Page 86 of When The Mountains Held Us

She explodes around me, her pussy squeezing me so tightly that stars burst behind my eyelids, but I force my eyes open, needing to drink in every single detail of her expression as she comes undone. Her eyes roll back as she spasms, and her thighs clamp down around me, pulling me deeper as she rides out wave after wave of ecstasy on my cock.

I groan. “I can’t take it, Oakley. Tell me where you want me to come,” I demand as my balls tighten. It takes everything in me not to lose myself right there in her warmth.

“Come inside me.”

I bite down so hard on my bottom lip that I swear I taste blood. “Oakley, are you sure?”

“Birth control,” she pants. “Come for me, Levi.”

And I can’t fucking take it anymore.

It’s all too much, and I’m right behind her, tumbling over the edge with a harsh groan as I empty inside her.

We come down from our mutual high, chests heaving and sweat covering our bare skin in a thin sheen. I don’t have it in me to pull out of her warm heat yet, and I all but collapse on top of her, burying my head in the crook of her neck as she runs soothing lines up and down my back, tracing over the marks she left there.

I’m not sure how long we lay there, spent in each other’s arms, but I don’t care. If I thought I was obsessed with Oakley before, it’s nothing compared to how it feels now, as if we’ve joined together mind, body, and soul. Sex has never been like that for me before. It’s only ever been a means to a release, something to take the edge off, to relieve the stress. But this was something entirely different. It was a reckoning, a merging of two souls, and all I know is I want to do it again and again.

Finally, when our breathing slows, I raise myself above Oakley on stiff arms and gaze down at her, taking in the hint of a sleepy, yet sated, smile on her lips as her eyes flutter open.

Her eyes were one of the first things I noticed when I met her, and I was captivated not only by their color and depth but by the haunted shadow of something else that stood in their background, as if afraid to show itself. It never fully disappeared, and I grew accustomed to it. But now, as I look down at her, that look is gone, replaced by something I don’t have a name for. Emotion clogs my throat as I take in the smiling eyes beneath me.

“You are… radiant,” I breathe, in utter awe as I whisper into the space between us.

“It’s never been like that for me before,” she admits, echoing my earlier thought, embarrassment coating her words.

I shake my head and press a kiss to her forehead. “For me either.” We stare at each other for a moment before I relent. “Let’s get you cleaned up.” She winces as I pull out of her as gently as I can, but still, the look on her face makes me freeze.

“Are you alright? Did I hurt you?”

“I’m okay,” she nods and sits up slowly, seeming to give herself another minute to catch her breath. “Just a little sore. It’s been awhile since I’ve…” she trails off, but I don’t push.

I know what she means, and the last thing I want to think about right now is the last time she was with someone that isn’t me. I help her up, and she takes a moment to steady herself, looking around at the floor in confusion.

“What’s wrong?”

“I can’t remember where my clothes went.”

She laughs and then squeals in surprised delight when I swing her up into my arms and carry her up the stairs bridal-style.

“Don’t worry. You won’t need them tonight.”

Forty-Two

Oakley

Levi sets me down in front of the shower, and I swat his arm playfully for carrying me up here like a caveman. He chuckles and adjusts the temperature of the water, my hit on his arm as effective as a moth in a windstorm. Once he deems the water warm enough, he steps under the spray and pulls me in behind him.

Before I know what’s happening, he spins me until my back presses against the tile wall. The air rushes in my lungs, coming too fast and not fast enough all at once, as he closes me in with his body, his forearms perched against the wall on either side of my head. Steam from the hot water billows and swirls around us, and the cool tiles send a shiver over my naked flesh.

He captures my mouth in a searing kiss, and the fire in my belly reignites. This kiss is gentle and exploratory, as if he’s trying to map every curve and inch of my lips. I surrender to him, meeting each stroke of his tongue with one of my own. I’ve never been kissed like this before. It’s all-consuming, exhilarating, maddening, and intoxicating.

I can’t get enough of him.

The dam keeping this at bay is shattered, leaving the two of us in pieces before the other, but together—with each touch, with each kiss—we rebuild into something new.

It’s much too soon to put a label on this, to call it what I so desperately want to call it, but with each brush of his fingers through my hair, with each heated glance and carefree laugh, Levi slowly stitches my heart back together.

Everything changed the night I met my ex, and I knew my heart would never be the same. Travis left my heart in tatters, broken and bruised, but Levi feels like healing. It’s not just his touch. It’s in every single way he’s taken care of me, from the first moment we met, and every single one after.