Page 59 of Merry Me
“Just keep doingthat,” I moaned as the world blurred at the edges.
He chuckled darkly, then did exactly that, pounding into me relentlessly, each thrust sending sparks of pleasure racing up my spine. I could feel the intensity building, my body trembling beneath him. He wrapped a hand around my waist, pulling me back to meet every drive of his hips.
“You feel so fucking good,” he groaned. “Like you were made for me.”
I blinked at those words, and suddenly I was in the past.
We were seventeen,lying on our backs in the bed of Easton’s truck out on the ridge,the stars stretching endlessly above us like someone had spilled a jar of glitter across the velvet sky.
The air was crisp,sharp enough to turn our breaths into fog,butneither of us minded.Not with the way the flannel blanket was tucked around us,or the way our bodies had inched closer and closer,sharing warmth that had nothing to do with the weather.
The world was quiet up there,like it had taken a breath and held it just for us.
“Do you think there’s one person for everyone?”Easton asked,his voice low,almost reverent,like he was afraid that speaking too loud might scare the stars away—or maybe me.
I didn’t answer right away.
I thought of my parents.Of how my mom used to look at my dad like he held the moon in his pocket,only for him to vanish one day like none of it had mattered.One suitcase.One voicemail.No apologies.Just…gone.
She’d believed he was her soulmate.She’d said it with certainty,like it was a fact,like gravity.
And then she’d cried for a week straight.Screamed his name into the sink one night when she thought we were asleep.Said it like it was a curse.
So,I didn’t know what I believed.Maybe I didn’t want to believe in something that fragile.
As much as it felt like love with Easton,I always reminded myself that love could crack.That it could wither under pressure or bleed out slowly and quietly when no one was watching.That it left.
“I don’t know,”I said finally,staring up at the constellations.Orion.Cassiopeia.Shapes that had been there forever,even when everything else fell apart. “I guess…maybe.But if there is,it’s probably rare.And people mess it up all the time.”
There was a long pause.Then I felt his hand reach for mine,our fingers tangling together,warm even through our gloves.
I turned to him,heart thudding like it was trying to speak for me,but I didn’t know what it would say.
His eyes caught the starlight,and I swore they looked brighter than anything overhead.
“Ithink you were made just for me,”he said,his voice so sure it scared me more than anything else in the world.
My breath caught.My heart stuttered and then thundered,slamming against my ribs like it wanted to leap right into his hands.
“Easton…”
He didn’t give me time to say more.Maybe he knew I’d try to ruin it with logic or fear or something else that had nothing to do with him.
“You’re my one,Natalie.I’ve always known it.And I won’t mess it up.”
I hadn’t said anything then.
But I’d never forgotten it.
Not his voice.Not that night.Not the way his hand held mine like it belonged there.
Not for a single heartbeat since.
I blinked, and I was back, and the memory shattered something in me.
I cried out, my release crashing over me like a dam finally giving way. It wasn’t gentle. It wasn’t sweet. It was raw and relentless, rolling through my body like it had been waiting years to escape.
He followed moments later with a strangled groan, his body stiffening as he thrust deep one final time. I felt the rush of him inside me, the heat, the way he muttered my name like a curse, like a prayer, like he’d never meant anything more in his life.
