Page 77 of Through the Water

Ari’s lips mashed together, her breaths coming a little closer together as she freed her hand from mine.

It was too soon.

I’d known that, but like an idiot, had gone ahead and said it anyway. “Look—”

“I’ve never—” Her voice faded. She placed her small hand in the center of my chest with wide eyes, silently begging me to understand.

She’d never—what?

The answer came to me in the form of trembling fingers and a flushed face.

Ari had never been kissed.

Any man with an ounce of decency would have taken that knowledge and locked it away, before pulling back to let things progress at their own pace.

But then Ari did something completely unexpected. She moved closer, brushing her lips lightly over mine before exhaling softly, “Just be gentle with me, please.”

And I was a goner.

Fully aware of her intense gaze, I cupped her jaw in my hand, tilting her face up toward mine. Just like I had the first night I went to her room. Only this time, I wasn’t going to hold back. “Trust me?”

She swallowed with a jerky nod, her eyelids already fluttering to a close as I guided my mouth over hers. I’d had the rough, sloppy kisses that came after one too many drinks and perfunctory pecks given out of obligation, but those were minor leagues compared to this.

There was no overthinking it. Kissing Ari felt right as if I was acting on some instinct that had always known it was going to be her.

Mine.

My tongue swept across her pink lips. She parted them with a shiver, subtly inviting me in. One of her hands was still tangled up in the front of my shirt while the other moved up and down my jaw in furious strokes, encouraging me to continue.

The woman was a fucking natural, responding to me in ways I hadn’t expected, given her lack of experience. I devoured the sweetness from her lips, tilting her head to gain better access to everything she was offering me.

Maybe this was heaven.

I wasn’t a pious man, so if this was as close as I got—sitting in a pile of therapy puppies, kissing the hell out of this woman—I’d take it.

A life well-lived.

Ari moaned when I sucked her bottom lip between my teeth like a man starved. Instead of slowing down, the sound left me painfully hard and beyond reason.

First, I’d gather up all the puppies and shuttle them to the bathroom, keeping their innocence intact. Then I had plans of laying Ari back on the bed, so I could run my hands over every inch of her skin.

Wait—no.

Step two would be stripping her down while she looked up at me in silent excitement. Step three involved my hands taking a field trip over her curves before we progressed to step four.

Ari shifted restlessly against me, her hands frantically raking against my neck and shoulders before her tongue darted out to meet mine.

The puppies were just going to have to keep their eyes closed because I wasn’t stopping for anything.

I growled and progressed to step four, imagining the sounds she’d make as her body clenched and pulsed around my fingers. I’d pull my hand free just long enough to coat my tongue in the taste of her before doing it all over again. I wouldn’t stop until her body was drenched with sweat, and my name was the only word she knew.

“Knock, knock,” the puppy lady called from the doorway. “How are we doing in here?”

I wrenched my mouth from Ari’s with a confused pant, before dropping my hand down to hide the baseball bat in my sweatpants. “F-fine.”

It was not fine. I’d been seconds away from slipping my hands into the pants of a woman who, up until three minutes ago, had never been kissed.

The puppy lady entered and I reached for my crutches, stumbling from the bed like a drunk. “Just remembered—late night, uh, icing. With Rocky—he’s my therapist. Guy’s a little different, but nice enough, you know?”

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