“Exquisite,” he says.

I’m so ready to be kissed, to be devoured.

But he’s in no hurry. He shifts my hair completely behind my shoulders so nothing can be hidden from his hungry gaze.

Then, and only then, does his hand cup the back of my head, and at last, he draws my face to him.

His lips are gentle, only the softest brush. I shiver, overwhelmed by the light touch and the need for more.

But he doesn’t allow me to press in. He holds me where he wants me, the feathery kiss achingly slow. I tingle from my eyebrows to my ankles.

It goes on and on before he finally pulls me closer. My bare chest meets his cool, smooth shirt. His lips claim my mouth with pressure and heat. His tongue finds mine, and I feel like I’m falling into him.

I’m not the chasm. It’s him, an abyss where I can lose myself, let go. I can fall and fall.

His face is smooth, and I lift my hand to his cheek. He must have shaved before we went to the fair. The scent of his layered colognes envelops me. There is nothing else but his face, his mouth, his tongue, the smooth shirt, and his hand on my neck.

Then I really am falling. He turns us, laying me back on the cool blue bedspread. It smells of fabric softener, a spring breeze.

The scent of him and the bedding commingle and I feel high, like I’m on a cloud. I want to rush forward, for him to be inside me, but I also want to hover, suspended in this sharp anticipation.

My hair spreads across the pillow. Zachery kneels over me, his mouth still on mine. But his hands move, back to a breast, encircling it as though his fingers were designed to cup it just like this.

Then his hand moves down, his thumb making its way to the hollow at the side of my waist.

I shiver again.

He breaks the kiss, moving down my jaw to my neck.

Then lower, his other hand reverently holding a breast in place for his mouth to take in.

My back arches. I’m utterly lost in him, in this moment. There is nothing else. No comparing this feeling to Simon beneath the bleachers. Or any other time that came before.

He takes his time. His exploration is thorough. Liquid heat pools between my thighs, anxious for him to reach it.

His hair tickles my belly as he makes his way down. It’s achingly slow, and I resist the urge to grab his head and shove him there.

He reaches my belly button and lightly nips the skin below it. There would have been a hairline there, but I got rid of it all this morning in the hotel.

That feels like a lifetime ago.

“Spread your legs,” he demands, and I instantly comply, forcing my knees wide.

It’s intoxicating, seeing his dark head down low, his brown eyes gazing up at me.

He locks his attention on my face as his tongue makes its first long, leisurely lick.

My head kicks back, my eyes closed. Tremors dart through me, making my legs shake and my belly quiver.

But Zachery is only getting started. He grasps both thighs and spreads me more, diving more deeply inside.

I lose all sense of space and time, riding the waves of pleasure. My body can’t stop responding, tightening, letting go, like small orgasms leading to something bigger.

“Zachery!” I cry when he adds fingers to his tongue.

And then a wave hits me like the ocean slamming into my back. I’m taken under, the world muffled, like I’ve fallen into the chasm I first sensed when we began.

My body is pure light, and the jagged bolts of energy take over. Everything in me pulses with the joy of it. Tears leak from my eyes.