Ever Unknown (7 page)

He brushed away her hair, and kissed the nape of her neck. It felt like a relief. Everything felt like a relief—his cock sliding all the way into her, most of all. He filled her up solidly, giving her something to concentrate on and anchor herself to.

But God, he went
slow
. Of course she’d expected him to. But even so, she found it hard to bear, at first. He rocked in, then almost all of the way out, teasing her with just the tip before plunging back in again. In fact, every stroke in felt like something
plunging
, something fierce and fast and almost enough, but then he’d stop and wait and draw back out so agonisingly slow.

Still, he moaned before she did. In fact, he moaned a lot more than she would have imagined. She saw the conflict between his restraint and his desire, clearly. One obviously told him to hammer into her, while the other made him take his time, made him stretch the whole thing out like a length of taffy.

Both were represented in the grip he had on her upper arms. She had them spread out on either side of her, flat to the bed—almost like a diamond-shaped frame for her head. And he just pressed each individual fingertip into her flesh, and pushed her down, down, into the mattress.

No doubt she’d have bruises, tomorrow. He asked if she wanted him to go faster, harder, but all she could think was,
squeeze tighter. Make some bracelets around my upper arms. Make me feel it, make me feel it—oh.

He did. Despite his probable best intentions, his thrusts grew jerky and erratic. He picked up the pace whether he wanted to or not, and that sensation he’d provoked not long ago sparked again. She said his name without meaning to, and that made him say her name, and finally one of his hands went to her hip to bring her in tighter, and closer.

“Oh yeah that’s good,” he panted, and she couldn’t disagree.

It felt so good that when he demanded she touch herself, she barely thought twice about it. She just squirmed and shoved one hand beneath her body, searching out her clit.

She came the moment her finger pressed over that little bud. Her body tried to go rigid, but he was pulling her up into every rough thrust—it made it hard. It made it hard to do anything but go with the ebbing, tingling pleasure, and gasp that she was coming.

Then he groaned that he was too, and that made everything even sweeter. He emptied into her barely a second after she’d climaxed, jerking against her body and pouring out a series of unintelligible noises. Though in amongst them, she definitely heard him say…

“I knew, God, I knew you’d be this good.”

And that was all right. Yeah, that was pretty sweet.

* * * *

It was on the tip of her tongue to ask, but every time she went to say it, it just seemed so ordinary and dull and provincial. And though he was much less mysterious than he had been, in many ways he was still cool. And still kind of mysterious.

She glanced across at him, but that wasn’t a good idea. She hadn’t expected him to be just looking at her. Though why that seemed so oddly thrilling when they were both
laying
naked on her bed, like little strange bookends, she had no idea.

“So.
What do we do now?” he asked.

That was a good opener. She was grateful to him, for making it. But even so, she couldn’t quite say the words. She couldn’t quite say, “
what
are we, now? Are we lovers? Are we in some kind of relationship? Are you still going to email me, every day?”

If he answered no to any of them, there would definitely be some disappointment.

“I’m not sure. You fancy a pizza?”

That big version of his smile spread over his face. He looked pretty young, anyway, but even younger when he smiled like that. Hell, he was probably younger than she was. Twenty-eight, she judged him at. Maybe one year between them.

“I could go for pizza.”

She swallowed. “And then what?”

It was as close as she was going to get to the big questions.
For now, at least.
Though really, she should have known that she didn’t have to hold back. She should have known him, ever and always.

“Then we
be
together. Because I say so—and apparently, I’m a very masterful sort of person. Wouldn’t you agree?”

She would. Oh God, she absolutely would.