Page 164 of The Wild Card

I grip her hips, but I’m not guiding her. She doesn’t need guidance. She knows exactly what she wants, and she’s taking it. “Emmie, you’re—this is—I can’t—”

“Can’t what?”

“Think. I can’t think.” She rolls her hips, and I groan. “You’re so—damn—you’re so beautiful. Look at you. Taking what you want. You’re—uh—fuck—”

She smiles down at me, and there’s something powerful in her expression. Something knowing. She likes this—likes having me at her mercy, likes watching me fall apart.

“Tell me,” she says, planting her hands on my chest as she moves, “tell me how it feels.”

“Like everything.” The words spill out before I can stop them. “Like every good thing I’ve ever wanted. Like—Emmie. Fuck. I’m so in love with you.”

She freezes.

Shit. I said it. I just blurted it out like a complete—

“What did you say?”

“I—” I swallow hard. We’re still on our first date and I just admitted I’m in love with her. Total rookie move. “I said I’m in love with you. I know it’s probably too soon to say that, and we’re in the middle of—this isn’t how I planned to—I didn’t have a plan, actually, I just—”

She kisses me. Hard. Effectively shutting me up.

“I love you too,” she says against my lips.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.” She starts moving again, and my eyes roll back. “Now stop talking and let me finish what I started.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

She rides me hard, chasing her release, and I love every second of it. When she comes, clenching around me, my name on her lips, I follow her over the edge. The orgasm hits me like a tidal wave—crashing, overwhelming, obliterating every thought except her, her, her.

We collapse together, sweaty and breathless.

“Wow,” she says eventually.

“Uh-huh.”

“That was—”

“Yeah.”

She laughs weakly, her head on my chest. “We should do that again.”

“Give me ten minutes.”

“Deal.”

Murphy jumps onto the bed, picks his way over our tangled limbs, and settles between our feet with a pointed meow.

“He’s judging us,” Emmie murmurs.

“He’s always judging us.”

“Fair point.”

I pull her closer, pressing a kiss to her forehead. We lie there in the darkness, wrapped around each other, and I feel something I haven’t felt in as long as I can remember.

Peace.