Page 126 of Wonderstruck

Every word I knew got trapped in my throat asmy breaths shallowed. I watched as something glistened between his iris’, something that shone like pleasure. My lungs barely expanded as I watched his hands move down to the button on his jeans, unbuttoning the thing with a slow, calculated accuracy that made my mouth go dry.

He nodded his chin at me. “Take your clothesoff, Aurora.”

That soft command held so much power that Ialmost wanted to say no to him, purely to see if he’d make me. The thought had heat gathering between my thighs, the sensation trailing up my spine and making me shiver.Something about him made me feel dangerous,and I was too blinded by what I felt for him to snap out of it.

I held Finn’s stare as I pulled at the tassels of mytop. I didn’t break it as I tugged at the zip of my silk skirt. I watched his eyes darken as I slipped off my tights. A moment later, my clothes were a puddle at my feet, mymatching white bra and panties the only barrier between us, and if anything, it felt like too much.

IfI hadn’t looked carefully, I would havemissed the way his eyes changed. His face stayed the same, but his eyes… those black pupils swallowed every ounce of green I could see.

Holding his gaze, I reached behind me again, myfingertips barely grazing the clasp of my bra before his voice stopped me.“No,” he said softly, closing the distancebetween us. “My turn.”

If his voice wasn’t so low, so commanding, Iwould have assumed he was offering his help simply to be sweet. But what I’d learned about Finn in the two minutes we’d been alone in his bedroom was that there was no space for sweetness in here. Not when this dark side of him took up every inch.

My thighs clamped on their own accord when he reached me, his chin above my forehead, but his eyes fixated on mine. I felt his warm hands brush my back, gliding up until I heard and felt my bra unclick, that pressure that sat around my waist loosening.

My breath hitched as that final wall between usfell to where my clothes lay, a quiet whimper falling from my mouth as I felt my breasts brush against his chest.“Tell me,” He started, hooking a finger over mypanties. “What do you want?”

My eyes fell closed, eating up every rasp of hisvoice as his lips brushed my ear. But they soon sprung open when he tugged the elastic waistband of my panties, slapping my skin with a satisfying smack. My breath hitched as I tried to swallow, but there was nothing else I could do except let his gaze control me.

My bottom lip sank between my teeth.What didI want?

I wasn’t exactly open about the desires I keptlocked away in my head, but now felt like a better time than any to set them free. I’d done the hard part, my practically naked body was pressed up against his. All I had to do was tell him what I wanted him to do to it.

“Everything.” I breathed, squaring my shoulders, pressing the swell of my breasts against him. “I want everything you’re willing to give me."

Finn’s smile resembled the ones I’d seen in mydreams, one of the gods of seduction, promising me every dirty deed that we could do in a single night.

I watched the war in his eyes resume as he leantdown, his mouth barely an inch from mine. “I’d give you the world, Aurora.”

The words sparked something within me, and Icouldn't wait any longer to claim him again.

Our mouths crashed as I surged up on my toes toreach him. The kiss was messy in a beautiful way. Out of control in a way you see on a movie screen and crave that one day you'll get to live in the moment too. Need tugged at my stomach as he dropped his hands to my ass and lifted my legs around his hips, my back melting into the door behind me.

My ankles locked in place, ridding every gap. It took a moment for me to remember that, apart from the flimsy excuse for panties, I was very, very naked, but all it took was for him to flick his tongue over mine and every rational thought became another language in my head.

Myworld narrowed onto him and only him whenhe switched my lips for my neck, trailing kisses that were anything but delicate all the way to the edges of my collarbones.

“Fuck.” He breathed against my throat, and before I knew it, we were moving.

The cold air in the room wouldn’t dare touch mewith his body pressed against mine, with his hand splayed across the backs of my thighs, and even if it did I wouldn’t have cared. Ice-cold conditions were something we both existed in, to the point where I’m sure we could've done this flat against the carved-up rink and neither of us would've stopped.

That fantasy floated away the second my ass hitsomething hard. My legs left his back and dangled below me, and as my hands fell flat to steady myself, I realised I was on his desk. Finn leant over me, his scent holding me captive as he took my mouth again. I kissed him back with every ounce of desperation flowing through me. Like I needed him to breathe.

“I feel like I’m dreaming.” He sighed in thebreaths between our kisses. “There’s no way I get to have you like this.” Those dark eyes fell on me as he pulled his head back, shaking it like he still couldn't believe I was here.

And that little action has never made me feelmore wanted in my life.

My lashes fluttered at him as my hands snakedaround his neck, tugging him down just enough to brush my lips over his ear. “I am here,” I breathed, threading my fingers through the tips of his hair. “And you have my word that you can have me any way you want.”

“Don’t say that unless you mean it,” With hiseyes still on me, he took my hand and glided it between our bodies, my fingers grazing his length through his grey briefs. “Because right now I have about a hundred different ways I can make your word come true.”

My eyes caught his right before I squeezed,watching his lids flutter and his eyes disappear. “Did I stutter?” In a heartbeat, those wild green eyes met mine. I slowly uncurled my fingers from him, and used the tips of them to glide up and over the muscles filling out his chest.

“I’ve thought about this moment more than I’llever admit. But seeing as though you've just seen me naked and there's no point being shy now,” My fingers stopped just as I reached his neck, snaking around the back and raking my hands through his hair. “I might as well be honest and tell you that sometimes I fall asleep wishing that my fingers were yours.”

“Rory,” He said my name like he was about to tellme off, as if I should stop talking before he did something I should be scared of.

Naturally, all I did was keep talking.