Page 73 of Just Between Us

My body ached for release—to fill her and keep fucking.

Veda’s tits bounced, and I buried my face into her chest. My lips found the hard point of her nipple, and I sucked it into my mouth.

“Yes. Yes,” I demanded as her hips jerked.

“Oh god. I’m going to . . . oh . . .”

Her pussy gripped my cock, and it was too much. Right behind her, I felt the familiar pulse and surge of my own release. I held her close as I filled her.

When the last pulses of our orgasms subsided, I clung to her. Our breaths rasped in tandem. Her heartbeat clunked against my ear as I embraced her. Every cell in my body was tuned in and turned on to her.

Her body started to shake, and I released her. She looked down at me, her hand covering her mouth as she started to giggle.

I raised an eyebrow and tried not to smile. “What is so funny?”

A cackle cracked through the darkness, and she sighed. “You are unbelievable.” She held her arms out. “I feel like I’m floating.”

I shifted my hips, my cock still nestled inside her. “I told you it’s better when you stay in the moment.”

Veda melted against me, and I shifted so we were lying side by side. “We should get you cleaned up.”

Veda tucked her hands under her head. “Uh-uh. We can clean up in a minute. Right now I just want to lie here with you.”

My arm wrapped around her rib cage. “I can deal with that.” I nuzzled my nose against hers.

Completely relaxed, I held her and soaked in the quiet between us. “It’s never been like this, you know,” I whispered.

I opened my eyes, hoping she could see the truth in my statement.

She stared at me for a heavy moment, and my chest squeezed.

“Sometimes I think that there’s a corner of the universe where I stayed in the lukewarm relationship, at the good-on-paper-but-bad-for-my-soul job, or in the town that felt like an itchy fourth-grade sweater on a fifth-grade body. Sometimes I think I might have been happy there.” Veda gently scoffed and shrugged. “Maybe. Happy enough, at least.”

I stroked her back, hoping she could see that I understood what she was struggling to articulate. She stretched and I let her continue, listening quietly as I gently held space for her in the darkness.

Veda sighed as she continued: “In that alternate state, I have nice wineglasses and expensive candles that I can afford to burn every day. I wonder if I have a love that feels like enough, as long as I don’t think about it too hard. That version of me pours nice wine into a nice glass and lights my nice candle, and it’s a nice life.”

“Is that what you want?” I swallowed and searched her eyes. “A nice life?”

“I thought so ...” Her voice was barely above a whisper, and I clung to her every word. “But now I’m starting to think I want something else entirely.”

“What’s that?” I’d lived my entire life with nothing to lose, but the woman in my arms had changed everything. I desperately wanted to be enough for her.

She chuckled and cuddled into me. “A life where I don’t have every detail planned out. Where good enough isn’t good enough and I find something ...more.”

Tiny alarm bells blared in my head.

For so long I had spent every waking second too caught up in the moment to take stock of my surroundings, and now I was tangled with a woman who only played by the rules.

I wasn’t certain I could give her what she was craving. The only thing I knew how to do was offer what I could—and hope she’d be there on the other side of it.

Feeling vulnerable was a real drag, but if she needed more, I would do what I could to give it to her.

I ran my hand down her back. “Why don’t you get cleaned up. I want to show you something.”

Veda slinked out of bed to take a shower, and instead of joining her, I cleaned myself up and paced in the living room. Nerves buzzed under my skin, and I flexed my hand to release some of the pent-up energy. I wasn’t certain whether my anxiousness was because things between Veda and me were shifting, or whether it was simply because I was about to reveal a King secret to an outsider.

When Veda came into view with damp hair and wearing only my T-shirt, I grinned. “Hey, Precious.”

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