Page 48 of Second to None

“Learn to take a compliment,” I said when I pulled back just enough to meet his eyes.

His mouth curved up, something bright and soft about him even in the shadowed room. “Maybe you’re just terrible at compliments.”

“Yeah, maybe,” I allowed. “I could put my mouth to better use.”

“Or you could fuck me.” He said it lightly, as though it was a comment on the weather.The forecast today? Slightly humid with a high chance of orgasms.Only the way his breath came in quick, shallow bursts gave him away.

God, I’d been with something like a dozen guys since we’d ended, mostly drunk off my arse and trying to purge him from my system. Hadn’t worked—no one had even come close. Because this was us, too: teasing and little challenges, how we could go from heavy to light to hot to sweet in the space of a minute.

I’d fucking missed this.

I’d fucking missedhim.

“Well.” I stretched the word like a rubber band. “IguessI could fuck you.” My voice was thoughtful—and then I pushed three fingers into him.

He inhaled, sharp, and bore down against them, his entire body one long, lean curve. “Damn it, Lee. I’mready.”

I pressed my nose against his throat, my stomach muscles quivering, arms straining with the effort of holding myself up above him. I’d been meaning to make him wait a little longer just to prove that I could, that I wasn’t some fan hanging on his every word. But my control was slipping, blood rushing like a whitewater river in my ears.

Something must have given me away because his voice dipped low and sweet. “Please, Levi? Promise I’ll be good for you.”

Turned out he remembered how to push my buttons, too.

“Okay, babe,” I whispered, and I didn’t notice the endearment until surprise flickered across his face. He didn’t comment, though, just watched with hungry eyes as I slicked on the condom, my hands fumbling slightly.

“Smooth,” he said, a smile coating the edges of his voice.

Some of the tension in my chest dissipated, and I grinned at him. “Some of us don’t have a reputation to uphold.”

“Oh, please—you still set the bar for me,” he said. Joking? I couldn’t quite tell.

“Only because I was your first.”

“That’s not why.” Definitely not joking, his eyes dark and intense.

I had no ready response at the tip of my fingers, so I dropped a kiss to his knee, shifting his legs slightly for better access, and then slowly pushed into him. The way his body stretched for me was… Christ. Fuckingmagic, pure and true. His nails dragged down my back, a counterpoint to the velvet heat of him.

“You all right?” I murmured.

His head tipped back into the pillow, the pale curve of his throat exposed. “Been worse.Move.”

“Such a sweet talker.” I snapped my hips forward and covered his mouth at the same time, teeth catching on his bottom lip. He opened up, arse tilting to urge me on.

“Media trained,” he said into the gap between one kiss and the next, breathless, and I shivered out a laugh.

“Don’t think sex talk was something they covered.”

He wrapped his leg around me, heel digging in to pull me deeper. I stayed just like that for a moment, breathing him in, our open mouths pressed together. One of his hands framed my face, thumb lightly tracing the line of my cheekbone. God.Cass.

I started to move again, slow at first, shifting in increments. Each one drew a gasp from him, a rhythm building between us that sent hot sparks flitting through my vision. Beautiful friction as I picked up the pace, his fingers digging crescents into my forearm. His hair stuck to his forehead in damp, curling tendrils, pupils blown so wide they swallowed the blue of his irises.

I shoved into him, and he met each thrust, his back arched and spine pressed against the sheets. Sweat shone in the hollow where his neck met his shoulder. I kissed him again, sloppy now as I reached between us to get my hand around him. He covered it with his own, fingers slotting together, slick with lube and sweat.

“Levi. Lee.” Exhaled air more than my name, a tiny crease between his brows catching the lamplight. “I’m…”

“Yeah,” I said,yes, the only thing that made sense anymore. This. Us. Inevitable and impossible, rational thought swept away as he tightened around me. Chasing the edge, mouths pressed together, beautiful darkness crowding in around the corners of my mind.

He clung to me when he came, body snapping taut, and I pushed forward in desperate little jolts, eyes squeezed shut, stars scattered through my vision. “Come on,” he mumbled, voice shot, arms and legs wrapping me up. “Want you to—want you, Lee.”

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