Page 178 of The Fall
Searching out his scar turns into me kissing his knee, and then nuzzling my way up his legs until I’m leaving hickeys on the soft and sensitive skin of his inner thigh.
I graze my teeth over another patch of skin, marking him where no one else will see. Mine.
His cock hardens against me, and I mouth him through the fabric. My lips tease, tracing the outline of him. His hips jerk beneath me. My hands grip his thighs, digging into his muscle and holding him steady while I keep up the torment, sucking lightly and knowing it’s driving him wild. The groans spilling from him are desperate, and they build a blaze in me.
“Torey,” he gasps.
I look up at him through my lashes, taking in the flush spreading across his chest, the way his eyes have darkened to midnight.
He sinks his hand into my hair, breath catching as I leave his cock and trail a line of kisses up past his belly button, his abs, through the hair on his chest. He’s gasping when I get to his lips, and he wraps me up and holds me tight as I sink into his kiss. We dissolve into each other, kissing instead of breathing, one of his legs wrapping tight around my hips to hold me in place.
We downshift slowly, slipping from heat to honey-slowness, and we end up on our sides, glued together from toes to noses, kissing slowly. I drink him in. His breath mingles with mine, warm and sweet. “This,” I whisper against his lips. “This is perfect.”
“I have something else to tell you,” he whispers.
My nose brushes his, telling him to keep going.
“I knew from your third practice that you’d get under my skin.” His voice is so soft; it’s a warm breath against my lips more than sound.
“I thought you were sizing me up.”
He laughs. “I was sizing you up, all right. Not in the way you thought.”
His hand settles at the nape of my neck, thumb stroking the sensitive skin behind my ear.
I have something real to tell him, too. “I’m scared I’ll lose everything again. Especially you. I’m afraid I’ll blink and you’ll be gone.”
“Never.” His eyes hold mine, steady and sure. I want to believe him. I want it so badly I can taste it.
He brings our joined hands to his lips. “I’m right here,” he says. “I’m not going anywhere.”
The sky shifts from blue to purple to indigo. Inside this bubble of Blair’s backyard, I float untethered from my worries. I don’t want to move. Don’t want to break this spell where everything makes sense and nothing hurts.
“Stay for dinner?” Blair asks, standing and pulling me up with him. “I’ve got steaks in the fridge.”
Inside, the AC hits my damp skin, raising goosebumps. Blair tosses me a fresh towel from the stack by the door. I dry off as he moves around the kitchen, pulling ingredients from the fridge.
The kitchen smells of garlic and butter, and Blair stands so close I catch the scent of his soap mixed with chlorine from the pool.
Blair nudges me out of the way to reach the stove, his hand lingering on my waist. “You’re blocking the burner,” he says, but makes no real effort to move me.
“Am I?” I ask, not moving an inch. His chest is warm against my back; I lean into him.
He drops his head, his breath tickling my ear. “You are,” he breathes, but his other arm comes around my waist. “But I don’t mind working around you.”
I rest my hands over his. The burner clicks as he turns the dial with his free hand, blue flame rising beneath the pan. Oil sizzles.
“Tell me what to do,” I say. I mean in the kitchen. I mean with the steak. I mean?—
Blair’s lips brush my temple. “You’re doing everything right.”
I turn in his arms, and he kisses me. His lips linger on mine, gentle, then deep. My eyes fall closed, memorizing the way he fits around me.
He drops another kiss to my lips, and when I open my eyes, his are waiting for me.
“I like having you here,” he whispers. “All the time.”
“Then I’ll be here,” I tell him, and I seal my promise with another kiss.
