Page 67 of Incipient

Someone’s phone vibrated, causing Trace to break off the kiss and look around for the culprit, but I dutifully steered his attention back to me and shook my head. “Ignore it.”

His gaze darkened, understanding what I was saying in that moment. I wasn’t going to let anything, or anyone interrupt us this time. The main gate to Hell itself could fly open and I wouldn’t move an inch from where I was.

Lowering his mouth to my jaw, he peppered my skin with soft, exploratory kisses as he slowly made his way further down my body. A deep satisfied groan sounded at the back of his throat as he kneaded my breast with his hand and then brought his mouth down to it. My body arched into him—into his touch and his heat and his hardness, wanting to feel his hands and mouth all over my body for as long as I could keep them there.

“Fucking perfect,” he murmured softly, his warm breath tickling my wet skin as he spoke to my breast.

Giggling, I looked down and watched captivatedly as he moved from the right side to the left, making sure to pay each breast an equal amount of attention. My body was buzzing with electricity, my skin vibrating from our closeness as he licked and kissed and touched me like he had been born to do it. I couldn’t remember the last time I felt this good. This beautiful. This desired. Thissafe.

“Jemma?” he prompted, his lips still gracing and mapping my body with delicious, even kisses.

“Yeah?”

“You know I’m in love with you, right?” he asked as he slid both hands under my underwear and squeezed my hips.

I swallowed jaggedly, my breath coming out in pants. “I do.”

“Good.” Mashing me against him, he flipped us over again so that he was laying on top of me again. “I just wanted to make sure you knew,” he said and found my mouth again.

There was so much I wanted to tell him. So much about me, and us, and what I felt for him, but I didn’t know how to speak the words anymore. Too much had happened to go back to that place and yet I couldn’t seem to stay away from him. The pain of losing him the last time had nearly ended me and I knew I couldn’t go through that again, but the agony of staying away from him was even worse. And so, I bit my tongue and said nothing at all as he melted away every sour thought I had with nothing more than his lips and the touch of his skillful hands.

Grabbing the hem of my underwear, he sat back on his legs and dragged them down my legs before tossing them over his shoulder. The iPod shuffled to the next song, something slow and rhythmic. With his heated gaze on mine, he undid his pants and freed himself. My heart thumped against my ribcage as he slid on the condom and then settled between my legs.

Lowering his face, he brushed his nose against mine and then slowly entered me. My breath caught in my throat as every nerve ending in my body fired off. With his pelvis flush against mine, he paused a moment as though giving me time to acclimate to him before slowly drawing his hips back and eliciting another rush of air from me.

“Do you want me to stop?” he whispered tenderly, kissing the corner of my mouth as he held himself back.

Shaking my head, I slipped my hands around his waist and pulled him back down to me.

His lips closed over mine as he slowly began to move his hips again. Within a few seconds, the uncomfortable feeling of stretching eased, leaving room for something that was far more dangerous.

Pleasure.

Not the kind you get from a vampire bite—that rush of dizzying emotions intrinsically tied to my darkness, to my addiction to touching the edge of death and then being pulled back from it. No. This was different. Slow. Sensual. Delicious. With Trace, there was no darkness. No knocking on death’s door. It was all light. It made me feel alive—made mewantto be alive, and that was something I hadn’t felt in a long time.

Clamping my legs around him, I buried my hands into his hair as he kissed me with the heat of a thousand infernos. With every thrust of his hips, I could feel that familiar buildup swelling in the pit of my belly. As if sensing my closeness, he picked up his pace just a hair, his feverish body engulfing mine like the heat of the sun as he stroked my tongue with his own, deepening the kiss into something that wasn’t even a kiss anymore.

My thoughts scrambled as he gripped my hips and squeezed down hard, his pace even faster then. I could feel myself climbing up that mountain, rushing toward the edge in desperation, teetering around the peak.

The heat of his skin.

The wetness of his mouth.

My limbs tingled with anticipation as I ached my head back andjumped, sailing, flying, free-falling through the air as wave after wave of pleasure wracked my body. I let out a soft moan though it was quickly swallowed up by Trace’s mouth as he drew out my orgasm with expert precision and then finally let himself go, burying his face into my neck with a delicious rumble that made my own chest vibrate.

His body went slack against mine, his chest rising and falling rhythmically. Neither one of us moved or said anything as we lay there holding each other in the aftermath. All of the rush and adrenaline and unquenchable need had finally left my body and all I felt was sated calmness and serenity, like I was finally right where I was supposed to be.

Trace pulled back a few moments later, learning himself on one elbow as his eyes found mine in the dim light effortlessly. A wide smile tugged at the corners of his lips.

“What are you so happy about?” I teased and then laughed as he lowered his face and nuzzled his nose against mine like he had done earlier.

It was such a simple gesture, but it made my stomach flutter as though a swarm of butterflies had taken flight through my belly. I couldsoget used to feeling like this—to being like this with him. To the way he was holding me and looking at me. To how protected I felt when I was in his arms. And then a painful thought rose to the forefront.

What if I lost him again?

What if we were just doomed to repeat the past all over again?

My breath caught as I struggled to take in a full lungful of air.Shit.I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t—

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