Page 13 of Shadows in Bloom

“Ticklish?” I ask, smirking. Jamie reaches up to smack my arm before letting it flop back on the couch, above her head. Her grin makes her eyes scrunch closed even more, and that, along with her flush and the spit glistening on her lips… I’ve never seen a better sight.

I reach down to drag my finger over the exposed sliver of skin from where her shirt has ridden up. Her stomach rolls beneath my touch, but I don’t stop. I skate them higher, pressing my palm against her, under her shirt. When I reach her bra, she nods her head. I lean down to kiss her as I drag it over her head, only breaking our connection to pull it off.

Before I get the chance to do it myself, Jamie’s unclasping her bra and dragging it off her arms, letting it drop to the floor. Her chest is exposed, pale skin flushed all the way up her throat. A few freckles mark her, and I have to taste each one.

When my mouth makes contact, her back bows, and unsteady hands clutch at my shoulders. After kissing one, I look up, finding her eyes closed, and her lips parted as small, uneven breaths puff between them. I drag one of her hands up to my hair, and she bites her bottom lip.

“Touch me, Jamie,” I tell her, knowing she needs direction. To be told she can.

She nods shakily, fingers delving into my curly hair hesitantly. I hum softly, loving the feel of her touch as I kiss each freckle I come across as I make my way across her chest.

When my teeth graze her nipple, she bucks, thrusting her breast into my mouth. I chuckle as I pull away, teasing her with a feather-light touch. She squirms, face contorted and muscles rigid.

I dart my tongue out, eyes never leaving her face, needing to capture every moment of this. Every moment of her release. She shudders, fingers tightening and tugging at my scalp. I pull away, and she huffs, eyes flashing open, hazy and glistening. “Please.”

My muscles contract, and my core throbs. “Fuck, Jamie.” I’ve never heard someone just fucking beg for it like she does. I suck her nipple into my mouth, laving it with my tongue before pinching it between my teeth just to feel her quake. I suck marks into her skin as I make my way to her other breast until her chest is slick with trails of spit and red marks I hope stay through the night, so when she wakes, she’s reminded of what happened between us.

So she can’t pretend. Can’t forget… me.

I dip my tongue in the shallow well of her navel, grunting when she yanks harshly on my hair, drawing my head up. When our gazes collide, all the breath in my lungs—which isn’t much—escapes in a shaky exhale.

Jamie is a fucking vision below me. One I never thought I’d have outside a few, rapacious dreams.

But here she is. Wanting and touching and?—

“Fuck.” Her legs wrap around my hips, tugging me closer. Nails scrape across my shoulders and down my arms as she tries to pull me up, and it stings so fucking good. I crawl back up her body, needing to feel her lips again.

Jamie’s desperate, clawing at my shirt, trying to yank it up. I laugh into her mouth as I shift onto my knees between hers.

And I thought I was prepared for how she’d look beneath me—I really did—but I don’t think any amount of imagining or dreaming ever could’ve been enough.

Jamie’s flushed and glistening with small beads of sweat. Her chest is heaving, her soft stomach concaved, causing her ribs to jut out sharply. I drag my index finger over one of her bones, catching a bead of sweat and sucking it into my mouth.

Her bottom lip quivers before she slides it between her teeth. I reach forward and tug it out, rubbing back and forth over that split in the middle, cracking it open.

My heart is beating in a staccato rhythm, harsh and jarring. Time stills as we just look, our bodies illuminated by a light that casts more shadows from its angle across the room. And for the first time in nearly a year, I’m not scared of them. I’m not fighting to see through the umbra. To be lit at all angles because the absence of light means there’s something dark lurking.

Right now, there’s only Jamie and her hands in mine. Her sweat on my tongue. Her body slick below me and her breaths burning my skin.

I release a breath that feels a lot less fucking heavy than all the previous ones, my lids fluttering with… with ecstasy.

Smirking, I reach down and undo the button on her jeans, and when my knuckles skim her abdomen, the muscles contract, causing her stomach to roll.

I drag my hand across, fingertips brushing the edge of her underwear before pulling the zipper down. The sound of its teeth unlatching is loud in the small space between us, and I relish in the intensity, in the final moments of before.

Because what comes next will forever be a part of after.

Jamie’s pants easily slide off her hips, and the moment they hit the floor, she’s on me. I yelp in surprise as she clambers onto my lap, arms wrapped around my neck as she dips down to kiss me.

My hands find her waist as she slowly devours my mouth, her own hands reaching down for my shirt. I yank it off and toss it aside, head rolling back when Jamie’s mouth drags down my neck, her tongue tracing my serpent tattoo.

She teeters the further down she gets, forcing me to tighten my grip. Her breath hitches as my hands slide down the small of her back and over the lace of her panties. I squeeze, forcing her head up as her spine bows.

Her blonde hair tumbles over her shoulders, the ends skimming my hands. I tug on the strands before dragging the backs of my fingers around her waist and down her stomach. I rest them just over her covered clit, applying the lightest pressure.

Jamie’s body is rigid, thighs clamped tightly around my own with her fingers fisted in my hair. I press a kiss to her chin, her cheek, around to her ear. “You want me to touch you, Jamie?” Her breath fans hot and fast across my face as she nods shakily. I drag my tongue across the fronts of my teeth as I increase the pressure against her core. “I want to hear you say it.”

Her swallow is obvious, as is her shudder. I can practically hear her warring with herself, with the part that’s always been so reluctant to let go, the part that usually dominates her mind. This most recent development is fully guided by alcohol-fueled lowered inhibitions.

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