“Yeah.”

“I’m really nervous.”

“Me, too,” he admitted as he pushed open his bedroom door and set her on his bed. He flicked on his bedside light, the one that cast the striped pattern of shadow all across the room. She was alternate shades of yellow and blue in the funky lighting as she knelt there, naked down to her underwear. Brooklyn was shut out by the blinds. There was no one but the two of them in the world. He sucked in a breath as he looked at her. Just looked at her kneeling there, waiting for him with her knees spread apart and one hand on the bed.

“Really?” She looked surprised by his answer and relieved all at once.

“Of course, Via.” He shucked his jeans down, kicking them off one foot at a time. He wondered what sex with Evan had been like for her. Not in a jealous way, really, but in a sad way. The way she was looking at him made him think that she had some very specific ideas about sex. Maybe some nonrealistic ones. “I’m about to finally touch a woman I’ve been crushing on for so long. That would make anyone nervous.”

Her eyes were on his underwear, and, he was sure, on his very obvious arousal for her. She glanced up at him and licked her lips, her eyes wide windows.

“Via.” He waited until he had her gaze, her full attention. But then he found that he didn’t really have anything left to say. Anything left was for their bodies to do.

Seb knelt in front of her and reached out for her ankles. He brought them forward so her legs hung off the bed. And that’s just where he started. First it was his hands over her feet. He traced her arches, her ankles, he even screwed a finger in between her toes and made her giggle.

Next, he circled her calves, traced the back of her knee. He used two hands apiece on her thighs and touched every inch of her legs. Then each hip. Her belly button. He laid her back and pressed his hot palms to her breasts, but he didn’t let himself get sidetracked. He laced one arm over her head and then the other. His fingers traced over her armpits, which made her shiver, and up to her elbows. Every one of his fingers touched every one of hers. His hands slicked up her throat before he turned her on her stomach. Sebastian dragged his palms over every slice of her back, tracing the shadows from the lamp. And then down into her rosy underwear and over her ass. When he turned her back to her side and lay on his as well, he buried his fingers in her hair. He touched her entire scalp and then the shells of her ears. Next were her eyebrows, her eyelashes, her eyelids. He walked his fingers down her nose and traced her lips.

“Sebastian,” she whispered, and her lips trembled.