Page 59 of A Christmas Mystery

He tries to hold out, but it’s a losing battle. With a strangled exclamation, he makes several clumsy thrusts up into me as he works through his own climax.

We’re both panting and laughing as I fall down on top of him afterward, and he wraps me in his arms.

“That wasn’t an entirely impressive performance on my part,” Theo says, sounding warm and dry and exactly like himself.

“Well, I came even sooner than you. And it was perfect,” I tell him, pressing kisses on his neck and jaw. “I loved it.”

“I did too,” he admits. “This moment is probably the pinnacle of my entire life up until now. But give me a little time to recover and I think we can do better.”

“I’m not worried. We have plenty of time.”

We snuggle together for a while, talking and kissing occasionally. But then Theo does indeed recover. I feel him growing hard against me again.

Smiling, I reach down and take him in one of my hands. “Are you always going to have me be on top?”

“Only if you want it that way,” he tells me. “You seem to like to make things happen.”

“I do,” I admit. “I just get so excited. But I like different things at different times. So we can try it with you on top too, if you want.”

He rolls me over onto my back with him on top of me. He grins down at me, hot and possessive. “I like different things at different times too.”

We work together to fit his erection inside me again, and I wrap my legs around his back. He thrusts slowly at first as we synchronize our motion, but soon he’s going at it hard and fast. I come and then come again before he finally falls out of rhythm, rasping out how much he loves me and how much he needs me and how he’ll never leave me just before he comes inside me.

I’m hot and messy and perfectly sated when his hips stop rocking. He’s been holding himself up on his forearms, but he lowers his face enough to kiss me softly. “I love you, Maya Alexander. I think I always have.”

I smile against his lips. “Well, I haven’t, but that doesn’t matter anymore. Because I love you now.”

He’s smiles back, and then he can’t seem to stop smiling as he rolls us over to our sides so he can wrap his arms around me. He always wants to hold me as close as possible.

Tee was right. She almost always is.

My heart isn’t made of cold, hard marble, fashioned in only one unchangeable shape. It’s soft and resilient and human.

So now my heart—my life—can reshape itself around Theo’s in the same way his has always been shaped around me.

Epilogue

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