Page 41 of Was I Ever Here

“On your back,” I order.

Sunny turns around on a dime, resting on her elbows, naked, flushed and panting. She watches me wide-eyed as her chest rises in anticipation. Her breasts are full and so fuckingperfect, her nipples a deep pink, strained and hard. I take a moment to sear the sight into my brain and then bend over her once again.

I close my mouth around her nipple and suck gently, catching it with my teeth, and giving it a small bite followed by a soothing lick.

“Byzantine…” she finally speaks.

My name is the only word out of her mouth as I growl into her skin, my hand finding its way back to her drenched pussy. I slide a finger inside and she clenches around me in response.

“Such a needy little pussy,” I grunt, pushing a second digit inside and curling them against her inner wall. Her hips buck with the intrusion as I begin to pump in and out. She squeezes her eyes shut, biting her lip and then whispering my name again and again.

I trail kisses down her stomach while she continues to writhe against my palm, my thumb making slow hard circles against her clit.

“Are you going to come for me, little sun?” I growl, staring at her as I speak, the sound of her arousal against my fingers so fucking erotic, it only makes me want to pump faster just to feel her unravel against me.

She looks almost stunned as her eyes roll back, her head falling beneath her shoulders, moaning loudly.

“Yes, Byzantine, please…please.”

I know she’s close by the way her pussy pulses around me. I lean down, craving another taste and replace my thumb with my tongue. It only takes a few rapid strokes for her to dig her nails into my shoulder while she comes against my tongue.

My name, a quiet prayer on her parted lips. My body heats up at the sound. As if I'm chasing the echo of a thousand moments spent like this with her before today. The satisfaction is instantaneous, like a piece of me finally locking into place.

I keep my fingers buried deep inside of her while she comes down from her climax, her hand still gripping me tight as if scared I’ll disappear under her touch. I pepper kisses along her thigh, a silent promise that I’m not moving, I’m not leaving as I finally pull my fingers out slowly.

I’m here. I’m here. I’m here.

I settle next to her and she cuddles into me, sighing into my chest, her eyes slowly drooping closed. Wrapping an arm around her waist, I pull her even closer and listen to her breath slow down until she gradually falls asleep against me. The smell of her grapefruit lip balm lingers in the air between us as I watch a small cluster of clouds slowly drift across the sky. I lose myself in thought. Lost in feeling. Just…lost.

Chapter 24

Sunny

Thedrivehomeisas quiet as the drive up to the beach, mutually lost in our own bubble of deafening thoughts. Byzantine woke me up with a small kiss on the temple, wrapping himself around and over me. His weight was like a warm blanket around my limbs. He looked at me then, with such longing that I locked up under him.

He must have felt it but said nothing. Only giving me a small kiss on the nose and rolling back over. The tenderness of his actions gave me an emotional whiplash. I’m so used to experiencing a much sterner side of him that this version of Byzantine left me weak in the knees.

Well, my weak knees probably had more to do with the mind melting orgasm he gave me in the middle of a secluded beach. But that's neither here nor there. Either way I felt skittish as I watched him shake the sand off the blanket with quick snaps of his muscular arms. My clothing now securely back in place.

What was I thinking? I wasn’t.

It felt natural to let him seek the curves of my hips in near worship. I felt wanted. More than wanted. More than seen even. I fail to even find the words to describe how it felt to have his hands burn against my own scalding skin.

But this doesn’t need to mean anything. It’s just a bit of fun. I scoff internally, chastising myself. What a blatant lie.

I exhale deeply and look over to Byzantine, his eyes fixed on the road ahead. His full lips are rounded in a concentrated pout while he changes gears, his hand grazing my thigh before pulling away to rest it on his own. Long fingers curve around the leather of the steering wheel, sometimes drumming against it, and sometimes simply gripping it. The broad curve of his chest against his shirt makes my throat tighten and suddenly it’s all too much.

I tear my gaze away from him as I feel my core clench, liquid heat traveling down my spine. God, he’s beautiful. Why did he have to be so good looking? He’s impossible to resist. I roll my eyes, annoyed by my body’s reaction to this man and cross my arms in protest.

I’m so fucking screwed.

But I’m also not an idiot, I know he was trying to distract me from talking about the kiss. It was a very good distraction. I'll give him that. It dawns on me then, that he avoided kissing me our entire time at the beach—well on the mouth at least. I swivel my head around to say something but then realize Byzantine is parking the car in front of my building and I lose all courage to say anything.

He keeps the car idling as he pops out to come open my door as usual. I step out, suddenly feeling awkward. But he doesn’t seem to care and takes my hand in his and kisses it. He’s so gentle today it’s almost jarring. And then, while his eyes are still locked on mine, he slowly turns my palm over, uncovering the raised scar on my wrist and my brain goes quiet.

He stops as if to wait and see if I’ll pull my hand away but I can’t move. Slowly, he leans down and brings his mouth to the scar, pressing his lips up the length of it. I watch, entranced and slightly shocked, as his tongue swipes out, a small hot lick and then it’s gone.

My body trembles with the sensation of his reverent kiss along such an intimate place. A part of me I’d rather not look at too closely.

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