more laughing. Paulina wasn’t even smiling. She was dead serious when she met his eyes and said, “I love you.”
“I love you, too. And you’re gonna let me show you how much, right?”
She inhaled slow and exhaled even slower. He knew this was hard for her. Whether she’d ever done it before had nothing to do with it. She’d never done this with him. He slid his hands up and down her thighs again, and when he reached her knees, he pushed them apart.
Paulina didn’t put up any resistance. If she had, even for a second, he might have put a stop to it all. But she didn’t. He pushed and she spread her legs like she wanted to do it as much as he wanted it done.
Then it was done. He stared down at her beautiful body lying open for him in the lamplight. The soft dark curls, the slit just starting to open, the little bit of pink and red showing through.
“You better say something,” Paulina said.
“I’m speechless.”
“That’ll do.”
Cyrus slid down on top of her again, chest to her breasts, arms around her back, kissing her mouth with lips and tongue and love and need and twice of everything all over again. The way she kissed him now…he realized she’d been holding back with him. Before, her kisses had been sweet and tender, sometimes deep. But never like this. Never desperate.
Paulina lifted her hips and rubbed against him. Even through his jeans, he felt her heat. It wasn’t enough. He had to touch her. He slid his hand slowly down and up her arm, over her breasts and down her belly. Finally, he pressed his hands between her thighs, cradling her in his palm.
She buried her head into the crook of his neck and shoulder as he held her there, soaking in the wet warmth against his skin. But she didn’t close her legs. In fact, she opened up a little wider for him and lifted herself into his palm. He had to touch her and she had to be touched. With only one finger, he started to stroke her along the slit. She was wet and swollen. He’d almost forgotten how good it was to make a woman feel this way.
Almost.
As he stroked her, spreading the folds, he felt Paulina’s fingernails digging lightly into his shoulders as she clung to him, breathing hard.
“It’s all right, baby,” he said. “I got you.”
She nodded against his chest. It was happening again, that sense of complete and utter calm he’d felt earlier. He had one job and that job was to take care of Paulina. That he could do and would do for the rest of his life.
Cyrus stroked her a little harder, pushing in a little more until he felt the wet silk under his fingertips. He looked down at her, and at his own hand touching her. He’d never seen anything that turned him on so much as her beautiful thighs wide for him and his fingertips on her. He wanted to push in and push in deep, but he also wanted to save that for later. And he didn’t want to push Paulina too far. They were just getting started, after all. They had their whole lives to make love every which way they wanted to.
He turned his head and saw Paulina was watching the show, too, watching his hand touching her. Her eyes were wide, full of wonder. He knew how she felt. This woman, her love for him…what a wonder.
Cyrus kissed her once more on the forehead and she turned her mouth to his mouth for another kiss. He gave it to her. And when the kiss broke, he moved down the bed.
He started on her lower stomach, wanting to ease her into it. Not that it was any chore to kiss her stomach, that smooth dark skin and the muscles quivering underneath. Here she smelled like mint, clean and delicious, and he wondered if it was her soap or her lotion or just the natural scent of her skin. Whatever it was, he couldn’t stop breathing her in and in, deep into his lungs.
Slowly, he kissed a path to her left hip and lingered there a while, kissing the curve of the hipbone where it met the top of her thigh. All the while, Paulina kept her hands on his shoulders, not to stop him or push him away, but just to touch him, he could tell. Just to keep the contact between them.
He