I force myself to take a step back. “I don’t want you to be uncomfortable because of me.”
She takes in a long breath like she’s steeling her nerves, then eats up the space between us as if she needs to do so in order to make her point. “Jack,” she says my name like it’s her favorite word. “I amnotuncomfortable. I just don’t have a toothbrush here.”
The look I give her is one of confusion, because what does that have to do with—oh.
Oh.
I think hard about what my next words should be, and decide that her confession is close enough to her making the first move to me. Or the second. Or whichever fucking one this would be now.
I reach for her hand and she places it in mine, probably not expecting me to pull her into me, but that’s what I do.
I reverse our positions until her back is against the counter. She looks up at me, chest heaving. I like that I have this effect on her.
I don’t hesitate before I lift her and sit her on the countertop, and she doesn’t hesitate to separate her thighs to make space for me between them.
Her neck is level with my face now, just like I hoped it would be.
“That’s okay,” I finally say, allowing my lips to skim along her skin from her collarbone and up the side of her neck, stopping at the shell of her ear. “I want your mouth, but I don’t need it.” I place a kiss there to solidify my confession. “I’m happy to kiss youanywhere.”
She sucks in a shaky breath, but when I run my hand up the length of her back and thread my fingers through her hair, she relaxes in my arms.
I take my time, kissing along the exposed part of her shoulder and back up her neck again.
What am I doing?
I’ve completely lost my mind.
But I don’t fucking care.
Who needs a mind?
Not me, that’s for sure.
There are about a million ways this could go wrong, but I can’t seem to think of even one of them with her body pressed against mine and the feel of her skin against my mouth.
“The things I want to do to you.” I gently bite down on her earlobe, dragging my teeth over it as I pull away and whisper in her ear. “Unspeakablethings.”
“So do them.” Her words come out breathy.
If she only fucking knew. “You don’t know what you’re asking for.”
She’s felt so unreachable, so far away for so long—but somehow still a part of me, flowing through my fucking veins.
It is unreal that I have my hands on her now.
Even with the distance I’ve kept between us, nothing has ever felt more intense or more real than what I feel for her.
I’d let her tear me apart if it meant understanding the grip she has on me—like there’s something feral whispering deep inside my bones that only she can bring to the surface.
She reclines on her palms, her head tilted back. I reach out and place my hand between her shoulder blades, pushing gently until her weight shifts forward and she’s flush with my chest, then take both her wrists in one of my hands and grip them tightly.
She scoots herself closer to the edge of the counter, wrapping her legs around mine and pulling our centers flush as she grinds her core against my persistent erection.
“You like that?” I ask, thanking every god I can think of that she seems to lean into my dominant nature instead of shying away from it, just like I hoped she would.
She nods.
Grinds harder.
