Page 55 of SALT

"Regret is for things we don't do, not the things we've done." Her hand runs through my hair as her eyes study my face. "You have been all I've ever wanted for far too long."

"This is where I should say we should probably talk about last night, this afternoon, all of it, before we?—"

Her finger presses into my lips. "Not now. Sometimes words are gentle, and other times they're ugly; they have the power to change before our very eyes. They are deceivers, but this…" Her other hand drifts up my side, her delicate touch igniting a fire that heats my flesh and melts my bones. "This can't be faked."

"You're trying to kill me, aren't you?" I say as I gently kiss her lips, and my tip nudges her entrance, reminding me I'm bare. "Shit," I push up onto my hands and reach for my nightstand.

"What's wrong?"

"I need to get a condom."

Her legs wrap around my waist. "Please don't."

The last thing I need right now is an accident. "Cameron?—"

"I haven't been with anyone in over a year, Everett. I have an IUD, and I'm clean. I want to feel you…unless that's not what?—"

"Don't even think about finishing that sentence," I say as I settle back between her legs, my arms caging her in so she has nowhere else to look but at me. "You know I want the same thing. You've known it for years."

She thrusts her hips against me. "I don't believe you. A man that wants it just as bad as I do would already be inside of me."

I growl and rock against her clit hard before greedily taking her mouth one more time and saying, "Or maybe I'm not in a rush to make this a memory." I align my tip with her entrance, and her soft walls immediately pull me in. "My god, sunshine, you feel so good, and I'm not even all the way in." I push in a little further, and my cock twitches as a bead of pre-cum leaks from the tip. I'm not going to last. When she bites her lip, I pause. "What's wrong?"

She shakes her head. "Please don't stop."

I lay my forehead against hers. "Does it hurt?" She said she hasn't been with a man in over a year, which made me way fucking happier than it has any right too.

"Please," she pleads as her hand finds the back of my neck and she pulls my mouth onto hers. My mind momentarily struggles before I let it go and fall into her. I'm hurting her by going slow, by prolonging this moment that she's wanted for so long. I want to treasure it, and she wants to experience it. Both are beautiful. As our kiss grows hungrier with need and desire, I fully seat my cock, and we both groan loudly. I give her a second to acclimate to my size. I know she wants this, but I don't want to hurt her.

"I'm going to fuck you now, but if it hurts, you tell me to stop." She nods. "I'm going to need your words on this one, Cameron. You are too important to me."

"I'll tell you to stop."

I push up onto my elbows and widen my legs, digging my knees in as I pull back and push in slowly, once, then twice, admiring the way she molds around me. Fucking perfect, but it's when my eyes scan down her body to watch myself disappear inside of her that I go feral. My length glistening with her juices has me pushing in hard, desperate for more, her little mewls every time I bottom out only provoking me. With every thrust, she gets wetter, and the sound of our arousal, coupled with the smell of sex, permeates my room, only elevating my desire.

"Fuck, you're wet. I think this is my new favorite sound. Tell me you'll let me hear it more than once." My words have her clenching around my cock hard.

"Every day," she answers unequivocally.

I pound into her at a piston pace, unable to control myself. She's better than anything I ever could have imagined. There is no measure. Nothing could ever compare. This, right here, right now, erases anything that came before her. She is all I see. Her porcelain skin is already turning rosy, her soft lips swollen and reddened from the passion of our kiss. "You're really good at being bad, sunshine. I'm always going to want more of this, more of you." Her nails digging into my biceps as I thrust into her feel like a challenge. I want her to leave her mark. I want her to break my skin. I need the pinch of pain and the promise of a scar tomorrow to serve as a reminder that this wasn't a dream. Somehow, I fell asleep and woke up in a reality where she was mine. I thrust in hard, admiring the bounce of her breasts before pausing to hook my arm under her knee, bringing her leg up, and changing the angle to reach new depths. She whimpers as I push back in. "Is it too much? Am I hurting you?"

Her hands trail up my arms and wrap around my neck before beckoning my mouth with their pull. "You're so deep, Ev. No one has ever had me like this."

My cock twitches, her words making me feel things a man of my vintage surely should have felt by now. We may not be each other's first, and I probably won't be her last…

Fuck, why does that thought make my chest tight? I shove it down as her soft lips expertly mold with mine, and I slowly pump into her, desperate to hang onto what we have here and now because it's everything. Her words tonight have caught me off guard, every one speaking directly to my soul, especially those last ones. Her soft body beneath me, those ice blue eyes hooded with desire locked on mine, and the way I feel her pussy clenching around my length sends me barreling into my own release. I drop my forehead to hers, knowing I'm a few pumps away from making this a memory.

"If you still want me in the morning, you can have me."

"Always?" It's a question, not a confirmation, and I know exactly what she's asking me. She's asking for more than one night. She's asking for an us, but it's the longing in her eyes and the depth of her ask that sends me spiraling.

"You need to get there. Fuck, get there," I say as I slam into her, hitting my new favorite spot two more times before I feel her walls spasm around me, and I lose it. My head drops to the crook of her neck as I fade in and out and let go. She's it. This is it for me. It's her, or it's no one. I kiss her neck and pray. If it can't be this life, let it be the next.

The rhythmic rise and fall of a warm chest and a heartbeat beneath my hand stir me awake. As my eyes adjust to my dimly lit room and the sun peeks through the slats of the curtains, I'm reminded that last night wasn't a dream. For a few hours, I was hers, and she was mine, and everything that never made sense suddenly did. My world felt whole in ways it never had as I worshipped her body for hours, memorizing every peak and valley and everything in between. Even now, her warm body molded against mine as I hold her while she sleeps, is an earthly paradise I never want to leave.

I gently let my thumb brush over the soft skin of her breast as I kiss her shoulder. There's no sneaking out of this bed. I'm not sure I would even if I could. Waking up wrapped around her is the only way I ever want to wake up. My leg is draped over hers, her body pinned flush against mine as my arm wraps up her middle. Even in my unconscious state, my heart knows what it doesn't want to lose. I let my eyes drift over her porcelain skin. My stomach knots with a mix of emotions when I see the pink marks from where I sucked and nipped her breasts countless times and the reddened patches where my beard blemished her milky white skin.

"Ev," she says groggily, as her fingertips slowly drag up my arm, leaving a trail of goosebumps in their wake. "Can we…"

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