Deep down, I do, but I’ve never allowed myself the grace to accept it. But Baden is asking me to do so now, so I nod. “I don’t want to lose you.”
“Then please, let this guilt go, because it’s tearing me up to know it’s tearing you up. We can’t go forward this way, and I don’t want to lose you either.”
Baden’s tone is husky, his eyes locked with mine but searching deep to ensure I’m truly hearing him.
He leans in closer and whispers, “Please let it go, Sophie. For me.”
It takes great strength, but I force my eyes away from his and glance down at his mouth. It’s so close, and I remember how my lips felt against his when I impetuously kissed him.
But he pulled away.
What exactly does going forward mean?
Baden answers that for me by closing the distance between us and touches his mouth to mine. My entire body erupts into an awakening. Nothing has ever felt so welcoming and so right.
But Baden pulled away from me earlier when I kissed him in the parking lot. Is he only kissing me now to take my mind off the nightmare?
Should I stop this?
I try to pull away, but Baden moves a hand from my face to the back of my neck, and I’m going nowhere.
He tilts his head, puts more pressure against my lips, and I huff a sigh of pure pleasure. Whether that emboldens him or he’s already emboldened enough, his tongue slips inside, and I start to drown in the best of ways.
My arms go around his neck, and I shift in his lap. Fingers sliding into his hair, the kiss deepens, and I can feel the hard length of him under my bottom. It makes me twitchy, knowing he’s turned on by just our kiss, but I’m the same damn way. I can’t help but wiggle against him, and he hisses into my mouth.
Once again, I worry this isn’t what he really wants and start to pull away.
Once again, he doesn’t let me go but somehow whirls me so I’m flat on my back and he’s over me, leaning on one hip.
Gazing down, he strokes a finger along my jaw. “You know this was inevitable?”
“I only dared hope,” I whisper, feeling like with Baden, I can speak the truth of my heart because no matter what, I know he won’t bruise it.
“Same.” It’s a promise in one simple word.
Leaning over me, Baden kisses me again as a hand moves to my ribs. It’s light, somewhat tentative. We moved from friends to nearly lovers very quickly. There was no dating. No flirting. No innuendo.
The barest notion that something could be there, but I dare say we were both afraid to believe it. I wasn’t willing to admit or show my attraction to him, and he didn’t give me much of a hint either.
So this kiss… this moment, lying in a bed and him telling me this was inevitable, is a very fast, very sudden change in our relationship.
I move a hand to rest on his chest, feel the heat of his skin and the thud of his heart. Baden’s mouth moves from mine to my jaw and then down my neck.
“We’ll still be friends, right?” I whisper.
Baden’s head lifts, and I’ve never seen such naked honesty in someone’s eyes before. They tell a story before he opens his mouth. “Always friends first. But I believe we’re going to be so much more, and we won’t go back from that.”
I have no choice but to believe him, because I can’t accept anything less. I’m in deep, and I don’t want to claw my way back up again.
My other hand goes behind his neck, and I pull him down to kiss me again. It’s sweet at first, then becomes more erotic.
Baden’s hands don’t feel tentative on me anymore, his hand inching under my cami pajama top, up my ribs, and straight to my breast where he squeezes. I moan and writhe as he rubs a thumb over my nipple.
The groan he elicits is actually embarrassing, and I feel the need to apologize. I twist my head away, breaking the kiss, and then bring my gaze right back to him. “It’s been a really long time for me.”
“For me too,” he admits. “Not since…”
His words trail, but I know our lack of sexual intimacy matches in timeline. “Same for me. Well, even before then, I wasn’t really dating.”
Baden smiles impishly. “I heard it’s like riding a bike.”
“Guess we’ll find out.”
With a laugh, he replies, “Guess we will.”
And then he’s kissing me again, and it’s even hotter. We’re committed, all in. Baden’s hands seem to be everywhere… under my clothes stroking every bit of me. I do the same, having all that warm skin and hard muscle to explore. Rippled abs, cut chest, strong, corded arms. His body is exquisite.
Somehow, Baden divests me of my clothes without seeming to break our kiss or his touches, which I know is impossible, yet I feel him everywhere, and I’m lost to it. I don’t feel an ounce of embarrassment as I lie naked before him. He leans back a little and slowly rakes his gaze down my body and back up again.
His eyes meet mine, and without breaking contact, he places his hand on my stomach and glides it slowly down to push in between my legs. They part willingly, and as we stare at each other, he gently probes at my folds. I huff out a breath I’d been holding far too long, and when a long finger slides into me, I can’t hold my eyes open any more. They close, and my hips buck upward in pleasure. Then Baden’s mouth is on my breast, his tongue flicking at my nipple while his finger gently circles my clit.
It’s lazy, slow touches, but I’m so primed by my deep care for this man that I’m immediately on the edge of a monumental release.
His finger moves against my clit as he lightly bites my nipple.
“Baden.” My voice is a quavering mess of need.
“Next time,” he mutters low, pressing a kiss to my breast, “I’ll use my mouth between your legs.”
And just the promise of that is my undoing. Stars explode in my eyes as my body coils tight and then blows apart. I cry out, bucking against Baden’s hand, and then it’s all swallowed up as he kisses me again.
Such an orgasm should wreck me, but I’m only half completed by it. I need to have him inside me, so my hands convey urgency as I push at his shorts. I’m bad at this, trying to control the quaking of my body, take his tongue in my mouth, and get him naked.
He chuckles against my mouth and uses his far superior strength and arm length to remove his shorts.
More kissing, touching, stroking. I take him in my hand and squeeze, and it elicits a growl of pleasure from him that I actually feel between my legs.
“Baden,” I pant, using my hands to pull him on top of me.
Spreading my legs.
Giving him every indication I want him to fuck me.
It doesn’t take much, because he wants this as much as I do.
He rolls on top of me, settles between my legs, and I wantonly spread them farther apart. I raise my knees, welcoming him into my body.
Baden presses against me, his face hovering over mine. Once again, our eyes hold each other’s as he starts a slow slide into me.
We are gloriously connected, and I’ve never felt another person touch my soul this way. Baden’s mouth captures mine, and he kisses me sweetly while his hips thrust against me with exquisite deliberation, pulling out to the very brink before driving in until he bottoms out against me.
Over and over again.
He completely enslaves me with his kisses and expert lovemaking, and my entire body quickens with the need to release again. I wrap my legs around his hips, my arms around his neck, and I undulate against him. Our breathing is harsh, labored… matching. We can barely maintain a kiss as we both hover at that precipice that will drop us into blissful oblivion.