He’d waited so long that when this moment finally came, he couldn’t pretend that he wasn’t electrified by the way her small body felt at his literal fingertips. On the one hand, he wanted to savor every small touch, every brush of his skin against hers, the smell of her, the taste of her. Alejandro loved lists, and the one that encapsulated everything he wanted to do with Deja was his longest yet, and he wanted to take his time ticking each entry — each part of her body — off it. On the other hand, his head was light with desire, and his blood was pounding in his veins as it headed south toward his groin, and he didn’t want to take his time; there was no more time to waste.

But above all else, Alejandro wanted Deja to set the pace of this encounter. He hadn’t waited for all this time just to fuck it up by moving too fast or too slow.

She turned in his arms, and her hip dragged across his painfully hard dick; the sensation was amazing. He just barely stifled a moan, but he couldn’t stop the smile spreading across his lips now that he could finally knew for sure what she felt like and didn’t have to guess. He let his hands move roughly over her hips and up her ribs and then curled them so he could run the backs of his fingers up her arms and across her shoulders. And then he lightly cupped the sides of her face with his palms. Finally.

Her eyes were on his chest, and she licked her lips nervously.

Alejandro used the small reserve of patience he still had to give them both a bit of space. He wanted to pull her to him, but he stopped and held her face in his hands, waiting for their panting breaths to subside.

While he waited, he took Deja in, watching her with the kind of intensity he normally tried to hide. He’d spent a year wanting more and more of Deja Evans, and he calmed himself knowing that he would get just that soon enough, so he catalogued all the parts of her he hadn’t noticed before. The elegant curve and rounded tip of her nose, her fluttering eyelashes, the soft planes of her cheeks, and the slow, wet path of her bright pink tongue as it darted out to taste her lips; Deja never disappointed. He licked his own lips, hungry to follow her example and taste her lips with his own tongue. And then it dawned on him that he could. Alejandro slowly moved his thumb along her jaw to the deep curve of her bottom lip. He caressed it reverently, a silent promise that he would touch her in this exact way if she wanted, if she let him.