She wouldn’t have to face what she’d done in the morning.
A hand snaked around her back and came to rest between her shoulder blades, drawing them closer. His other hand covered her hip, thumb stroking the skin, and his mouth found her earlobe.
“I want you so badly. I’ve never wanted anyone like this,” Dr. Merino said, breath hot in her ear. His hand abandoned her hip and roamed the length of her, familiarizing himself with every dip and curve, as if she were an apparition in danger of vanishing. “My body is on fire.”
Outside, the rain slackened. The thunder lessened in frequency. Kenna registered the weight of him on top of her, as well as his arousal pinned to her thigh. It was like hot silk slipping over her and she inhaled sharply at the intimacy of the contact.
“Dayton, please.”
With two fingers, he tore her underwear aside, far too ruled by desperation to remove them completely. The need Dr. Merino demonstrated for her in that moment was oddly thrilling. She felt powerful knowing she could conjure such a response from him.
The light press of him between Kenna’s legs turned her mind into a sinkhole. All thoughts disbanding on the precipice of his love. All but one.
Her hand shot out and held his wrist. “You should know that I’m not taking anything.”
“That’s okay.”
He pushed her hand aside as he pushed inside her.
She wanted to tell him to stop, that it wasn’t okay. But her lips betrayed her and her chest felt as though it would burst from bottled breath and things left unsaid as Dr. Merino drove himself into her, his movements languid and measured.
“Don’t worry,” he mumbled, trailing kisses along her shoulder and neck, where his lips threatened to bare teeth. “I’m sterile.”
Disturbed as Kenna was by the admission, her body and mind were far too relaxed to protest. A week earlier, she would’ve been disgusted. She would’ve run for the door. But now, drowning in the sea of his passion, a hot ache assailed her and she anchored her legs around his waist.
Wholly tied to their madness.
He stroked her hair as his pace grew more impassioned. She loved the juxtaposition. His delicate petting and the urgent bucking of his hips.
A thin layer of sweat coated their bodies as they gelled together, their choreography flawless amid an improvised scene. Kenna tried to stifle the moan clawing its way up her throat but he’d already noticed the slight arch of her back and arduous tilt of her head. He pulled out and his fingers sank into her not a second later, effortlessly mimicking their tempo.
“Relax,” Dr. Merino said, his voice a seductive lull. “I know what you want. Let yourself have it. Let go.”
Liquid heat pooled within her and spread like embers in a forest breeze, setting every nerve ending ablaze. Kenna was granted no time to catch her breath before he filled her once again. He pressed himself to her, chest to chest, and their hearts beat as one, his electrical impulse-induced rhythm and her natural one.
His fingertips dug into her hip and made her wince but she didn’t ask him to ease up. She was no longer afraid. And, as she met his deep thrusts, something new and enthralling alight in his eyes, Kenna wondered how she had so easily agreed to give up this earthbending affection.
To give him up.
Eyes closed, she put her hands flat against Dr. Merino’s chest and attempted to memorize the fluidity of his movements. The sweat-slicken skin.
The fire that had burned inside of her all evening was reduced to ashes and, as a single tear dissolved into her hair, she realized that it may very well have been the last time she’d touch him. See him. Speak to him.
She’d understood it with all the clarity in the world when she had hatched the plan in her apartment but clarity was hard to come by with someone buried between your thighs.
His kiss became more demanding as he fell apart and a delicious warmth spilled within Kenna.
Breathing ragged, he pressed his ear to her heart, fingers skimming her side. She played with strands of his damp hair as his whispers dissolved into the dark.
“I want to get closer to you. No matter what I do, it isn’t enough.”
Hours of coursework and the physical exertion she’d imposed upon her body soon caught up with her and she faded into sleep, Dr. Merino’s voice calling to her either in dreams or consciousness.
“Save me from this, darling.”
31
SAINT