Page 101 of Daydream

“We can do whatever makes you feel the most comfortable. But do you want to look at the pillow or the headboard? Or would you rather be looking up at my face the first time I slide inside of you?”

I swallow so hard I swear it’s audible. My skin prickles. “I want to be looking up at your face.”

“Good. Because I want to see yours, too. Stay on your back to start, and we can try the other way if it’s not good. I’m going to make it good for you.”

“I had a sex dream about you once. Weeks ago, and I couldn’t look at you,” I admit, sort of frantically, while I watch him push down his boxers and roll on the condom. It’s so thick and heavy. I know biology is on my side and I’m designed to take it, but holy shit. “My subconscious hasn’t done you justice.”

“We’re going to revisit this conversation.” He looks so smug, and it truly makes me relieved I didn’t tell him at the time. “For now I’ll have to give your imagination a lot of material to work off then.”

I love that we’re not rushing. At no point do I feel like I’ve been groped or pushed. But I really, desperately, borderline obsessively want him to put it in.

“Henry, please. I’m aching and my body feels a little like it’s going to burst into flames.”

“And I’m supposed to be the impatient one.” He positions himself over me, lips pressed against mine as I feel him nudge into me. It’s unlike any sensation I’ve had before. “Oh shit, Halle. Fuck, you feel so good.” He kisses the corner of my mouth. “Are you okay?”

I nod, clinging to him desperately. “You’re bigger than your fingers.”

“I know, I know.” It almost sounds like an apology. “You’re so wet, though, it’ll get easier. Pass me your vibrator and take a deep breath to relax.”

Turning it back on to its lowest setting, he wedges it between us against my clit and my whole body shakes. He isn’t hurting me; it’s just a strange sensation to finally feel the throb ease while also feeling like I’m being stretched, and everything’s more heightened.

I take hold of the vibrator so he can put his hands in my hair again the way I like, and wrap my legs around him, crossing them at the bottom of his back. The angle does something, because I watchhis eyes roll back while he sinks in deeper. His stomach flexes, and when he focuses back on me, there’s something I can’t read, but I know I feel it, too, whatever it is.

We get into a rhythm, a perfect one. Both of our bodies are glistening with sweat. Henry’s mouth closes around my nipple, then the other one, sucking and teasing as his hips roll backward and forward against me. It’s too much. Too good.

My fingers sink into the hard muscles of his back, clinging to him like he’s the only thing keeping me on earth. He goes a bit harder, a bit deeper, the sound of our skin meeting while he moans my name. It all makes me unravel. My legs tighten around his hips, pushing him deeper with my feet. His head buries into my neck, kissing and sucking the sensitive skin. My back arches, pushing me into him as if I could get any closer.

His hips jerk and I feel him swell and twitch, sealing this whole thing.

I don’t want to let him go as he lies on top of me, the pair of us panting. There’s an almost emotional reaction bubbling to the surface, but this couldn’t have been more perfect.

“Are you okay?” he asks carefully, kissing my eyelids, then my nose, then my lips.

“I’m starting to get a little bit sore,” I admit, wincing when he pulls out even though he’s gentle.

“I’m going to run you a bath, okay?” he says.

I nod. “That would be nice.” I hate it when he climbs off me, but I rationalize that at some point he does need to clean up and dispose of the condom. “Henry,” I yell as he rounds the corner toward the bathroom.

“Yes, Cap?”

“I wouldn’t have wanted it to be anyone other than you.”

There’s an almost bashful smile I haven’t seen before as he nods. “I feel the same.”

Chapter Thirty-OneHENRY

IDON’T KNOW WHY IT’Swhen I’m trying really hard not to be a distraction that I suddenly think of every single thing I’ve ever wanted to say to Halle.

She’s typing away on her laptop, ideas for her imaginary friends coming thick and fast, and I don’t want to stop her when she’s on a roll. But at the same time, I really want her attention. And she’ll give it to me if I ask, which is why I’m trying hard not to.

It started when I arrived and she said happy New Year’s Eve, which I argued wasn’t a thing that people say, and she argued that it was. So I looked it up, and ended up reading up on the origins of the New Year’s celebrations and I want to tell her, so she knows I’m right.

After Halle worked double shifts for the past week, you’d think she’d give herself a break from working on her book, but she seems to have found her stride. I wasn’t supposed to see her all week because I was home for the holidays and she was swamped with work, but I somehow managed to sleep here every night, then go back home.

My mom asked if I’d taken up stripping because I disappeared in the evening and came back in the morning.

I can see her cheeks above the rim of her laptop, which is how I spot them turning a deep red color. She looks paler than normal, but she says she isn’t sick. Her eyes flick up to me like she knows I’m watching, then shoot back to her screen. “Stop surveilling me,” she whines. “It’s creepy.”

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