thought as his fingers slipped down my chin, over my throat and to my shoulder. A wake of shivers followed his touch.
“You were saying?” His voice threaded with amusement and something thicker, richer.
“I was saying that I have a problem with impulsivity and jumping into things without thinking them through.”
“Never.”
My lips twitched. “And I spend the other half of the time overthinking everything.”
“Never would’ve guessed that, either.”
“You have to be the reasonable one in this.”
“I can’t do that, Trin.” He toyed with the flimsily loose strap of my tank top. “I’m so damn tired of being reasonable, logical and especially responsible.”
I moved into his touch without intending to, lifting my shoulder as his finger slipped under the strap. “You’re no help at all.”
“No, I’m not.”
Stomach dipping, I willed him to do something. Anything. Either to keep touching me, or to back away. When his hand stilled but didn’t pull away, I wiggled closer, stopping only when I felt his steady breath against my lips.
His fingers became his palm, and his grip tightened. “I want you, Trinity.”
A swift swelling motion invaded my chest, and all I could say was his name, and it was both a prayer and a curse.
Zayne rolled me onto my back as he moved over me, the bulk of his weight on his arm as his hand slid from my arm to cup my face. I moved with him, kicking the covers down and reaching for him. My hand fisted his hair as I touched his face with my other, loving the feel of the stubble along his jaw.
His forehead dropped to mine, and the breath we took was shared. “Whatever happens, this will be worth it,” he said, and it sounded like a promise. “This is right, no matter what.”
I hesitated, fingers on his cheeks as I tried to search his face in the darkness. If we did this, could we go back? Would it be worse? Or would it be better once we sated this need? Would it be a one-time thing or would every night be like tonight? My toes curled at the thought, and the throb from deep inside, the purely physical response, was nearly painful.
Boundaries. Rules. Lines. If we kept this physical, then we weren’t really together. Semantics, whispered the surprisingly sane-sounding voice. But was it really? People did this all the time without letting feelings grow. I could do this. We could do this.
And I wanted this. I was ready. Ready for more than just kissing and touching. I was ready for Zayne, for all of him and everything that entailed. My heart raced at the thought of it. Being ready was a huge decision, a monumental one. There were things we needed, like condoms. Maybe not plural. Probably only one, but we needed that, because I had no idea if baby making was possible between us. But I was ready, and wasn’t that the strangest thing, to suddenly be so sure? To have woken up today not even considering the whole losing-my-virginity thing, and still be so damn sure, I wanted to shout it?
“Do you want this?” he asked.
God, did I ever want this—want him. So much so it was a little embarrassing. “Yes.”
A tremor rocked his body and his head tilted. His warm breath touched my lips—
“No kissing.” My hand tugged at his hair when he stilled over me. “Kissing...kissing makes this more.” My logic had so many holes in it, but it made sense to me. And not just because I’d seen Pretty Woman, but because kissing was... It was beautiful when it was right, and it would be too beautiful with him. “No kissing.”
Zayne’s chest rose against mine and then he shifted onto his side.
Pressing my lips together to stop the sudden urge to cry, I looked at him. I wanted to take those words back, but I couldn’t. It had to be this way—
He settled beside me and his fingers curled around my chin. For a heart-stopping moment, I thought he was going to ignore my newly established rule.
“We can work on that,” he said.
I relaxed and then tensed as his thumb dragged over my lower lip.
“I’m...greedy enough for anything.” His thumb moved along my chin and then the line of my jaw. “Or maybe it’s that I’m desperate for anything that you will allow.”
A terrible, insidious part of me broke through the surface, forcing words out of me that I hadn’t thought I’d dare speak. “It could be easier.”