“Please,” he strangled out. “Please let me touch you. Please.” His body trembled beneath me as he repeated the same words over and over, until they melted into a continuous, pleading whine. “Please, please, please, please, please…”

God, he was shaking.

I pulled back slightly, my breath uneven.

Running my fingers along the back of his neck, I whispered, “And if I say no?”

Blake’s fingers flexed again, his body stiff beneath mine. “Then I’ll sit here and suffer.” His voice was hoarse, wrecked. “I’m yours. Do whatever you want with me.”

Something wicked curled inside me.

I pretended to consider for a long, torturous moment.

A soft sound escaped his throat—something that sounded a hell of a lot like a whimper. Squeezing his eyes shut, he muttered, “God help me,” under his breath.

Smiling, I dragged my nails down his chest, feeling the way his muscles tensed beneath my fingertips. A shiver ran through him when I paused at the waistband of his sweatpants.

“You’re so pretty when you beg,” I said as Blake let out another choked sound. I took his hands, prying his fingers open one by one. Then, slowly, I guided them to my thighs, placing them exactly where I wanted them. “Is this what you wanted?” I asked, tracing slow circles over the back of his hands with my thumbs.

Blake sucked in a shaky breath and spread his fingers against my jeans, his grip featherlight, as if he were afraid I’d change my mind and take the privilege away.

His throat bobbed as he swallowed hard. “Thank⁠—”

I cut him off with a kiss, swallowing his words. It was the kind of kiss that felt like falling and landing all at once. The kind of kiss that tasted like every missed chance and every moment that had led us here. His hands found my waist, and mine curled into his shirt.

He kissed me back with the desperation of a man on the brink of death, convinced that the key to immortality was hidden in that single kiss. “Please,” he gasped. “Don’t stop, B⁠—”

I rolled my hips again, and this time, his breath hitched so violently that I thought he might actually pass out. Another soft whimper left his throat, muffled against my mouth as his body trembled beneath me. One of his hands tangled in my hair, while the other gripped my hip so tightly it would bruise.

I grazed his bottom lip with my teeth, tasting salt.

“You really love me, huh?”