Rocked (The Everyday Heroes World) - Julia Wolf Page 0,105
or careful with me; I’d never allowed it. Today, I couldn’t fight it, nor did I want to.
We made it to my bedroom, slipping our clothes off and touching every inch of one another’s skin. Devon was solid and real, tender and hot. He held me like he’d never held anything more precious, and I allowed myself to do the same. I showed him I could be vulnerable and open, kicking the last of my walls to the side.
I straddled his legs and rode him, our movements languid. We weren’t racing the clock, chasing our desire until it exploded. For once, we had all the time in the world to let ourselves feel.
He’d rocked me just as much as I’d rocked him, and now I was cracked open. There was no stopping the rush of feelings that swept through me for this imperfect man. He slid into me, pushing out doubts and hurt, replacing them with his own body. He filled me, stretched me, made me want more.
“Devon.” My fingers tangled in his hair. “I love you.”
His lips slid from my chest to my neck to my jaw. “I love you too, Kat. I’m gonna keep loving you until the stars fall from the sky.”
“Me too, me too, me too.”
We moved faster, climbed higher, held tighter, until we were tumbling, spilling, rocking into each other. Then we laid in my bed, curled together. Devon spread his hand out, and I pushed my palm against his. For a while, we looked at our hands, so different, then wove our fingers together and brought our joined hands to rest between us.
I tipped my head back, nudging his chin with mine. “Hey.”
His mouth curled into a smile so wide, I felt it in my chest. “Hey.”
“I might need you to remind me sometimes that you’re not going to leave.”
“I will.” He cupped my cheek. “And I might need you to remind me sometimes that you want me to stay.”
“I will. And I do. I want you to stay. I should have told you that a while ago.”
The breath he released from his nose was long and heavy. “Glad you’re telling me now.”
I snuggled closer to him, the butterflies in my stomach finally calm. I was exactly where I belonged.
“What’s Ellie going to think about us?” he asked.
“She’ll probably think it’s gross, especially if we kiss in front of her. Then she’ll go about her business and be happy you’re going to be here all the time now.”
“I’m most definitely going to kiss you in front of her and hold your hand and give you all the hugs. If I have to repeat the day we went rock climbing and all I could do was stare at you, my head will explode.”
I laughed. “I can get on board with all that. But the closet sex wasn’t so bad.”
His dick twitched between us. “No, I wouldn’t mind a repeat of that.”
My eyebrow lifted. “Right now?”
He growled and rolled on top of me. “No, not right now. There are still a lot of things I want to do with you in bed before we go back to the closet.”
I wrapped my leg around him, pulling his pelvis against mine. “I can get on board with that too.”
Devon peered down at me from above, his black-and-silver-streaked hair hanging over his forehead. “I really do love you, Kat.”
“I really do love you too, Devon.”
Soon, he was inside me again, murmuring words about stars and rocks and staying forever. And I whispered promises of the future and openness and giving him everything.
It had taken a star crash landing into my life to open my eyes to the truth. We were imperfect in completely different ways. Scarred and damaged, but not unworthy. We’d both been rocked by life, but now that I was awake, I saw that together, we’d be steady.
Epilogue
Devon
One Year Later
What happened when a star died?
That question used to weigh on my mind a lot. One day, Ellie told me the answer. She said some fade peacefully, quietly cooling until they disappear. Others explode in a supernova, each piece becoming a seed for something new.
That was where I was when I’d showed up in Sunnyville—raging against the dying of my own light, but unable to stop the explosion. I had to figure out what I’d do with those pieces of me—how I’d reshape myself, what I’d form into.
In a way, losing my shine was the best thing that ever happened to me. It gave me a blank slate,