Page 121 of The Casualty of Us
The hand on my other leg moves to my waist, and he kisses me deeply, his thumb making little brushes across my ribs as he mimics the motion on my clit. Quickly working me back up into a frenzy with my pulse pounding so hard that I’m pretty sure he could see it through my skin. I turn my head to the side with a gasp, and he drops his mouth down to my neck, trailing it with a barely there move all the way down to where the necklace is resting against my chest. Fingers sliding back down and entering me more cautiously this time, thrusting shallowly as he kissesalong the edge of my dress. Bringing his palm back down hard on my clit and dropping his mouth to suck at my nipple through my dress.
And it’s too much, all of it at once.
Something in me that’s been holding back the tidal wave cracks with the knowledge that he’s quite literally seeing me in a light that nobody else ever has. That I’ve never let anyone close enough to.
It has a needy sound leaving me as my dress quickly turns wet from where he’s holding it in his mouth, and when he starts to circle his palm…my whole body locks up around him. Inner muscles coming to life that I didn’t even know existed to clench at where his fingers are holding still. Legs shaking around his hips and heart seeming like it’s going to burst if something doesn’t—
“Oh my—I need—” I suck down a breath, crying out just as my cells seem to break apart. “Hayes!”
Everything in me fragments with the most blissful kind of agony as his fingers grow slicker inside of me and he groans. The hand on my waist dropping to my hip to hold me still as he pushes his fingers a little deeper before freezing there. Keeping his palm right up against me as that tidal wave washes through me. That something inside of me that cracked reforming right around him and hitting me with the instinctual knowing that there will be no take-backs here either.
Because he’s the cause and the cure, but I can’t seem to stop the way he’s essential to my makeup now either.
Haven’t been able to all summer, really.
No matter how hard I fight it.
He runs his teeth over the fabric of my dress as my breaths finally start to slow, pressing a kiss to the top of my breast before looking up.
Hazel meeting the blue with something new and fragile between us.
“I was careful,” he breathes suddenly, voice gravelly as he pulls his fingers from inside of me and drops another kiss to right about where my heart is. “Promise.”
“It doesn’t matter,” I whisper unevenly, a little shaky myself, and start to thread my fingers through his hair again. “I don’t care.”
“I do.” His head snaps up with what’s practically a growl, and I lift a brow at him. “It should…” He pauses, seeming to choose his words carefully. “You deserve for it to matter, Ophelia, if you want it to. I’m not taking that choice from you.”
Fuck.
My brows fall, breath hitching just a bit from how his words hit my chest hard enough to form another crack, and I drop my hand down to his jaw. “Thank you.” Running my fingers over the stubble there, I relish the feel of him against me still while lifting up just enough to brush my lips against his. “Thank you for coming.”
“Freckles,” he sighs, voice all soft amusement before nipping at my bottom lip. “When are you going to figure out that I willalwayscome for you?”
My fingers twitch against his jaw because I know at least a big part of him is telling the truth, and that’s what terrifies me. “I’ll work on it,” I give him, curiosity getting the best of me and providing me with something to fall back on too. “Did it matter? For you?”
“Uh.” He lifts up a bit, and his hand finally moves from my more intimate areas to rest on my thigh instead. “No.” The word leaves him on a clearly uncomfortable note. “No, it didn’t.” He clears his throat, fingers pressing into my skin like he’s scared I’m going to make a run for it. “It was very random.”
“That’s a nice way of putting it,” I snort, immediately hating it. The imbalance. That he gave any part of himself to someone else.
Nope. I don’t like it at all.
But…I can’t really say shit about that either, can I?
“Yeah, well,” he adds quietly. “That was before you.”
“Hmm.”
Nope. I’m definitely not ready to touch that yet.
I see how that ring of black lashes narrows on me with intensity and curiosity seeming to battle it out before he taps his fingers against my thigh. “Have you ever done that before?”
I blink. “Done what?”
His eyes slit, and he lifts his hand to give my ass a light pat, making my mouth pop open as he demands, “The truth, O.”
Something about actually admitting it has a sudden vulnerability striking deep, though, forcing me to acknowledge the depth of what just happened. “No,” I whisper, my stupid bottom lip giving a little tremble that his eyes immediately zero in on. “That was a first for me.” Automatically correcting myself even in the midst of what appears to be a minor meltdown. “I mean, not alone…but with someone else, yeah.” My cheeks heat up with some stupid urge to defend myself and I finish quickly. “I was very busy reading, and Ollie had scared practically everyone away by high school.”
A beat passes before his dimples twitch. “Useful information to know.”
