It was the culmination of everything. He couldn’t explain that feeling. But it was real. As real as the sunrise, as real as the sunset. As real as all the freckles on her nose.

So he cupped the back of her head, sliding his thumb along her cheekbone. And slowly, very slowly, he leaned in and pressed her mouth to his.

CHAPTER SEVEN

SHE THOUGHT THAT she might drown. The sensations that were washing through her body were too much to comprehend. She had thought about kissing before. But she hadn’t known that it would be like this. All of this. The scent of his skin, freshly cleaned, the scrape of his stubble against her face. The sound of his breath, so close to her, and the feel of it, hot on her lips.

His touch, so rough and masculine, a sharp contrast to the way he’d held her just before. All leashed strength, in a gentle hold.

And she had seen him, all of him in the shower. Hadn’t gotten a very good glimpse of... Everything. But she had seen that muscular backside, his strong thighs. He was everything. And she wanted him.

Did it matter if it was right? Did it matter if there was a future? How could the future matter at all if she couldn’t get through this moment? And she thought that she might die if she couldn’t kiss him. She couldn’t have him. She was consumed with it. And thank God his mouth was now on hers, and he was kissing her, deep and hard and rough, and giving no quarter to her inexperience, his tongue dipping deep, his mouth ravenous on hers, and it was what she needed.

Because she had been denied so many experiences in her life, and much like the TV watching, she just wanted to jump in the deep end. Later, later maybe she would refine. She would figure out exactly what she liked and what she wanted. But right now she was just hungry for everything. For all. Right now she was hungry for him. She ran her hands down his chest, and he was so hot and rough and muscled, she just groaned with her need of it.

“I... I didn’t know,” she said, before kissing him again.

And he lifted her up off the couch, sliding his hands down to cup her butt, then lower still, gripping her thighs and wrapping her legs around his waist as he carried her back down toward the hall, toward her bedroom.

He pulled her sweater up over her head and then started on her jeans, and she forgot to feel embarrassed. She forgot to feel anything but need. Maybe it was simply because... She’d had a bellyful of shame for most of her life, and now she just wanted to be. She just wanted to be Tala. And everything that she felt. Everything that she was. She was tired of closing down all of her needs.

She was tired of being only part of what she was.