Page 73 of Shifting Gears

With what Nora can only describe as agrunt, Dani plunges into Nora with a few uneven thrusts, each one punctuated with a shaky whine as she gets used to the sensation of the cushion. She pauses after the fourth, pressing deep and firm in a way that makes them both whimper, their eyes closed and foreheads touching.

When Dani’s eyes next open, the raw hunger in them engulfs Nora completely.

Dani takes hold of Nora’s thighs, braces her knees against the mattress, and uses what feels like most of her core strength to thrust into Norahard. The impact of the sudden jump in pace is exquisite. The angle, the little groan Dani lets out at the pressure. The slight loss of control.

“Fuck!” Nora gasps, her hands shooting up to clench around the narrow slats of the headboard. “Holy shit, Dani—”

“Sorry. Is that okay?” Dani is panting, her eyes a bit unfocused. Her hips stop moving, but Nora arches up, desperate for more.

“Yes. God, do it again.”

Dani obeys. Her pace picks up even more when she realizes that Nora likes it, that she can take the roughness, and what follow are probably the most sublime prolonged moments of Nora’s life.

Nora’s hand digs into Dani’s lower back, but Dani doesn’t need the direction. It’s as if this has unleashed a brand-new side of her, and that new side has peeled open a layer of Nora’s desire that she’s always kept tightly under wraps. A desperate, needy, vulnerable layer.

Dani moves into her hard and fast, unselfconsciously carried by the current of her own newfound pleasure, and Nora lets it carry her away. The combination of the thick toy inside her, Dani’s surprised, overwhelmed noises, and the unrelenting pace Dani sets is bringing them both closer to the edge by the second.

“Nora,” Dani gasps, hiking Nora’s legs up, quickening her rhythm into short, fierce thrusts that somehow feel even better. “Feels so—feels sogood.” There’s confusion with Dani’s desire, like she can’t quite understandhowthis feels so good, but she’s chasing that feeling to the end.

And the end is close. Nora can hear it in Dani’s choppy breathing, can feel it in her quivering muscles and the thrumming pulse at her throat. And Nora can feel it in her own body, a tightening and tensing—aright there, analmost.

“That’s it,” Nora gasps, her free hand gripping firmly at the back of Dani’s neck. She pants into Dani’s hair, her hips moving with Dani’s in a push and pull that feels primal. Animal instinct. Legs up, toes curling over Dani’s back, taking every thrust with pure, undiluted need. “Let go with me. God, yes, I’ve got you,fuck—”

With a noise Nora has never heard her make before Dani breaks, her hips twitching wildly as she comes hard against the toy and into Nora.

More than anything that came before, that’s what pushes Nora over. It’s not even about the physical sensations—it’s the concept of what’s happening. The deeper, cerebral connection that loops in the rest of her senses. The knowledge that Dani is coming while she fucks her. Dani’s muscles seizing under her hands. The sound of her surprised, instinctive gasps. The taste of her, the scent—simple, just shampoo and light deodorant and whatever base body chemistry makes her so enticing.

It all swirls inside Nora, releases the tension in the core of her, and implodes.

When it finally tapers off, Dani is still inside her, and she’s trembling all over. Her face is buried in the crook of Nora’s neck. She’s breathing like she’s run a marathon, winded to a level Nora hasn’t seen before. When Nora shifts, every place their bodies press together is slick with sweat.

“Hey,” Nora says, her voice raspy from noises she doesn’t fully remember making. She rubs circles on Dani’s back, pressing trembling kisses to her shoulder. “Are you all right?”

Dani raises her head. Her hair is in disarray, damp at her hairline and tousled in the back where Nora tangled her fingers. Nora is relieved to see that rather than looking upset, Dani’s eyes are bright and alert. In fact, she looks like she wants nothing more than to devour Nora again.

Nora clenches involuntarily around the length still inside her.

“That was fuckingincredible,” Dani says, her voice a low rumble. She shifts in a way that jostles the strap-on just enough to make Nora’s breath catch.

“Oh,” Nora says inelegantly. Dani is starting to move again, a slow, mindless rolling motion that makes Nora wrap a legaround Dani’s hips in wordless encouragement. “Good. I’m…I’m glad.” Her voice breaks on the last word.

Dani presses in deeper, her smile getting brighter with every gentle thrust. “Can we do that again?”

The air leaves Nora’s lungs in a breathy laugh. She nods enthusiastically, wrapping her arms around Dani’s shoulders and pulling her in for a kiss. “If you think you can handle it.”

Dani’s answer is to flip them both smoothly until Nora is on top, grab the softest part of her hips, and brace her feet on the mattress to thrust up into her.

Nora muffles her groan of approval into Dani’s shoulder. It hadn’t taken Dani long to discover just how much her strength turns Nora on, that she likes to be thrown around a little, and she’s used that knowledge mercilessly since.

“I can handle it,” Dani says, her voice stronger than it’s been since Nora buckled her into the harness. Her hands slide up to Nora’s waist, fitting perfectly into the dip there as Nora sits up to straddle her properly. “Can you?”

Nora lets go of her inhibitions completely. There’s no hiding anything at this angle. Dani has a clear view of the flush that covers Nora’s chest. She can see the way Nora rocks down into her, greedily asking for more even after she’s been sated, the slick wetness Nora has left all over the leather harness. Dani’s eyes fixate on where they’re joined, where Nora is spread wide around the toy that links them.

“Fuck. I canfeelyou,” Dani says, her voice rising into a whine as she rocks upward. Her belly flexes with the effort, and Nora finally indulges her long-held impulse to press a hand against the softness there as she braces herself on Dani’s body.

Nora has no time to be self-conscious. Dani’s desire is written all over her face. She seems to have a well of energy that never runs dry, experimenting with movements and positions andfinding all the shiny new corners of her own pleasure until Nora is sure their limit must be approaching.

By the end, Nora is on her back again, the pace slowing gradually to match her energy, and it’s shockingly easy to embrace what she’s been hurtling headfirst toward all summer.

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