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And he still isn’t touching me where I want him to.

“I want . . . you.” I gasp as his fingers move farther. Pause. Move. Pause. It’s pure torture. “I want you inside me.”

“And?” he asks, his mouth still on my neck, then on my jaw, and finally hovering over my lips.

“Phoenix, please!” I beg, and . . . Oh. He pushes the thin fabric aside, and then finally, finally, finally, he touches me.

Lights explode before my eyes. I throw my head back, arch my back, but he catches me again. Presses his lips to my mouth, possessive and hot, and then nothing is slow and agonizing anymore, just fast and so hungry. He thrusts one finger into me, then adds a second, his thumb exerting the pressure I need on my center, and I fear I’m about to melt into a puddle of desire. Strangely enough, I wouldn’t even mind.

I make a sound of protest as Phoenix sits up and pulls me with him. But it ebbs away as his gaze locks with mine.

“Take it off,” he says, tugging at my hoodie, which used to be his but is now mine, irrevocably. He’s not getting it back.

I get a little tangled up in the fabric, and he has to help me, which makes us both laugh. It’s absurdly beautiful to laugh with him. But we both quickly become serious again when I’m almost naked in front of him, wearing only my panties, and his gaze glides over my body. Hungry and so admiring that my chest tightens. I find it hard to breathe. My nipples stiffen just because he’s looking at me that way, and a knot of desire forms in my stomach.

“Do you know how beautiful you are?”

I want to shake my head, but I don’t think he expects me to answer. He buries his hands in my hair, pulling me toward him until I sink down on top of him with my legs spread. We’re both still wearing our underwear; there’s too much fabric between us. His cock presses against my center, hard and demanding, but neither of us makes any move to take off the rest of our clothes.

The delay makes everything a little better, because it means we have time. That this could be the first of many times. It will be. Not the third first time or the second last time. But simply one time.

I tilt my hips, and he groans as a feverish expression crosses his face, a little desperate, a little tormented. Maybe holding back isn’t such a good idea after all.

“Tell me what you want, Phoenix,” I repeat his words, and I love seeing his muscles tense as I do so.

“Fuck,” he manages to say, and I blink as innocently as he did earlier, while inside I’m burning up.

“Yes? What did you want to say?” I rub against him, and I can see his mind shutting down. He closes his eyes, fighting for self-control, failing as he presses his hips against me.

“Take it off. Now.” His words come out in a staccato.

“Hmm . . .” I want to say something else, but my words are lost in the surprised cry I let out when he grabs me and spins us around.

“The time for games is over,” he whispers, pulling the thin panties off my legs in one fluid motion. A second later, his boxer shorts land on the floor next to them.

“Is that so?” I take the condom from his hand, which he got from the bedside table drawer. The plastic crackles softly as I tear open the packet. Determined, I press against his chest until he lands on his back again. Then I reach for him, his cock twitching as I slip the condom over it. “I actually quite like playing games.”

“I know.” His answer is a hoarse growl that makes me smile. “Stop it now and come here. Please.” He reaches for me. Again, he pulls me toward him, and again I let myself sink onto him with my legs spread. He reaches between us, and I gasp as his thumb hits my center again.

My hips thrust forward, and then he’s inside me. We find our rhythm immediately; it’s a little crazy how well we fit together. I lean forward, changing the angle, but I have to kiss him. A thousand times and more. I can’t stop.

Phoenix puts both hands on my butt, helping me keep the rhythm as I continue to kiss him, breathe in, move on top of him as he moves inside me. The orgasm builds slowly, taking over my whole body. We get faster, our breathing shallower. Stifled gasps, hoarse moans. Teeth bite lips, tongues dance around each other.

And again, lights explode before my eyes and this time in my abdomen. The muscles inside me contract again and again, and I swallow Phoenix’s cry as he comes too, just a few seconds after me.

One last kiss, hard and deep, then I collapse on top of him. His skin is damp, as is mine, and I taste sweat on my tongue after kissing his chest, right above his wildly beating heart. We’re both trembling all over. Even when he has long since wrapped both arms around me again and I’m lying on top of him, our breathing has calmed down a little, but our hearts are still racing.

My eyelids flutter shut. At some point in the next few minutes, the alarm clock will ring, but we still have a little time.

Time for this moment. A moment when everything is simple.

I believe that things between us will never really be simple. It will always be complicated in some way, but that’s just how life is.

And I will always love our complexity more than any simplicity in the world without him.

Chapter 54

Ophelia