Letting out a strangled noise that doesn’t match the heady sentiments rushing through me has him halting.
“I love you, too.” It’s merely uttered, barely there, not hesitant but cherished with the emotions displayed between us both. He cants off the bed, using his arms as anchors and hovering over me with ease. His tattoos blare at me, each one telling stories of love and pain and a life that brings me the man he is today. He’s going to make love to me. Something I’ve never experienced before.
“You act like you’ve never done this before,” I utter as he worships me with his eyes. His expression morphs into a shy boyish grin.
“I haven’t.”
“What do you—"
“Let me show you,” he promises, interrupting me, before kissing my mouth. It’s chaste and soft, sensual and sweet. His arms flex as he lowers himself, tracing his lips over every sensitive piece of flesh visible. I shake with barely abated desire, needing more, wanting everything he’ll offer.
His mouth hovers over my center, his breath hot and decadent as he waits for my go-ahead. “Please,” I nearly hiss. He’s much more controlled than me right now. Keeping my hands to myself and stopping him from going slow is killing me.
When he lowers, a sigh escapes me as the press of his tongue swipes languidly down my slit. Contentedness and desperation mingling in one breath. My fingers brush his scalp, unable to hold still.
He spreads me with his fingers, his mouth taking control of every spasm raging inside me, seeking exit, yearning for release. He touches me in a way of remembrance, as if it’s our last day, soft like snow, fragile as ice, savoring me like a last sip of wine. His grunts only further my devotion to keeping his head between my thighs, and the way I’m tugging his hair only makes him go slower.
The bed shifts as he rises, but before I can complain, he’s lifting me. My heart races, thinking he’s going to impale me, but when he only rests me on top of his abs, confusion takes over.
“I need you to take a memory from me, too, Josephine.” Our gazes connect, and there’s pain there, not residual but effervescent, cresting through his chest into mine; it’s subduing me with its strength. “Purify my sins, Sous. Ease them like only you can and replace them with yourself,” he pleads, gripping my thighs. There’s an unspoken vow.
He lifts me, forcing me upward. When my thighs are nearly around his head, he places a gentle kiss on me. “Erase every memory, Sous. Every touch and taste before you, make them dissolve. Love me until it’s only you and me.” With a shaky nod, he’s placing me on his mouth. The first swipe of his tongue has me grinding down on him, hissing as his teeth bite into my flesh. He holds my thighs with brutal rashness, bruising me and pressing his fingers into my soft flesh as if touch’ll fix this. Fix him.
Whenever this moment went from my ease to his, it doesn’t matter; the only thing that matters right now is the current flushing through my system, eradicating every bad memory experienced without him.
We’ll slay our demons together.
Our love will set the world on fire.
Darkness binds us, branding us at this moment, and as he becomes reckless beneath me, pushing, biting, flicking his tongue masterfully as if re-memorizing a nightmare as a daydream, I’m gripping the headboard of our bed to carry the impact.
As the stars in the sky expand and swallow the dark, Toby beckons me in the same way. His body interlaces with mine, taking every ounce of fight by embedding us together, taking, taking, taking.
“Toby,” I moan, and he clamps down on my clit as I let go. I’m riding his face as the sky explodes around me, detonating my vision of rudimentary intimacy, switching it for sublime euphoria.
My high settles, and he’s moving me down him, his face red and slickened with my release.
We are neither here nor there but exist in a time lapse. We are stolen kisses. Unspoken truths. Midnight wishes. Everything and nothing, as our eyes communicate and our souls merge, sealing our fates as one.
We are soulmates; we are purloining constellations, revering the sky.
“You breathe life back into me, Sous.” A tear slips past me, not understanding what memory I replaced, but the hope on his face, swallowing the fear he reflected often, makes every wordless action crush my chest with the