He pins me to the wall, kissing me fiercely, our tongues probing. I know what he wants; he’s everywhere at once, consuming every part of me with such a force that I’m left trembling with need. All I can think of is him, but the tiny, nagging voice at the back of my head slices through my lust-fuelled state and asks me whether this is the right thing to do right now.
I push my hands against his chest in a half-hearted attempt to get him off me, but his hands determinedly tear my bikini off, exposing my breasts. His lips leave mine and start their molten descent down the curve of my throat, all the way to the base, andI tilt my head, allowing him free rein as he licks my collarbone, hungry for the taste of me.
“I need you, Sophie,” he pants between kisses. “Right now.”
My brain’s short-circuiting, all rational thoughts have fled, and I’m wrestling between what I should do and what I want to do. Without warning, his mouth clamps around my right nipple, and he sucks hard while his hand caresses my breast. I close my eyes as the pleasurable, painful assault sends twinges shooting between my thighs. Hot breath heats my flesh as he presses a scorching kiss to my lips.
“Are you wet?”
My eyes snap open. He’s watching me, waiting for a response, confirmation that after all the fighting and after he’s finally opened up to me, I still want him.
I lock eyes with his, take his hand, and push it down the front of my bikini bottoms. “I want you. I’ll never stop.”
He briefly closes his eyes, his chest heaving. He doesn’t need to speak for me to know I just told him exactly what he’d wanted to hear.
Before I know what’s happening, he unfastens his shorts, tugs one of my legs up to his waist, and yanks my bikini bottoms to the side. He positions himself and slams into me, pushing me up the wall with a shout. I don’t get a moment to adjust. He hammers into me with punishing thrusts, and I cling to him.
“My heart beats for you,” he rasps, sending my mind and self-control spinning.
My heart soars, and I immediately want him to say those words again.
This is hard and fast, and every thrust drives me further up the wall. I drop my head to his shoulder and sink my fingernails into his back as he carries on, pushing into me with an urgent, desperate need. My legs begin to tremble.
“You feel so good when you’re this close,” he groans.
My eyes close. “Art …”
“Don’t hold back.”
I couldn’t if I wanted to. I come on a scream. My mind blanks as I shatter around him, a mass of shaking limbs. Art gently kisses my forehead and holds me tight while I come down. I bury my face into his neck and listen to the gallop of his heartbeat in the base of his throat. An overwhelming feeling of sleepy contentedness overtakes me. He waits for my legs to stop shaking and kisses my forehead.
“Come on. Let’s get you on the bed,” he says. “Wrap your arms around my neck. Hold on.”
I do as I was told. He slides his arm beneath my thigh and wraps the other around my back. I’m semi-aware that I’m being carried, but I keep my eyes closed. I’m in his arms, and he’s still inside me. Nothing else matters.
He carefully lowers me down on the sheets. I open my eyes to see him tearing his T-shirt over his head and stepping out of his shorts. His cock is deep red and glistening. He didn’t come.
“I’m not finished with you.”
A flame of desire reignites between my thighs as he crawls up the bed towards me. His legs rest between mine as he braces his forearms on either side of my head and lowers his hot, sticky chest against my breasts. He worships my mouth with his and enters me once more. I entwine my limbs around his back and legs, so I’m wrapped around him as his tongue swirls with mine. This isn’t hard make-up fucking any longer. This has crossed over into the realm of something else. We’re as close to each other as we can physically be. I can feel the gallop of his heart in his chest, and he stays inside me for a few moments, as if he doesn’t want to move. Then, he slowly withdraws before pushing into me at an agonizingly slow pace and pausing once more. He pulls his lips from mine a fraction, and I open my eyes at the loss of contact, to be met by a penetrating stare.
“I love you,” he says.
Oh God.
My stomach flips as his eyes hold mine, and my heart misses a beat. He pulls out and repeats the same slow stroke, savouring the moment, and then stills once again.
He brushes the tip of his nose against mine. “I love you, Sophie Ward.”
I keep my eyes on him. I can’t tear them away. I’m scared to move in case I’m dreaming this and I wake up.
He carries on with a delicious steady thrusts, brushing his lips against mine. “I love you so much.”
He places a chaste kiss on my lips, but I can feel his erection pulsating inside me, and I know he’s close. He’s controlling it because this is our moment in time and he wants it to be special.
My heart’s ready to burst with happiness, and out of nowhere, unwanted tears leak from the corners of my eyes and slide down my cheeks. He covers my face with tender kisses – my forehead, my cheeks, and the tears – before he rears back and drives into me. My muscles clamp around him, and he moans, closing his eyes for a few seconds, as if fighting some internal battle, and then opening them to look down at me.
“I love you more than anything.” He plants a scorching kiss on my lips as I rake my fingers through his hair, pulling him to me. He lifts his mouth from mine, but I don’t want him to stop. Doing what he’s doing, saying these words. “Next time, we let go. Together.”