Then she bent and kissed him carefully.
He tried to speak.
“Shh,” she whispered against his mouth.
And then she shifted to guide him to her opening.
She was already wet and ready for him. Her body accepted him with ease, and she rocked into him gently, slowly, her rhythm languid until she took him to the root. A desperate groan was wrenched from his throat as she slid down on him.
He held her hips like she was going to escape. This was the first time they were like this, face to face. Before, he always seemed to just bend her over the nearest horizontal surface and take her from behind. If her brain hadn’t turned into cotton fluff, she would have thought about why that was.
But he didn’t last.
He groaned, low and apologetic, his climax tearing through him too fast.
“Sorry,” he muttered into her neck, breath shaky. “It’s been too long.”
“I know,” she said, voice soft as he became aware of her pulsing around him. “Me, too.”
She’d already come, the first stretch of him inside her enough after so many weeks of need and tension and ache.
He pulled her close, holding her chest to his. They stayed there like that for a while before it started to get uncomfortable. Then he wordlessly turned her sidewise before getting out of bed. He was back a minute later with a warm towel and proceeded to clean her up with careful hands despite her lazy protests.
“We made a mess,” he murmured with a half-smile.
She only nodded, watching him through half-closed eyes.
They padded together into the master bedroom. She picked up the packet of frozen peas wrapped in a tea towel. He didn’t bother with clothes, just slid under the sheets behind her and curled around her like a second skin.
“Devious bastard,” she mumbled under her breath.
“Hm?” Thane’s voice was already groggy, lips brushing her nape.
“Nothing,” she muttered.
She lay there in the dark, his arm heavy around her waist, the steady thrum of his breath at her back.
And still, her mind sluggishly ticked on. After everything, he didn’t have to push. She got there on her own.
“Bloody tease,” she added under her breath, poking his thigh with her heel.
He chuckled sleepily. “What was that?”
“You know what.”
“I’m innocent.”
She scoffed and felt his lips curve against her shoulder. “You came to me.”
“Don’t get cocky.”
“Too late.”
She huffed, but he could feel her lips curve against the arm under her head. And when his arm tightened around her, pulling her closer, her grumbling melted into a sigh.
“Faolan,” he whispered, forehead resting against the back of her neck. “If I’d known…” His voice was wrecked. Weary. “All these wasted years.”
The words were torn from his soul.
