Page 26 of Consorting with Romance

“Breathe, love,” I whispered.

He responded without hesitation and as he exhaled, his body relaxed. I pressed my hips forward with his breath and slid easily into him. He was unimaginably tight. The heat of his body, slick and naked around me was something I’d never experienced before.

His fingernails cut into my skin as he arched and cried out.

“Fuck.”

“God.”

I trailed my tongue along his neck and whispered against his skin.

“I love you.”

He relaxed, and I held, unmoving, until his embrace softened. I’d never been inside someone unprotected before, and it was nearly more than I could bear. It took all my concentration to focus on his pleasure instead of getting lost in mine.

Years passed as we clung to one another, consumed by the sensation of my body inching its way into his welcoming warmth. My hips had only just settled when his back arched, and he cried out. As I felt a rush of wet heat between our bellies, I buried my face in the bend of his neck and joined him.

As the dark void in which only pleasure exists slowly faded and reality settled back around us, I realized we had both been forever changed by this night. We belonged to one another completely.

He brushed a stray hair back from my face, trailing his fingers through the pale strands as our lips found one another, playing tenderly until I softened and slipped from him. He trembled once more and smiled lovingly into my eyes. I curled up against his side as he had mine the night before and we slept until late afternoon.

When I woke, he had rolled onto his stomach, creamsheets resting just below his perfectly tanned low back, one leg bent up almost to his chest. I propped my head up in my hand and took in the broad expanse of smooth skin for a long while before sliding over and curling around his back.

He rolled over to face me, sliding close and slipping his knee between mine.

I spoke quickly before I could talk myself out of it.

“I know it won’t really change much. You’re at school a ton, and we both have work and everything, but…” I hesitated a moment. “Live here? I know you’ll stay at the dorm still a lot of nights, but call this home?”

I don’t think I’d ever seen a smile quite so large. “Seriously?”

I brushed my lips across his. “Yes, please.”

His fingertips trailed along my cheekbone and jawline as he searched my emerald gaze.

“Nothing would make me happier.”

Jesse

We spent the weekend in bed, leaving its comfort only long enough to grab drinks and food and return to the tub to relax in one another’s arms in the soothing embrace of the deep, hot water we both loved. I’d never known it could feel that way; being with someone else. I hadn’t wanted to leave, but skipping Monday’s classes after Friday night’s incident would have likely made things worse. Delaying the inevitable never works.

Ash had whimpered quietly when I’d slipped from his arms and brushed my lips over his in the early morning light. When I’d glanced back at his sleeping figure on my way out, he’d curled up tighter around my pillow.

Normally I spent the twenty-five-minute train ride into the city buried in my schoolbooks. On this morning, I did no such thing. The side of my head leaned against the cool glass of the train window, my eyes half shut, oblivious to the scenery that zipped past.

I was lost in the memory of his touch, the way his eyes glittered like soft green sea glass as he hovered over me or lay at my side. The rumble and vibration of the train normally disappeared into the background after only a moment or two, but on this day, I found myself focusing on the way the subtle bumps in the tracks rippled through me, highlighting a slight soreness I’d never before experienced. Each little thump a reminder of how that tenderness had come to be in the first place. I loved every moment of it.

I was still reeling from the events of the weekend. When Ash had walked out on Friday night, I’d been broken. Two days later, his body had been inside of mine, and he’d asked me to move in with him. Maybe he’d needed us to attend that party. Maybe he’d needed to face his demons and find his way to the other side. To a place where he realized his worth.

I wished he’d been able to simply take my word for it as that amount of embarrassment and heart-stoppingpanic certainly hadn’t been something I’d needed. In the end though, we’d found our way through it together, and really, wasn’t that all that mattered?

I think I attended my courses that day. I can’t imagine where else I might have been, but the events of the day were lost on me. I was still watching the weekend roll by on replay as I dug through my pocket to find the key to my dorm.

I had vaguely noticed as several acquaintances and fellow students took the time to approach me and offer apologies and support after Friday night’s debacle.

Ms. Hennings had also apologized for her behavior, even though she’d seemed as if it were an inconvenience and blamed much of it on the bartender’s heavy pours, it still felt like the type of thing she rarely did, and I thanked her curtly before falling back into my daydreams and floating through the rest of the day.

“A message that said, ‘I’m not dead’ would have been nice.”

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