Page 135 of Be My Compass

She tastes like home.

Kaelyn moves into my arms.

The heaviness of the past few days slinks away. The uncertainty. The despair. I press my hands into her back and pull her closer to me. Tug her lips a little harder, a little more.

She fits so perfectly in my arms that it steals my breath. It sends my heart pounding.

I should pull back. I should let her breathe.

But my hands don’t want to leave her body. My lips want to sip from her. Get drunk on her.

Is this what obsession is? Is this what love can do to the human body? To the mind? I’m being torn apart from the inside and given life at the same time.

The adrenaline racing through my veins threatens to choke me. To lay me flat out before I have the chance to taste more of her. To give her more of me. To devastate her body in a way that will stretch her to my length and brand her with my scent.

Time doesn’t matter here. Where love exists and eternity is a mere suggestion. It has no place to fit between Kaelyn’s body that’s flush against me, plastered to my thigh, my hips and my chest.

We cling to each other, moving through the living room to the corridor. Our clothes fall like the quietest rain. She’s got her hands on my chest. On the lock and key tattoo. Right above my beating heart.

“Kastle.” She sighs.

Her eyes are half-hooded.

Curls cling to her forehead.

Her lips are moist from my tongue.

I cup her jaw. “You don’t have to tell me.”

“I have to.” She stands bare in front of me and I stare at her face. I pay attention to the way her eyebrows crinkle just so. The thick lashes that bounce up and down. The smooth brown of her skin. The way the soft light from the lamp hits it.

Her face is perfection.

Everything about her.

She’s flawless.

“I love you,” she says. "For a long time, I’ve loved you. I’m in love with you.” She shakes her head. Grins. “Idiot.”

I laugh.

We laugh about it. Because we’re friends. Best friends. The kind of friends who can survive fractures and breaks. The kind that gets stronger and lasts longer and pushes higher.

“Okay,” I say. “Now come here.” My hand grips the back of her neck and drags her closer. The other flattens on her back. She trips into me. Falls into me.

Her body against mine.

Her heart beating faster than mine.

I explore her curves. Swift brushes. Fingers drawing lines and hearts and circles. An exploration that sets me aflame. That makes Kaelyn tremble.

She gasps when I touch her.

I hear it in my soul.

My hands smoothly push the straps of her bra away. Down. Off. I undress her until the only thing on her skin is my hands. I kiss her and drown her with me until we’re falling from the cliff and landing on the bed.

I shove her knees up to her ears.

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