Page 44 of Need Him Like Oxygen

And then she fell, her body trembling, her walls clenching my cock, her cries against my lips.

She took me with her, a slow, explosive sort of orgasm that seemed to go on and on for both of us.

At the end of it, though, I couldn’t quite explain the strange, sad sensation that moved through me as she slid off of me, as I discarded the condom, then rolled toward her, finding her already curled up facing me, eyes closed.

It wasn’t until I woke up alone that I understood.

The sadness?

It was because she’d been saying goodbye.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Cinna

Nerves jangled in my bones as I sat in the back of the cab, ignoring the way the driver kept shooting me concerned glances in the rearview, likely worried about my smattering of bruises I hadn’t bothered to cover up yet, deciding I would get the makeup delivered to my apartment when I got there.

I wanted to stay at Dav’s.

And that was the exact reason I needed to leave.

The cab plowed over a pothole, jostling my whole body, reminding me with a slight ache between my thighs, of one of the reasons I had to go.

I didn’t regret it.

That wasn’t the right way to put it.

Because I was pretty sure my one night with Davide would be what I used as fantasy material for the rest of my life.

It wasn’t the physical act that was the problem.

It was the way it did something to me that was decidedly not physical.

I wouldn’t even pretend to understand the way I almost felt like he was inside me, even now, halfway across Brooklyn. Like he’d become a part of me without being aware that was even a possibility.

There was a strange, heavy feeling on my chest as we drove further and further away from the apartment that had been my home for almost a month. From the man who’d gone from a colleague, to a friend, to… something more.

It was the something more that scared me enough, as I lay in the bed beside him, watching him breathe in his sleep, desire pooling in my core.

It was that same something more that had me kissing him like he was going off to war, like I would never get to do so again.

Because I knew, in that moment, that I wouldn’t. Couldn’t.

That one night was all we were going to have.

No matter how much my body objected to that.

Seeing as Dav was, well, every bit as good in bed as he thought he was. As the rumors said. Better, even.

I mean, fuck, if that was how sex was supposed to be, I’d been missing out my whole life.

Sure, I’d had orgasms with men before. But nothing that felt like it overtook my whole body. Like it fucking rocked my soul in the process.

Ugh, I needed to stop thinking about it.

Even just the memory was making my stomach cramp with need as I passed the cabbie a tip, then opened the door and climbed out onto the sidewalk out front of my building.

I made a specific choice in where I lived. Namely, one of the rougher areas of Brooklyn. First, it was where I was raised. But, second, fellow criminals were always on the lookout for people who didn’t belong. It was like having a built-in security system. Barely a day went by that someone didn’t catch my eye, and shoot me a description of someone, asking if they were someone there for me or not. So I always knew when someone was snooping who shouldn’t have been

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