I rolled my hips, pulling back and thrusting in, building a slow rhythm. She responded to every movement with the same vigor she treated everything else in life. She gave me all of herself and I took more and more, greedy for every moan, every soft sigh of ecstasy.
I pistoned my hips harder and faster and our kisses turned sloppy, a desperate mashing of mouths and clacking teeth. Her legs came up to wrap around my waist as I reached between us and under her, my fingers splayed on her ass, spreading her wide, trying to drive in deeper.
Her nails raking my back. “Oh God… I’m going to…”
“Come,” I grunted, my face buried in her neck. “Come for me, Thea.”
Our bodies crashed over and over, flesh slapping flesh, until Thea tensed, back slightly arched, as if offering herself to me completely. I took her, hard and deep and relentless, her cries filling the hotel room, then tapered to whimpering moans.
“Now you,” she managed between ragged breaths. Her knees fell open and her hands pulled me to her mouth for a kiss. “Fuck me, Jimmy. However you want. Come inside me. I’m yours. No one else’s. Ever again…”
The release that had been building in me rose into a crescendo. I let go instead of holding back, thrusting hard and spilling deep inside her. Wave after wave of it, rolling through me and into her until I was utterly spent.
I collapsed on top of her and she wrapped me in her embrace. I closed my eyes, floating in a perfect delirium of sweat-slicked skin and hard breaths and pounding hearts.
“I was right,” she said, catching her breath. “You ruined me in the best way. And you’ve ruined this trip. I’m not going to be able to get out of bed for a week.”
“That works for me,” I said, starting to move off of her.
“Don’t go,” she whispered. “Stay right here forever.”
She was teasing, and yet she meant it. Her eyes held mine intently and her face was so beautiful in the city lights; her happiness full in every curve and line. Right there in my hands.
Too good…
“I’m too heavy.” I kissed her softly and pulled out of her, my body missing hers instantly. My thoughts already whispering there was no such thing as forever.
Shut up. Let me have this.
We lay entangled in one another as the rain smattered the windows. My head in the crook of her neck and her fingers toying lazily in my hair. My entire view the soft hills and valleys of her body.
Tiny tentacles of fear wormed into me as sleep came on.
It’s too good. Nothing good lasts.
“Thea,” I murmured.
“Hm?” Her fingers in my hair grew still as sleep came for her too.
Nothing lasts at all…
I closed my eyes. “Nothing.”
Chapter 29
Jim
I dreamed her…
My body weighed a thousand pounds. Heavy and sated. Thea was wrapped around me, still, the ghosts of my past whispered this was all a lie.
She raised her head, her hair tousled and smiled sleepily.
“Hi,” she said.
“Hi.”
She propped herself on an elbow and made circles on my bicep with her fingertip. “So last night was… um… pretty mind-blowing. Wasn’t it?” She plucked at the sheet now. “It’s been a while for me.”
“Fucking mind-blowing,” I said, brushing a lock of hair out of her eyes.
“I’m a mess,” she said. “Hungover from you.”
“You know what they say about curing a hangover.”
“Hair of the dog that bit you?”
I nodded and leaned in to nuzzle her neck, then lightly bit the skin above her collarbone.
“Mm,” Thea sighed. “I see what you did there.”
She writhed as I worked over her neck and jaw, one hand cupping her breast and running my thumb in circles over the nipple.
“And just like that, I’m wet for you,” she whispered.
I hauled her on top of me and watched her ride me as morning light streamed in from the windows. When she came, I flipped her onto her back and took her hard—as hard as she wanted and as hard as I needed—to prove this was my life.
Nearly an hour later, we collapsed in another tangle of arms and legs, her head pillowed on my chest.
“Jesus, you’re a beast,” Thea said. “No, a warrior. My warrior.”
I kissed her, slow and deep, running my tongue over her swollen lips.
“No, no, no, I will not succumb to your manly seductions again,” she said, hauling herself from the bed. “Today is our first full day. We have so much New York-ing to do. You care if