“I think so.” She couldn’t help the lazy smile that curled her lips. “You broke my brain, but only a little.”
He was tense, a fine tremor running through his body, but he returned her smile. “And I’m not finished yet.”
He shifted to the edge of the bed and took off his boots. The moment they hit the floor, he stood and reached for his belt.
Maya rolled onto her side and watched him, languid satisfaction battling a fresh spark of anticipation at the soft sound of leather against metal. The rasp of a zipper followed, and she held her breath as he moved with his usual careful deliberateness—except this time he was stripping off his pants and everything underneath.
He stood there for a moment, naked, his rapid breathing the only break in his careful control.
Well, almost the only break.
Maya sat up and swung her legs over the bed. He was close enough to touch, and she did, dragging her fingers up the outsides of his thighs. His muscles tensed as she ghosted her fingers across his abdomen. She glanced up at him, meeting those blazing eyes, and smiled. “Can I?”
He caught her wrist. “Only if you want to blow all my careful plans. Literally.”
She laughed, tracing the fingers of her free hand back down his hip. “What happened to all that patience and self-control?”
“I’ve been listening to you moan, that’s what.” He lifted her in his arms and dropped to the bed, holding her above him. “Feeling you come.”
Maya’s knees pressed against the quilt, her legs forced wide by the width of his hips. He lowered her slowly, and they both hissed when his erection brushed her clit. She braced both hands on his chest, resisting the urge to grind down against him. “I’ve never done it this way before,” she whispered. “Help me.”
He guided her, the taut muscles in his arms standing out in sharp relief, tilting her hips until the head of his cock was perfectly aligned to slide into her.
Then his fingers tightened, digging into her skin. “It’s whatever you want,” he panted hoarsely. “You’re in control.”
She wanted to go slow. To torment him the way he’d teased her. To watch pleasure break over him as she made it last forever. But he was so hard, and she was so empty, and the first downward rock of her hips drove a helpless groan from him that shattered her self-control.
Digging her nails into his chest, she took him deep. The stretch of it was dizzying, but nothing compared to the thrill she got from watching his face. His lips parted around a silent moan as he drove his head back against the bed, his expression as unguarded as she’d ever seen it.
She shuddered and gave an experimental rock. Gray’s jaw clenched, his fingers flexing on her hips, and she reveled in the tiny fractures of his control.
“Maya.”
Oh, she was drunk on the feeling of him, already floating as she rocked again. The memory of recent pleasure teased at her, tingles shivering down her spine every time she took him deep.
“Maya.”
He growled her name this time, his eyes wild, and she let her hands slide up to curl in the quilt on either side of his head. The angle was sharper this way, the friction exquisite. She nipped at his jaw, then moaned as his hips jerked up in response. Bright lights sparked on the edge of her vision like fireflies, a warning that the high couldn’t last forever. Every touch, every sound, the scent of him and the taste of him—she pressed her parted lips to his throat and licked his skin, salt and sweat and lightning.
Maya pressed her forehead to his. Her braids cascaded over her shoulders to form a curtain around her, even the brush of her own hair over her skin a liquid heat.
Too much. It was too much. And she didn’t care. She grabbed on to the quilt as if for dear life and told Gray what she wanted. What she needed. “Fuck me, Gray.”
His fingers tightened on her hips. He lifted her effortlessly and thrust up into her, the first stroke powerful enough to make her limbs feel boneless. It didn’t matter. Gray held her in place as if it were effortless, all of his strength and grace focused on one obscene and glorious goal.
The first orgasm might have been a memory. She couldn’t tell the difference anymore—she could feel his thumb circling her clit like it was happening now, could feel his lips against her ear, his teeth on her throat, his tongue on her nipple. Pleasure was a kaleidoscope, every hard thrust turning over a new pattern made of memories overlapping reality.
Then he shifted the angle somehow, and his next thrust ground the base of his shaft against her clit, and that was new. She slammed back into the moment, pressing her open mouth to his shoulder as if she could muffle the scream building inside her. But everything was bright and hot and beautiful, and her whole body shook as the pressure inside her unraveled without warning.
She moaned at the beauty of it, especially when Gray groaned her name and his final thrust carried them both into bliss.
Maya floated there. For hours. For centuries. It was better and worse than the last high. Tiny aftershocks trembled through her. She couldn’t see the stars and didn’t know if she remembered their names. But her cheek was pressed to warm skin, and beneath she heard a steady thud.
She focused on it as it slowed, blocking out everything but that steady thump. Her shaky breaths slowed in time … in for five beats, out for five beats. When she didn’t have to think about breathing anymore, she let herself feel. A strong hand rested on her back, the thumb gently stroking her spine.
“Whoa,” she whispered.
“Uh-huh.”
“That…”
“Yeah.”
Maya hid her face against his chest as irrepressible laughter bubbled up. “Oh God, I’m never going to be able to look at you in public again.”
Gray chuckled. “Let’s be real—you could barely do that before we had sex.”
She growled and bit his chest lightly. “Yeah, but now you’re gonna give me one of those filthy-hot little stares and I’m going to remember—” She faltered as even the thought of it threatened to summon a full sensory replay of Gray staring down at her, his fingers and thumb shattering her apart. “Oh God,” she groaned. “I’m so doomed.”
He drew her closer with another rumbling chuckle. “Somehow, I think you’ll manage.”
“Never,” she declared. “Everyone will know.”
“Everyone already knows.”
Maya’s cheeks heated. “No.”
“But I’m sure they find it excessively adorable,” Gray offered teasingly.
It felt so good to lie here with him, basking in this warm glow, prolonging it with gentle teasing and slow, soft caresses. She could have cuddled there in the warmth of his arms forever, but a sharp rap shattered the peace of the night.
“Up and at ’em,” Dani called through the door. “The intel came in on Emerge BioCore. We’re rolling out.” She paused. “This means you, too, Gray.”
Maya groaned again, and this time there was no amusement in it. Dani was going to give her so much shit, and she definitely needed to soundproof her bedroom. But she shakily separated herself from Gray and swung her feet over the edge of the bed. “We’re coming,” she called. “Give us ten.”
Gray sat up as well. “Are you ready for this?”