Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 90503 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 453(@200wpm)___ 362(@250wpm)___ 302(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 90503 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 453(@200wpm)___ 362(@250wpm)___ 302(@300wpm)
“No!” She clung to me with her arms and legs. “No. Don’t leave. It’s okay,” she murmured against my lips. “I’m on the pill, and I trust you.”
Of course she did. She always had. Was I violating that trust now? Wouldn’t she be angry if she knew what I was keeping from her?
For fuck’s sake, don’t think about that.
I shoved every thought from my head and focused on what it felt like to ease into her body again, to watch her face reflect the pain and pleasure of taking me in deep, to hear her strangled breaths and anguished sighs, to feel her fingers clutching at my shoulders.
“I forgot how big you are,” she whispered. “But I love the way it hurts. I missed it. I missed you.”
Holding back as much as I could, I went slow until I felt her body relax and she began to issue breathless commands against my lips that had me driving into her with deep, rhythmic strokes. Fuck me. Yes. Right there. Don’t stop.
It was unbelievable—I was with Maren again, I was inside her, nothing between us. It couldn’t be real. It was too good to be true. For a moment, I was terrified my head was messing with me. Was I hallucinating? Was I conscious? Was this some kind of altered state? Was she only a ghost? A memory?
I opened my eyes. No, no—she was here. I could see her, I was holding her. She was gorgeous flesh and blood in my arms. I was kissing her and touching her and moving inside her. I heard my name on her lips.
Dallas…oh God…Dallas…it’s happening again…yes, yes, yes…
I began to let go, bracing her against the wall and pounding into her so viciously I was sure her back would bruise. And I liked it—I was such a fucking dick that I liked the idea she’d leave here tomorrow with black and blue marks on her unblemished skin, something more than an insubstantial memory. I wished it were permanent, a tattoo.
She came a second time, her cries even louder, her hands fisted in my hair, her body clenching tight as my cock surged inside her. I thought my legs would give. I thought my heart would explode. I thought my life would flash before my eyes.
When it eventually became clear that I wasn’t going to die right here in the shower at the Westin, I started to breathe again. Our foreheads rested together. Her arms and legs were still wrapped around me, and I didn’t want her to let go.
Ever.
She picked up her head. “My God. It’s true.”
“What’s true?”
“A woman can have two. In a row.”
“Two orgasms, you mean?”
“Yes! That’s never happened to me before.”
I felt like a hero. “Good.”
“And you know what else I just realized?”
“What?”
“We never did this before. Took a shower together.”
“Probably because we lived with our parents, Maren.”
“True.” She looked down at our bodies, still joined. “I like it. I like being able to see you. We were always in the dark, half-dressed or something. Nervous about being too loud or getting caught. We never really got to take our time.”
“I don’t think I was capable of taking my time back then.” I kissed her lips, her cheek, her throat. “But tonight is a different story.”
“Or at least another chapter in the same story.” She brushed the hair off my face. “We never really felt finished to me.”
“Me neither.”
We were both silent then, even though there were a hundred things I wished I could say.
I still love you. I never stopped. Run away with me. Let’s go, just the two of us. We’ll rewrite history, give ourselves a different ending this time.
But deep down, I knew that was impossible.
When our fingertips started to shrivel, we got out of the shower and dried off. I couldn’t take my eyes off her, as if I was afraid she was going to disappear.
She looked around at the clothing scattered on the bathroom floor. “I should probably hang my stuff up. I’m going to have to walk out of here in it eventually.”
I didn’t like thinking about her walking out. “I’ll hang it up for you.” Tossing my towel onto the vanity, I leaned down and picked up her blouse and skirt.
“Thank you.” She grabbed my towel, hung it on the back of the bathroom door along with her own, and scooped up her undergarments. “I’m just going to rinse these out real quick.”
I left the bathroom and hung her clothing in the closet next to a couple shirts of mine. Then I stood there for a moment. I’d never lived with anyone, so I’d never shared a closet before. It sounds stupid, but there was something I liked about seeing our things hanging side-by-side like that. I shut the closet door and caught Maren’s reflection in the full-length mirror on the back of it. She stood naked at the sink, rinsing out her things. My chest felt tight. This is what it would be like. We’d do little things for each other, we’d observe one another doing insignificant, routine tasks, we’d walk around naked with no shame. For a moment I let myself imagine it, a life together without the tick of the clock in my head, counting down the hours we had left.