Page 37

“I think I’m in love with you.”

The words fell from my mouth, nothing like the way she would have written them. There was no dramatic buildup, nor a perfect setting, just the truth as we both stood in the hallway.

Ember stared at me. She pressed her lips together and let out a breath that was half laugh, half sob.

“You couldn’t have said that before Sophie interrupted us? It would have been much better dialogue.”

“I’m serious, Ember. I realized it when I was watching you with Soph tonight.”

She placed both her hands on my chest. “I think I’m in love with you too, Everett. I think it happened the morning I made you the cinnamon coffee, or possibly before that.”

I cupped her face with both hands and lowered my head, bringing my lips to hers. I kissed her slowly, tender, not the same consuming kisses as earlier, letting her know I wasn’t going anywhere.

“Come upstairs with me. Stay with me,” I whispered against her mouth.

“What about Sophie?”

“Is she asleep?”

“Now she is, yes.”

“Okay, I have a lock on my door.”

She thought for a moment, then slipped her hand into mine and we walked up the stairs together.

The moment we were in my room, I locked the door behind us, and when I turned around; she was standing by the bed, looking at me with those eyes.

“Come here.”

I met her halfway, lifting her, my hands under her thighs. She took her shirt off and then wrapped her legs around me, and I carried her over to the bed. I laid her down and braced myself over her.

She looked up at me, studying my face as I looked down at her. “What is it?”

“It’s been longer than two years since I’ve been with someone.”

She ran her fingers through my hair and softly smiled. “I know.”

“I might not…” I stopped. The vulnerability I felt about this was worse than the grief I’d been carrying. I was familiar with that, but wanting someone terrified me.

“Hey,” she whispered, touching my face. “We go slow, we stop whenever you want. Okay?”

“I know, but what if I don’t want to stop?”

“That is okay too, just know that if you need to or want to, that is okay as well.”

I lowered myself and pressed my lips against her, then dragged my lips down her neck, along her collarbone and across the swell of her breasts. She arched under me and I reached behind her, unhooking her bra. I pulled it away. Her breasts were small and perfect, and I lowered myself and took one nipple into my mouth, gently biting it. She gasped, her fingers digging into my back. I sucked gently at first, then harder, nibbling the small peak between my teeth. Her hips bucked, and she let out a moan.

“Everett.” She moaned, the sound of my name on her lips nearly wrecked me.

I moved to her other breast, repeating the same thing before I kissed my way down her stomach. I hooked my fingers into the waistband of her pajamas and pulled them down in one quick motion. She was lying naked before me on my bed and my heart hammered so hard in my chest I could feel it in my throat.

I kissed her inner thigh and watched as she trembled, biting her bottom lip.

“Can I taste you?”

“Yes, god yes.” She moaned.

I kneeled on the floor and settled between her legs and pressed my mouth to her. She was already soaked, and when I dragged my tongue through her center, she cried out and slammed her hand against the mattress. I licked her slowly, trying to learn her, what she liked by the sounds she made. Long strokes pulled loud moans. Tight circles on her clit made her thighs clamp around my head, and two fingers sliding into her while I sucked her clit into my mouth made her arch off the bed.