When it meant everything.
When it felt like my world would end if he stopped, that my body would die without the taste. Soft, yet deliberate contact parted my lips, his finger curling beneath my chin when it ended too soon.
His boyish grin fluttered my insides, his hand cupping my cheek. “I was taking a chance you’d let me do that.”
My lips buzzing, I felt like I’d let him do it again. But, putting hands on my hips, he placed distance between us. He extended a reach, and off the top of my car, he had the most curious thing.
“Pizza?” I questioned. He flipped the lid and the same pie from the night we met stared back at me.
Oh my gosh.
He nodded. “Goes with the rest of my gift. That is, if you’re game?”
Since I was, I allowed him to tug me from the car. He opened the back and inside was a set of folded clothing. Like brand new, a bow around a box of tennis shoes and what appeared to be a pair of shorts, a tank top, and sports bra.
I’d question how he’d gotten these items into my car, but he did have the code. I’d sent him to my car multiple times to get things out of it when he stayed over on occasion.
“I figured pizza, then a hike,” he said, his grin stretching. “What do you say, Jersey girl? Escape with me for the day?”
His thumb brushed beneath my chin.
As if I could ever tell this guy no.
*
Ramses took us to a nature reserve for the day, picking an afternoon I just happened to have an early day. My afternoon classes wrapped up early on Wednesdays.
Of course, he knew that.
We ate his pizza on the way. Though already having had lunch with his mom, I allowed him to devour the majority of it. Not that he minded that.
It was crazy thinking back on that night. We first met in an evening that, at the time, felt like absolute chaos. But since then, he’d somehow come to balance me, and I’d been able to be that calm for him. We just worked together.
We just worked.
I changed in the car for the hike while he waited outside, stretching while I exchanged pumps for Nikes and my blouse and pantsuit for sports clothing. Everything fit perfectly, which told me Ramses either guessed or cheated by being observant about the sizes in my closet.
Something told me the latter.
That was just Ramses. That was always Ramses, and as I joined him deep in the hills of nature, the woods cool with the changes of spring, I didn’t want to be anywhere else. This, with him and being outside together, was pure harmony.
It was my heaven.
Ramses planned a break on an outlook, planned because he brought a blanket and waters. He was prepared. The view was scenic as we took that rest. The tops of trees were in a wide abyss before us, and he started to say something to me up here.
I never got to hear it.
I initiated that first kiss, his lips pinching between mine, and I had to say, I wasn’t sure how I’d been able to fight it so long.
Something told me those thoughts were shared.
Our clothes stripped like it was second nature, for this man to make love to me up here and always. For him to hold me, passion-filled, and kiss me like we’d never been at odds. Like I hadn’t been in my head again or attempted to push him away. Like we were destiny.
And this was it fulfilled.
Ramses entered me with a groan, his arm hooked around the back of my neck. His hips dropped deep. His taste was in the air, heat, sweat. He’d soaked through his shirt halfway through the hike, completely naked now as his hips rocked and he pulled my lips apart. Solid and beautiful male fucked me deep, my thighs hugging him close, my ankles knotted behind his muscular ass.
I rolled to mount him, naked, too, above abs stretched taut and tight, skin richly toasted with a honey tan. I worked my hips, and his head drilled back.
“Fuck,” he gritted as he tugged my hips down to meet his thrusts, my breasts bouncing, heavy and aching. He pinched a nipple, and I ground into the ecstasy, riding his cock in rapid rhythm. Believe it or not, I got on top to unravel him. But once again, he always turned the tides. He almost always had the upper hand when it came to us.
And somehow that was okay.
Somehow it was all right to give in, to give myself over to this and just be with him. Beyond the pressures. Beyond the thoughts and the labels in my head and strip everything down. To just be this man’s girlfriend.
To just be his.
He came before I did, and my walls opened up, vibrating not far behind. I squeezed him inside me so tight I thought I’d die, and he kissed my breasts, sucking my nipples into his mouth while I came down from the high.
I held his head there, letting him caress me, care for me. I didn’t want it to end.
I’d never been a crier during sex. Not that I didn’t love sex. It’d just never made me emotional. But more than one time, he’d managed to make me do it. Today wasn’t that day, but I’d be lying to say I wasn’t compelled.
I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t completely in love with him.
“I love you.” Ramses breathed the words behind me, kissing my back, tasting my skin. He had his arms woven around me, his powerful body spooning me. His brow touched my head. “So much.”
Trembles shook my very limbs, and reaching back, I ran my fingers over his short hair. I nudged him to kiss me, turning in his arms.
“I love you,” he said again, to my face this time when he pulled my lips apart. “Fuck, how much I love you.”
I loved him, sighing. “I love you too.”
We stopped kissing for him to look at me, his fingers winding into my hair. He’d pulled it down, the pair of us so sweaty and messy. We both smelled like sex, all damp and heated skins.
His mouth dropped to mine. “You love me?”
Almost awe to his voice, but something told me it wasn’t because he didn’t know. I mean, he must have.
I folded a hand behind his neck. “I love you.”
He needed to hear it. He needed me to admit it. His nose brushed against mine before he captured my lips in slow, rhythmic kisses. He grinned. “Of course, you do.”
I laughed, the arrogant ass.
My arrogant ass.
He brought me beneath him, pressing his body on top of mine. I lost count how many more times we made love before he simply held me, the pair of us just lying in this moment. He drew lazy circles against the back of my neck, his soft breath in my ear.
“You know, I didn’t bring you up here to fuck you.” He touched his forehead to my hair, our fingers lacing. “But maybe I should play the lottery since I apparently have a lucky streak.”
He’d normally get punched for less, but since he had my hands, I only got to hear his laugh. I smiled, and he hugged me, kissing my hair.
“I went to see my dad,” he admitted. “But not for closure.”
I turned around, looking at him. “What happened?”
As it turned out, a lot. He’d shifted the focus of his business, at least some of it. He’d decided to pursue the things he wanted while at the same time running his family’s company in his own way.
“He said he was proud of me.” He laughed, but it wasn’t dry or sarcastic. Like he more so couldn’t believe what had happened. He kissed my fingers before looping his arms around me. “That used to be all I ever wanted. He was really hard on me growing up. So, pleasing him used to mean so much. My entire world for so long.”