Page 50 of Salvaged Heart
“Me too, baby, that feels so fucking good. Don’t stop.”
My knees were beginning to feel weak, but Beck held me solid, one hand grasping the back of my neck firmly, the other squeezing tightly at my hip. He wouldn’t let me fall. I was losing all ability to maintain rhythm, walking dangerously close to the edge, but I pushed through, thrusting us both into my fist. He came apart with a whimper and a shiver, the feeling of his release hitting my palm triggered my own. It wracked throughmy body like an earthquake, taking everything in me to keep stroking us slowly through it.
Finally, I allowed my hand to drop from where I held us, rubbing the combination of lube and both our releases over Beck’s abs. I wanted to mark him. Claim him. I wanted everyone to know he was mine.
“That was so fucking hot.” He muttered into my shoulder where he lay half-crushing me into the wall while he got himself together. “I definitely want to do more of that.”
“Same,” I whispered into his hair. Reveling in the way, his body still shuddered against me.
“Not planning on running again, right?”
“Never.”
Quiet minutes passed between us before Beck finally gathered enough composure to take his weight off me. “Shower with me before bed?”
24
BECKHAM
The bed rose and then dipped beside me as Anders rolled out of it and leaned down to nuzzle next to my ear. “Stay in bed.” He muttered. “I’ll be right back.”
“You stay,” I grumbled, blindly grabbing behind me and trying to pull him back under the sheet with me. The space where he had previously been pressed up against me was cold. But my body was too tired to chase him and wrestle him back in beside me.
He chuckled softly. “I want to make you breakfast.”
“You don’t cook.”
“Neither do you.”
Well, he had me there. Since Laurel had left at the beginning of the summer, Anders and I had been making do with cereal, yogurt, and fruit for breakfast. If we were feeling particularly daring, one of us would throw a few breakfast sausages in a pan over the skillet. But that almost always ended in one of the smoke detectors being triggered. At least we knew they worked.
“I can manage toast,” he added, “and coffee, so stay put.”
“Fine.” I relented and let him slip away. I listened to the pad of his feet disappear down the stairs and breathed in the scent of him that lingered on his sheets.
The dim light through the curtains told me we hadn’t been asleep for long. Anders had kept me up half the night, touching, kissing, teasing, whispering thoughts and promises to me in the dark. It was like something had unlocked in him, and the reserved, unsure-about-us Anders was gone.
“I’ll be good to you.” He’d said. “I’ll take care of your heart for as long as you let me have it.”
Promises and commitments that, during the light of day, would have felt scary, too heavy for the newness of us. But in the dark, wrapped tightly in each other’s arms, they had felt like solemn vows. They felt like our combined destiny had finally come to fruition.
“I won’t hurt you,” he’d said, “not on purpose. For you, I’ll keep trying every day to be a better man. A better man.” And, “for you, Beck, for you, for you, for you.”
I’d made my own, too, his face cupped in my palm, my lips tracing soft kisses over the planes of his face. “I’ll take care of you, Anders,” and “I’ll always be here for you.”
Such a small yet profound word. But as I pressed my eyes closed and let sleep pull me under again, my body hummed with the possibility of it.
Always.
I woke again,this time to the smell of dark coffee and the press of soft lips on my neck. Sure hands ran up my sides, across my shoulders, and up my arms, which cushioned my head, only stopping once his fingers slid between my own. My sleep-fogged brain slowly coming to, suddenly aware of every inch of his naked body pressing down on the back of mine, holding me caged in against the mattress. The weight of him, the feel of his hard cock trapped dangerously close to the crease of my ass, the slow way he was rolling his hips against me, causing my own to thicken and ache. I pressed back into him, chasing something I knew I wasn’t ready for, that he wasn’t ready for, but chasing it all the same.
“Easy.” The word coming out like a purr. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”
“Want you,” was all I could manage.
“You have me.” He whispered, releasing my hands and shifting his weight slightly so he could trail kisses down my spine.
He kissed each vertebrae on the way down. He was slow, taking his time like he was worshipping me. Each kiss was reverent. Each kiss was complete and utter torture.
