Page 58 of To Catch a Firefly

Because he is. Ellis is home to me.

His hands tangle in my hair as he kisses me. Once, twice, longer. He doesn’t stop. His mouth is persistent and hot andfamiliar, even though this is entirely new. He kisses me as if he’s trying to memorize me by touch, his lips mapping my own. He kisses as if he wants toconsume. He kisses with all the energy I saw that day he punched Brandon square in the nose.

He’s unrestrained, finally,blessedly, and I match every ounce of what he’s giving me because I don’t have another choice. I’m undone. Completely unraveled. And I don’t think I could ever be put back together the same way again. Not after this.

Ellis pulls away to take a breath. It’s only an inch, only a second, but I can’t let him go. Ican’t. So I chase, tugging against the back of his neck, trying to bring him closer. He meets me eagerly, and I scramble, pulling myself up, wrapping my legs around his waist so there’s no chance of him getting away. His grip adjusts in an instant, hands dropping to my thighs as his body bumps me back into the wall. The span of his fingers and the sheer breadth of him—the unwavering strength—has my cock jerking against the inside of my jeans. I couldn’t care less about the unforgiving surface at my back or the dirt and grime or the fact that I’m still soaking wet. All I care about, all I know, isEllis.

His lips take me apart systematically, and with anyone else, I might be embarrassed about the sounds coming out of my mouth. The moans and—fuck—whimpers. But each one fuels Ellis, tightening his fingers against my thighs and spurring the hungry movements of his mouth, so I don’t dare stop. I let him hear every way in which he affects me. I don’t hold a single thing back.

I don’t think I could even if I tried.

Ellis is quiet, apart from his panting breaths, but his body tells me everything I need to know. He’s always preferred physical communication anyway, and I’m not about to ask him to change, not when his hands are holding me as if I’m precious cargo. Not when his lips are telling me I’m the very air he needs to breathe.

How could I have missed this?How?

When Ellis starts moving against me, shifting andrutting, my gasp is more than a little surprised.

“El,” I breathe.

He grunts, lips trailing to my jaw. My chest heaves in and out as he kisses down to my neck. Lower. The sensitive skin at the crook of my shoulder.

Oh God.

“Ellis,” I groan, head thunking back against the stones. I turn, baring myself to him, giving him more space.

He makes use of it, kissing up and down the column of my neck, tongue tasting, his stubble scraping my skin. My breaths are more than a little ragged, and my body feels electrified, as if the storm is right here inside this cellar, not raging outside these walls. I barely register the ongoing news from the radio—“Storm system heading east toward Fourth”—or the rattling of the door above from the harsh, circling winds. There’s only Ellis’s mouth blazing a path across my skin.

Yours. I’m yours.

When Ellis brings his lips back to mine, letting my body drop a couple inches so his cock is pressed up beside my own, my entire body flushes in a cascade of heat and bubbling anticipation. I’m not even sure if he’s consciously aware of what he’s doing or guided only by instinct, but his hips roll against me again and again, the pressure exquisite, and it’s all I can do to hang on, desperate for anything—everything—he’ll give me.

I should have known kissing Ellis would rearrange my world.

“Luck,” he croaks, breaking from me at last. He drops his head beside mine, lips at my cheek as his breath stutters. His fingers dig against me almost painfully, and he gasps, hips stuttering.

Holy fuck.Is he… Is he about to come?

“Yeah, El,” I encourage, pressing my heels against his ass to meet his movements. The feel of his cock rubbing against me through our clothes is enough to have me mindless. “That’s right. Just like that. It’s okay to let go, baby. Let go for me.”

His mouth meets mine with bruising force, the muscles in his back bunching beneath my palms. My desire for him to come is overwhelming. It’s aneed, visceral and embedded down to my very bones. I want him to splinter apart in my arms. I want to give him what he needs, want tobewhat he needs, what hewants, what he craves with every fiber of his being because he’s that for me. He’s not just a crush. He never was.

He’s the man no one else has ever measured up to.

When Ellis jerks against me, a guttural noise leaving his lips, I nearly come right along with him. He drives against me, chasing pressure against his dick, and my soul sings, a lightness inside that makes me nearly giddy.

No, this isn’t meaningless. It never could be.

I bring my hands to Ellis’s cheeks, kissing over his face as he shudders and comes down from his high. It’s the first time he’s come with another person, and I know that might be hitting him hard. But Ellis surprises me. He doesn’t look shaken or remotely self-conscious. He leans back enough for his eyes to find mine, and he watches me intently.

“Luck,” he says, the one word filled with so much meaning.

“Yeah,” I answer, my small laugh sounding like a sigh. “Yeah, El.”

He tucks his face against my neck, holding on to me tightly. For a moment, he shivers. An aftershock. But then he’s calm. My mountain of a man, breathing me in, his lips pressed lightly to my skin.

I close my eyes, the sounds of whipping wind and heavy rain above us at odds with the utter peace I feel inside. I could stay here forever, tucked against Ellis’s chest, him against mine. Just the two of us. Him and me.

But Ellis seems to have other plans. In an easy move, he steps back, me in his arms, and turns.

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