely he could feel how wet I was.
I whimpered in response. My body was on fire as the sun began to stretch across the room in earnest now, turning us into shadows. I pulled my shirt off over my head and his hungry lips dragged across every bit of newly exposed skin.
There was no darkness left to hide in and I was a woman driven by need. That was the only excuse for how ready and willing I was for him to see me—fully see me.
But then my brain caught up to my body and my hands froze. Something in my expression must have given me away, because Eli tucked a stray hair behind my ear and asked, “What’s wrong?”
“I—I’ve never been a small person. I know that.”
His eyes hardened, as though he was prepared to rebuke whatever it was that I might say.
“But my body is—it’s a forty-year-old body, Eli. My tits aren’t perky and my rolls used to be soft and—cute. Like a Botticelli.” I shook my head. “Of course I didn’t think that then. But now I have the kind of stretch marks you can’t hide and I’m lumpy and—”
He pressed a finger to my lips and drove his erection against me. “I don’t want the girl you used to be, Vera. I want the woman you are. There is no polite way for me to tell you that your body is so arousing I had to take three cold showers the day after you moved in.” His hand left my mouth as he lay beside me, our legs still twisted together. “I’m not going to tell you that you have to love yourself before anyone else can, because that’s bullshit. If that were true we’d all be waiting around for the rest of our lives. But I need you to believe me when I tell you that I am deeply attracted to youandyour body.”
My options were to give in to this doubt or move on. That was it. There were only two paths forward.
“Okay,” I whispered.
Each of Eli’s hands cupped one of my breasts, rolling my nipples between his fingers. “Perfect.” His finger followed the line of a dark stretch mark that spanned from under my arm to my breast. “Goddamn perfect.”
He dipped his head down and licked along my chest, careful not to touch my nipples as his beard brushed against my skin.
I threw my head back at the cool drag of his tongue. “More,” I whispered.
His mouth covered my nipple then as he looked up from beneath hooded eyes and sucked.
After doing the same to the other breast, he danced his fingers along the waistband of my underwear for a moment before I lifted my hips for him to pull them off.
His intent green eyes held mine as he ran one finger up my slit before pressing in, his finger brushing against my clitoris. “That’s it,” he said.
He sunk down to his knees, his free hand sweeping over my body and then to my inner thigh. “I’m going to make this feel so good for you, Vera. I’m going to ruin all other men for you.”
“That’s some big talk,” I said as he pulled one of my legs over his shoulder and then dragged me down the bed by my hips.
“I’m done talking.” And then his mouth was on me, spreading me apart with the flat of his greedy tongue and his facial hair scraping against my inner thighs.
“Oh—ohmy god,” I rasped as I instinctively squirmed up the bed, trying to escape the torturous, teetering pleasure.
Eli pressed a hand to my pubic bone, keeping me right where he wanted me. In the past, Brody had been exploratory and timid, but Eli was purposeful and relentless. His tongue stiffened against my clit before sucking down on the collection of nerves.
He lifted his head for a moment, his chin glistening with my arousal. “If this were my last meal, I could die happy.”
A smile tipped my lips and I laughed. This was... fun. The doubt and the worries had seeped to the edges of my brain.
I tugged his hair, pulling him back down to me.
“Yes, ma’am,” he said, each syllable tickling my inner thighs.
He eagerly tended to me again, licking and sucking. A moan brokefrom my chest as he slid two fingers past my entrance, curling them against my inner walls. The sensation stretched every muscle in my body taut like a canvas. Tension curled in my belly.
“Eli,” I panted. “Eli. I’m—”
“Come for me, love.” He maintained his rhythm as I shamelessly sought out my orgasm. A satisfied warmth spiraled from my core to the tips of my toes.
