Page 48 of Ink & Stardust

Hair hanging messily across his forehead. Eyes dark. Face flushed. He looks seconds away from completely unraveling, and he’s not alone in that feeling. My insides hum in satisfaction, knowing at least some part of him recognizes this undeniablepull between us. I felt it the first time we met, like two sides of a magnet, each one drawing the other closer.

Suddenly, the small room feels even smaller, the space seeming to close around us like a shrinking box, sealing us in. I struggle to find my breath. Struggle to keep my heart from beating straight out of my chest. Struggle to keep my legs from giving out under my weight as he leans in, his lips touching mine ever so gently.

“Are you sure about this?” he murmurs against my mouth, deepening the kiss just long enough to fill my mouth with the incredible taste of him, like mint and something sweet I can’t quite place.

Am I? Sure about this, I mean.

My brain whispers no. My body screams yes. I listen to the most prominent of those voices, knowing there’s not a chance in hell I’m walking out of this apartment until I’ve felt him inside me.

I’ve never felt desire like this. Never felt so close to crawling out of my own skin that my insides burn. Never wanted someone so badly that I felt like I might literally die if I don’t have them. But that’s exactly how I feel right now.

“I am.” I nod, whimpering when he grazes my bottom lip with his teeth.

“Hard limits?” He meets my confused gaze. “What can’t I do? What don’t you like?”

“I, uh... I don’t know,” I admit, heat creeping up my neck and spilling across my cheeks.

“But you have...” He clears his throat gently. “Done this before, right?”

“Yes.” I bite, defensiveness heavy in my voice.

“How many people have you slept with?” He presses, almost like he doesn’t believe me.

God, do I really come across that way? As someone who’s not even had sex before? And why does this thought make me feel small somehow, like no onereallysees me?

“How many people have you slept with?” I fire back.

“A lot.” His answer causes the churn in my stomach to return with a vengeance. Of course, I already knew this fact, and yet, somehow, I find myself inside his apartment just the same.

“One,” I begrudgingly admit, not daring to ask how many is a lot, mainly because I don’t want to know. I’m not sure which is worse, knowing that he’s slept with so many people, or being worried that I won’t measure up.

“One person?” His eyes flare.

“My high school boyfriend.” My tone softens, but I don’t feel the sliver of panic I normally do anytime I talk about Leo, something that’s definitely not lost on me.

“Okay. Is there anything he did that you didn’t like?”

“He, uh...” I stutter, not quite sure how to say it. “Didn’t really do anything but stick it inside me.” I feel so juvenile I could curl up and die this very instant.

“You’re telling me he never touched you?” His hand grazes my pubic bone and I swear I nearly jump out of my skin at the eruption of chaos in my lower belly. His lips move to the sensitive spot beneath my ear. “That he never tasted you?” He licks up the side of my neck at the same time that his hand slips fully between my legs, the dual assault making me whimper shamelessly. “That he never made you come so hard that you were sore for days after?” His hand presses harder, and I gasp, already on the verge of coming apart even though he’s barely touched me.

“No.” I lose my breath when his hand moves, slipping inside the waistband of my shorts before dipping beneath my underwear. The instant his fingers touch my bare skin, my kneesbuckle, the death grip I have on his hair the only thing keeping me upright.

“Well, then.”

I’m so wet his fingers slide with ease against my seam.

“This is going to be even more fun than I thought.” His mouth closes down on mine, his tongue swallowing my cries of pleasure when he slips a solitary finger inside of me.

My entire body seizes, my walls clenching around the digit as he pumps it in and out, slipping in a second before increasing the pace and pressure.

“I need to taste you.” His lips move from my mouth to my jaw, to my neck, before disappearing altogether as he lowers himself onto his knees in front of me.

I shake uncontrollably, trembling in anticipation as he unlaces one shoe and then the other, pulling them off one at a time, painfully slowly, might I add. When his hands find the waistband of my shorts, I suck in a ragged breath, fighting the urge to cover myself as he tugs them and my underwear down my hips, exposing me in a way I’ve never been exposed before.

I meant what I said. Leo was more of a get on top of me, stick it in, and then climb off as soon as he was done kind of guy. He never took much time to touch me or even look at me, really. The only orgasms I ever had were when I’d touch myself during and even those weren’t mind-blowing or anything. And he certainly never looked at me the way Kai is right now, like he’s about to devour me from the inside out.

“So fucking beautiful.” He stares directly at my private area—still relatively bare from the Brazilian wax Charlotte and Maisie talked me into—licking his lips like he can’t wait to have a taste, and I’m transfixed by the sight of him.

---