Page 277 of Falling Backwards
Heat is spilling down my spine.
I know that desire damn well.
I’m hazily aware of a few things at once: me nodding, confessing to her that I’ve wanted it, too, and shuffling us to the skinny table against the wall near the front door.Our mouths meet again, and she holds on to the table with one hand while the other helps me start getting rid of her tights.
Then, after short moments, I break the kiss and kneel, realizing I want to watch these things come off of her.
I hear her light little breath as her hand stills and lets me take over.And despite how ready we both are to move past this particular barrier, I find I can’t help being slow about peeling the silklike fabric down—I can’t resist stealing kisses from the soft skin being revealed to me, even from around the smaller bandage she’s been able to wear on her knee.God, this isn’t the first time I’ve seen her legs, but I’ve never gotten to put my mouth on them, and her hand is in my hair now while her breaths slice through the air, and every second of it all makes my blood burn that much hotter.
The tights get tossed aside.
I close her bare ankles into a gentle grip, then slide it up her legs and over her knees to her thighs, meeting her eyes through the dimly lit shadows as I stand, my hands inching her dress up.
It’s not so shadowed in here that I can’t see exactly how much heated adoration is in her eyes.
The way she looks at me right now as she takes my face in her hands puts my heart and lungs in a vice grip that I don’t want to ever free them of.
As we kiss, my chest is full of all kinds of things I want to say, but the only one that gets out of me is, “Maggie,” because her fingernails are pressing deliciously into my scalp and my fingertips are going just beneath the waistband of her underwear.
I live for the way my grazing touch makes her gasp against my lips, makes her fingers curl into my hair.
But I comprehend through the building swelter of these moments that we’re not quite right standing this way.I pull another kiss from her lips, then make my hands go up and pull hers off of me; I soothe her small noise of confused disapproval by moving my mouth to her jaw while I take her hips and urge her to turn around.
“Like this, love,” I tell her with low warmth.
Now the sound she makes matches that; it’s understanding and wanting.
We get her fixed here between the table and me with her back against my chest, our faces turning towards each other.I kiss the corner of her mouth, slip my hand back under her dress to the front of her panties, then go all the way into them and glide a finger straight down—
Moans rush out of us both and, “Oh myGod,” rushes out of her.I delve into the slick heat of her and she bends her arm up to grip the back of my neck, her other hand juddering to the wall above the table.“Luke.”
“Holy fuck,” I exhale against her lips.“You’re so fucking….”
I gather her against me just a little bit more.Then my other hand threads up through her hair, cradles her head.We meet in a fervent kiss.
But I don’t hurry through giving us what we want.I go slowly.
I’m going to memorize every second of how this feels and I want her to be able to do it too.
Our hums into our kisses are weak and breathy while I languidly, deliberately learn her, our hold on each other nearly trembling.Then, God, mywhole bodyis set atremble as a soft yes slips out of her and her hips start matching the thrusts of my finger.
Dizzying.
“That’s it, Maggie,” I urge her softly, too, before fitting our mouths back together.
Everything about her dizzies me.
Yet never in my life have I felt stability quite like this.
Her body is curved back against mine, soft and feminine, a wellspring of the most incredible noises of pleasure, and it’s crazy what it does to me.It makes me feel like I’m not just in charge of making her feel good, I’m also shielding her from the world.
Because I am—certain threats may have passed, but any other that ever arises will have to go through me to get to her.That hasn’t stopped being true just because times are quieter now, and it never will stop being true.
And it’s exactly right to be like this with her.To be guarding her, kissing her, touching her, cherishing her, loving her.
It’s where I belong.
No one else belongs where I’m standing.
