Page 94 of Sliding Into Love
He told her, then said it again.
“You feel so good. I’m so glad you’remine,” he whispered when he had finally,finallybottomed out inside her.
Her face crumpled, and she fell forward onto his chest with a sob.
Ivy hated crying during sex.But Ethan was soperfect, and she loved him, and she felt sogoodwith him, she couldn’t help but cry.
“You’re mine, too,” she whispered into his now tear-stained chest.
He’d frozen beneath her when she began crying, and then he stroked his hand over her hair.
He must not have heard her.
She braced herself, using his arms to push herself up off his chest.
“You aremine,too,” she said fiercely. She sniffled and looked down at his face.
“You’re crying because…?” He looked up at her, his dark green eyes fearful as if he were waiting for an ax to fall on his neck.
“I amcrying,” Ivy dug her fingers into his biceps and rocked her hips, “because I love you.”
“Okay?” Ethan grunted as she bucked harder against him.
“Sometimes,” she grunted, with a particularly hard grind, “I get emotional when I love someone.” Ivy watched Ethan’s eyes roll back as she began to speed up, timing her thrusts with her words. “And when someone loves me back,” she paused, waiting for him to look back up at her.
“When someone loves you back,” he repeated, bucking his hips up into hers so hard she saw stars, “you get attached,”thrust, “and then you worry you’re too attached and they’ll leave.”
He’d taken the words right out of her mouth.
They rocked together, finding their rhythm. Ivy slid her hands up so their fingers threaded together as their slow, sweet sex turned more intense. Ivy lowered her chest to Ethan’s, clenching her inner walls around him as she felt the climax building inside her.
“I’m not leaving,” he breathed, squeezing her fingers tighter. He said it again, pounding into her after every word. “You’re not alone anymore.”
She began sobbing again.
They climaxed together, and when she was settled into the crook of his neck with his arms wrapped around her, she whispered it too.
“Neither are you.”
Three months later
“—and up next we have the managers of the Hawks and Tornadoes, sharing their thoughts on their teams’ chances for winning the— “
Harkness clicked the tv in the team meeting room off, sending the room into complete silence despite being full of people.
“I love a speech, as I’m sure you’ve all figured out by now.” A few soft laughs scattered throughout the room. “But I don’t think one is necessary now. Look at how far you’ve come as a team. When I arrived, halfway through the season, this team was…not a team. But now you are. And that means we can work hard, work together, and win.”
From his seat in the back of the meeting room, Ethan saw his teammates nodding their agreement. All he could do was sit, fists clenched in his lap, trying to focus on anything other than finally having the chance to have everything he’d ever wanted.
Everything he’d wanted before Ivy, though.
Before, he hadn’t even considered what he’d want to do after winning. Any future had always been a blur, every path he’d ever considered led to the World Series and stopped there.
Meeting Ivy had completely upended his life. All of his priorities and goals had shifted, he’d made room for so many new people, but he hadn’t taken the time to consider what he wanted. Because what he’d wanted before hadn’t even been his desire, it had been Marshall’s voice whispering in his head. Before that, his uncle’s. Never his own.
The meeting continued, but Ethan suddenly saw the path before him as clearly as if he were watching it on a screen. He knew what he had to do.
With a jolt, he stood, intending to act on his plans, but with another jolt, he realized the meeting hadn’t ended. Sheepishly he sat as Harkness paused to give him a stare, and Ethan threw himself back into his seat, fumbling in his bag for gum before shoving a piece in his mouth.
