“You little shit. Can you listen for one goddamn second?” He was beaming.
She sighed theatrically, but nodded.
Shep shifted around, so his hip was against hers, one of his hairy legs sliding along the inside of her thigh. He was still up on his elbow, and the effort of holding the awkward pose didn’t seem to faze him, though it put all the muscles of his torso on delightful display.
“Some guys,” he stressed, “just wanna get their rocks off and not take a buncha time starting slow. It’s just about sex. There’s nothing wrong with that. It can be fun—can be,” he stressed again, when she frowned.
“But do you honestly think I’m lying here thinking, ‘Aw shit, this loser doesn’t even know how to suck a dick?’No,” he tacked on, quick, before she could offer an opinion. “You think I’m gonna drop the L-word on you and then decide, nah, I ain’t got time to go slow?”
Relief filled her with light. She said, “L-word? God, you said it once, and you’ll never say it again, will you?”
He kissed her again, until she whimpered. When he drew back this time, his gaze had gone intense. “I love you,” he said, firmly, and oh God, that was devastating. “I care about you, and I worry about you, and I want you to be happy, and I am fuckingstokedthat I get to have you in my bed and know that nobody but me’s ever gotten to touch you.”
“Oh,” she said, weakly, and that was all she could say.
His gaze roved her face, and it was hungry and fond at the same time. “I love you, and I don’t want to hurt you, or freak you out, so I gotta know if you’re a virgin, or if you ever watch porn, or if you touch yourself. I’m not just gonna throw you down and whip my dick out and scare you to death.” He kissed her again, softer this time. “I want it to begood, Cassie.” His hand resumed its slow sweeps across her stomach. “Yeah?”
It was difficult to swallow. Or think, really. “Yeah, okay.”
“Okay.” His hand skimmed over her ribs, and then slid up under her back. She arched a little to help him, and he made deft work of her bra clasp. “Virgin?”
“Yeah.” She slipped her arms out of the straps, a little clumsy.
“Porn?” He hooked a finger under the Victoria’s Secret bow at the center of her bra, drew it off, and chucked it over his shoulder. His gaze fell to her breasts, soft and a little spread out like this, lying on her back. She knew they were larger than her sister’s, but she had no idea what he’d seen and felt up to compare them to. “Jesus Christ,” he breathed, then blinked, and refocused. “Porn?”
“Only a little. Just—just a video or two my friend had on her laptop. It was pretty tame, I think.”
His hand retraced its path around her ribs, and then slid up to clasp her breast. The way his touch reshaped itwas mesmerizing. The slide of his callused fingertips over such sensitive skin made her breathe out, “Oh, shit.”
“You ever play with your tits?” he asked, his eyes trained on them, and before she could answer, he leaned down and sucked her nipple into his mouth.
It turned out she was not at all prepared for that. The sensation was electric; it lifted her shoulders off the bed, and sex went slick and hot. “Oh my God,” she gasped, and squirmed her hips, her legs sliding against his with nerve-sparking friction.
He skimmed his mouth down her breast and breathed hotly against her sternum. “Hm?”
It took her a second to remember the question. “Y-yes.” And she did, sometimes, in the shower, or alone in her room. She’d discovered she was very sensitive there.
He lifted up, and before she could protest, said, “Show me.”
While he watched, nostrils flared, chest lifting hard on each breath, she reached up to cup her breasts. It had never felt so good to touch herself, and she murmured, “Christ.” She pressed her breasts together, and thumbed over her nipples, and her hips ground upward, searching for friction. She was onfire.
He watched her for a minute that felt like an hour, wetting his lips, eyes dilating, while she worked herself up to a desperate point. “Shep—”
“Yeah, yeah, okay.” He brushed her hands out of the way and covered her breasts with his much larger ones. She moaned. “Yeah. You like that?”
“Fuckingduh,” she panted.
He grinned, and then bent his head and put his mouth on her nipples. Hard suction on one, and then the other. Flicks of his tongue and scrapes of his teeth.
The tightening in her belly, and the throbbing pressure between her thighs spiked. Not an orgasm, but the hint of one. Just a little more, just something to grind against…
“That’s so good,” she gasped, “but I need—can you—”
The moment she started speaking, one of his hands pressed flat to her stomach and slid downward, a hot brand that skimmed straight down and shoved under her panties. She was so wet, and his fingers slipped against her, thumb on her clit, middle finger pushing up against her entrance.
She came with a shocked cry of his name, and her hands fisted in his hair.
~*~
