to her. She needed to know that I could see how strong she’d remained. That I saw her resilience and felt her own fire still burning bright, no matter how many times life had tried to snuff it out. I felt her anguish, but I relished in her courage.
And she needed to fucking know how much it meant that she’d shared her sorrow with me. That she’d trusted me enough to expose her grief.
Without any thought to the consequences, I cupped her cheek and turned her face to mine. My mouth came down on hers in a fusion of unrestraint and blinding passion.
My mind didn’t even catalog it as a sexual act at first. It was simply essential, something I had to do. Connecting our bodies in that moment was as necessary as breathing.
Necessary for life to even continue.
She froze in shock at the initial contact, though it didn’t take long for her mouth to begin moving beneath mine. For her sigh to melt into a yearning moan. For her arms to wrap around my neck and pull me closer. My own circled her front to hold her flush against me, unwilling to let any space slip between our bodies.
Normally, I never cared to kiss the women I bedded. It wasn’t that I didn’t like it—I could just take it or leave it. Kissing a woman’s mouth wasn’t something I put great emphasis on. Now, kissing other parts of her…that was a different story.
But in all my years of experience, it had never felt like this.
What a cliché.
Maybe, but it was also the truth.
This time, the act didn’t feel like an obligatory pit stop on the way to ultimate release. This time, it felt like the beginning of something life-altering. Like if I didn’t consume her inside and out, starting with that kiss, I would croak right there in my own pool. After being such an epic dick to her, I was goddamn lucky she was even allowing it. It was a privilege to be kissing her.
Especially when her lips parted and my seeking tongue thrust inside her welcoming mouth.
Then it turned very sexual.
My tongue flicked against hers, eliciting a whimper from her velvety lips and wrenching a hungry growl from mine. She was soft and pliant all over. We ate at each other’s mouths as though we had been deprived of sustenance for years. I suppose, in a way, I had been. I was certainly no stranger to the one-night-stand, but true sexual fulfillment was almost a foreign concept to me.
Sex was never emotional for me.
It was something to keep me balanced. Focused. Something I enjoyed, of course. And I enjoyed women. But it had become nothing more than a task I checked off my to-do list. I needed to keep my head on straight for work, and sex filled that role.
And I knew I was up shit creek when one kiss from Lexi had me feeling like I’d do anything to have this for the rest of my life. To bottle up this euphoria like my favorite whiskey, put it on the shelf, and drink from it whenever I damn well pleased.
It started the moment I’d set foot inside my house tonight and immediately sought her out. After the events of the day, I’d needed to see her with my own eyes and make sure nothing evil had touched her. I’d needed to hold her in my arms—I’d actually told her as much—just to assure myself that she was safe and whole. I’d needed to return the favor from the week before. The prospect of finally getting my mouth on her pussy had driven me through the house and straight into the pool like a man possessed.
Frankly, I couldn’t decide which set of her lips tasted better.
The surge of possession, the staggering compulsion to lay claim to every part of her—to own her completely—was rising up like an indestructible force inside me. A siege of primal desires. A battleground of greedy demands. Everything about the way in which I needed to mark this woman was the very definition of carnal.
I was the shade to her sunshine. And yet…
I was selfish enough to want to hold the monopoly on all things Lexi.
With our mouths still sealed together, I ripped her top down below her tits, freeing them to the chilly October air. And I wasn’t nice about getting my hands on them. My grip was demanding and propriety when my palms covered them. Her nipples had instantly hardened, as