Page 80 of What If I Hate You
She tries to catch her breath, and I can't resist pressing soft kisses along her shoulder blade, tasting the salt of her sweat on my tongue.
"You okay?" I murmur against her skin, my own breathing still ragged as I gently pull out of her.
She nods weakly, turning her head to look at me over her shoulder. Her eyes are glazed, pupils still blown wide, and there's something vulnerable in her expression that makes my chest tight.
"That was…" She trails off, shaking her head like she can't find the words.
"Fucking incredible," I finish for her, pressing another kiss to her neck. "You're fucking incredible."
There's something about her face right now—flushed, vulnerable, almost shocked—that makes me want to savor this moment.
"Look at me," I whisper, and when she does, her eyes are glassy with unshed tears. Not sad tears I don’t think. I’m pretty sure I can tell the difference. These seem more like overwhelmedtears, the kind that come when your body's been pushed past what you thought were its limits.
"I didn't know I could do that," she admits, her voice small and breathless.
Pride surges through me. "I did," I lie, because the truth is I had no fucking idea, but I'm not about to tell her that. "I knew you'd come apart for me."
She’s a mess.
Hair wild.
Skin flushed.
Her back rising and falling with uneven breaths.
And the sheets…fucking soaked.
I swipe my hand over my jaw, trying to ground myself, but the image of her falling apart like that, breaking wide open in my arms, is seared into my brain. She trusted me with her body and her pleasure. She trusted me enough to lose control.
That’s not nothing.
That’s everything.
Blakely turns onto her side slowly, wincing a little like she’s still recovering. I reach for her, brushing sweaty hair off her cheek. “You sure you’re okay?”
She nods, biting her lip, then gives this breathless, embarrassed laugh. “I soaked your bed. That’s…so humiliating.”
“No,” I say instantly, voice low and fierce. “No. That was the hottest thing I’ve ever fucking seen. Don’t you dare try to be embarrassed about that. You were perfect.”
Her eyes flick up to mine, wide and unsure. “You don’t think it’s…weird?”
I shift forward, catching her face between my palms, my thumbs stroking the soft skin under her eyes. “Blakely Rivers, I want you messy and loud and uninhibited. I want you so wrung out you forget your own name. That wasn’t weird. That wasmine.”
Her cheeks go pink. “Yours?”
I nod, my voice a growl now. “Mine.”
Her breath catches, and even though we just had the most intense sex of our lives, I can already feel her softening under my touch again. Melting. Sinking into me.
I reach behind me, grabbing the edge of the blanket and tugging it over her as she curls into my chest. My hand slides around her waist, keeping her close, and I kiss the top of her head as her eyes start to flutter shut.
“You wrecked me,” she murmurs sleepily, voice muffled against my chest.
I grin, stroking a hand down her back. “Right back at you, Rivers.”
There’s a moment of silence and then so soft I almost miss it she asks, “Stay?”
I blink, because clearly I wrecked her so hard she doesn’t remember where she is. “You’re with me, babe. I wasn’t planning on leaving and neither are you.”
