And then, I gasped loudly chanting his name over and over as I reached my peak and fell down.
Down.
Down.
Down.
But then Jude was there to catch me.
I shook against him. I couldn’t believe that had just happened and I felt mildly embarrassed.
I opened my eyes slowly, suddenly feeling shy.
He was watching me with a look of reverence.
“God, you’re amazing.” His voice thrummed through me. I still felt like I was floating.
“Kiss me,” I pleaded.
And boy did he kiss me.
Even though his lips were pressed against mine, it felt like he was kissing me everywhere—branding me as his.
There was no coming back from this. My heart—that treacherous beast—was all wrapped up in Jude. He was quickly becoming all I could think about.
Like his grandpa said, I felt him. He was all around me. Not in the physical sense. His presence was just that potent. Even when he was nowhere near me, my mind and body yearned for him. He’d placed a permane
nt mark on my heart, carving out a space for himself. I don’t how he’d done it—I’d long ago believed that organ to be frozen and unmoving—but he did, and there was no going back. Something told me I was only going to end up hurt and broken, but I couldn’t find the sense to care anymore. Once the heart gets involved, the mind can’t win.
“You’re so beautiful,” he murmured. He smoothed his fingers through my hair. “Fucking amazing and you don’t even know it. I wish you could see yourself the way I see you.”
“I’m nothing special.” I swallowed thickly. It was true. I was just a girl and he was just a boy. We weren’t extraordinary we were just…us.
“You’re everything.”
He kissed me again—and my God I would never get used to his kisses.
His hips ground into mine and I could feel him. All of him.
My hands skittered down his chest as he kissed me and before he knew what I was doing, my hands were around him. His body quaked as I ran my hand up and down his hard length. Holy hell. He was huge. There was no way that was fitting inside me, ever. And by that I meant his cock. Even thinking the word made me squirm. I needed to grow up and stop freaking out. I wasn’t sixteen. I was a twenty-two year old woman. There was nothing wrong with me having sex or wanting to have sex. But growing up in a strict household, sex had always been made to feel dirty and wrong.
Looking at the pleasure on Jude’s face…there was nothing dirty or wrong about that. It was magnificent.
I ran my thumb along the tip and his eyes shot open. He grabbed my hands and fisted them in his own, pulling them away.
Hurt filled me and my lips turned down.
“Jude? What’d I do?” My voice shook with the threat of tears. Had I done something wrong? While I’d had sex, I was pretty inexperienced and I’d never had any desire to get up and personal with a guy’s—
His words cut off my racing thoughts. “You didn’t do anything wrong,” he panted, swallowing so hard his Adam’s apple bobbed. “God that felt fucking amazing. But what I did was for you. I didn’t want you to feel like you had to return the favor.” He kissed my forehead and rolled over so he was behind me. He pulled my body against his so that there was no space between us.
“I want to.”
“No, Tate,” his lips pressed to my neck, “tonight is for you and only you.”
I grew quiet, clasping my hands beneath my head. Finally, when I couldn’t stand the silence another second, I asked, “Isn’t that painful?” I rubbed my butt against his still blatantly present hard-on.
“Some pains are worth the reward, and seeing you come apart like that, screaming my name…that was worth everything.”