Page 34 of Imagine Me and You

A choked sob rose in her throat and she wanted to close her eyes. To bury her face in his neck like she’d done the first time. To hide from what they were doing. From what she was feeling.

But along with the pressure, the emotion building in her chest was the climax building deep inside of her, tension that was winding tighter and tighter. A sob broke through her lips, and still she looked at him, at his eyes. And she saw the emotion there. Flecks of light breaking through that dark gleam.

Something that went beyond sex. Something that pulled hard at her heart, at all of the feelings swirling inside of her. That forced the desire, the building climax and all of the emotion into one massive knot that made it impossible to breathe.

Panic assaulted her, and she tried to fight it. Tried to fight everything. The feelings. The desire. But it was too late. She was too far gone.

“Oh, Sam,” Jace said, his voice rough, broken as he thrust, harder and faster. And his voice, her name on his lips, his heat and hardness around her, in her, pushed her over the edge.

Everything shattered around her, shards digging inside, splintering the knot that had built into tiny glass slivers that burned through her, stuck into every part of her. Pain and pleasure in equal parts. A tear slipped down her cheek as the wave of her release washed through her, soothing the burn left behind by the emotion.

But only for a moment. The wave was salt on a wound, leaving her feeling raw, in pain, in the aftermath of the most incredible, devastating release of her life.

Jace lowered his head, kissing her, desperate, intense. It wasn’t sexual, it was something more. A bid for connection, for an even deeper closeness. When they parted he kissed her forehead, her cheek. “I love you,” he said, his voice broken. “Samantha, I love you.”

Ten

She shookher head and tried to look away. “Samantha,” he said again, cupping her chin, redirecting her focus, forcing her to meet his eyes. “I love you.”

“No,” she said. “No.”

“Sam...”

“No!” She pulled away from him and got off of the counter, panic surging through her, her entire body shaking. She pushed her skirt down her hips, covering herself.

“I do,” he said.

“Stop it. That’s not what this was. This wasn’t supposed to change anything.”

“Too damn bad. It changed everything.”

“But I didn’t want it to!”

“And what, Sam, you honestly believed it wouldn’t? Honestly?”

“I don’t know. You’re a guy and...”

“I am your best friend, Samantha. I would never use you that way. Ever. How could you not know I had feelings for you?”

“Because you said,” she began, her voice shaking, “you said we’d just get it out of our systems.”

“I thought maybe it was possible,” he said, his voice unsteady too. “But not after. Not after it happened.”

“I can’t do this.”

“Why?” He moved closer to her, still naked, his expression stark, raw. Painful. “Why can’t you do this with me?”

“I don’t know if I can ever do this with anyone.”

“But why not me, Sam? Don’t you feel something for me?”

“Jace...you are...you’re my rock. You’re my...everything. And me and men...it never works. I don’t know how to have that kind of relationship. I don’t like it. I don’t...do well with it.”

“Bullshit.”

“I don’t! It’s never worked.”

“It was never me.”

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