Page 45 of Love and Other Trials
“You’re perfect.”
His hands tightened on hers as he withdrew slowly and thrust again, setting the pace. She could feel her muscles clenching around him and knew it was destroying him, but he set his jaw and kept that delicious, pulse-quickening rhythm until she thrust up hard to him.
“More. I need more.”
His forehead pressed to hers, their sweat mingling. “God, so do I.”
And then he was thrusting hard and deep, making them both groan and moan and give in to their full desire. He pistoned his hips and she met him the whole way. When she could feel herself screaming for release, she grabbed his hands tightly and took him under with her.
She heard his shout along with her string of cries as she came and came and came, the sensations taking her to a place she’d never been. Her heart glowed. Everything pulsed. There was peace and a warmth inside her that she never thought would end.
She was aware of him pulling them onto their sides and moving for a moment before he fitted his body back to hers, woven together. She couldn’t open her eyes, but she didn’t want to leave this place yet. It was complete. A place where there was everything she’d ever wanted. No thoughts. No worries. No fears.
When she felt a tender kiss at her neck, she nuzzled him back to let him know she was there with him. Her heart continued to pound, but slower now. She could breathe deeper. She could open her eyes. He was there, waiting for her, the light in his green eyes dazzling.
“Hey,” was all he said, and yet it contained everything.
“Hey, yourself,” she answered, feeling an answering smile touch her lips.
He leaned in and kissed her, and she him, and it was just as slow and smooth as the first part of their joining.
When he leaned back and pulled her onto his chest, she knew he’d shifted from repletion to joy. “So that was pretty awesome… You remember my bar for you earlier with the chicken and waffles. Well, honey, I’d have to fly my plane up to the highest stratosphere I could find to show you where you stand now. Ariel…”
When he met her gaze again, his smile shifted. The light in his eyes grew brighter. She touched his jaw.
“Yeah…”
He grinned. “I’m good with a profound ‘yeah.’”
Funny. So was she.
TEN
Wakingup with Ariel was up there with getting his wings.
Dax was good with that. Sex for him had always been a meter. When it was really great with someone, it foretold good things. And so forth…
With Ariel, he’d never burned hotter. Never come harder. Never felt such peace and happiness afterward.
That last part had him smiling. His parents had talked about that kind of thing a time or two when they’d first told him about sex, saying the emotional side was as important as the physical connection, and when the two were both out of the park, you knew you had a winner.
He tucked Ariel’s short, curly hair back from her face. She was sleeping on her stomach, mostly on top of him. She wasn’t a spooner so much as she was a face-to-face kind of girl. They’d taken each other again twice more after that first time, and both times they’d peered into each other’s eyes. The intimacy had been off the charts, but he wasn’t freaked. Nope. He was looking forward to her waking up, showing him those beautiful baby blues he was beginning to set his day by.
He couldn’t wait for her to get up.
Funny how quickly she had become part of his routine. He liked knowing she was in the cottage with him and that he’d see her before he went to sleep and when he awoke. He liked knowing she’d be there when he got back from his run, working on her phone, and that she’d look up and smile.
This morning, he hoped she would stretch and then languidly smile as she felt him beside her. Open her eyes with a little smoke in them. Because he wanted to make love to her again, and she’d be feeling that. His desire. The heat between them. The skin-on-skin friction.
Hot. As. Fuck.
Yeah, he was the luckiest guy out there.
He thought about Sherlock and wondered about letting him out. The bedside alarm clock said they’d slept in; it was 7:07 a.m. He never slept that late usually. Good sex would do that to you. When she gave a little chuckle snore, he realized she was still out. He decided to slide out of bed, put some shorts on, and see to Sherlock.
When the dog spotted him coming, he padded to the door immediately. “Yeah, I thought so. Look at me taking care of you while your mistress sleeps.”
Clipping on the leash, he inclined his head to the back door that led to the screen porch with steps down to the beach. He didn’t want to encounter anyone this morning. Sherlock followed as Dax grabbed his phone, and they stopped when they reached the sand. Dax didn’t like the dread he felt when he saw Rob’s text.
