I hooked my fingers into her underwear and slid it down her legs, tossing it to the ground. Our mouths on each other were relentless. The kiss deepened. I returned my hand to her folds, teasing her clit, circling her opening. Tabitha moaned and whimpered against my lips, tongue stroking against mine. She fisted my shirt, clinging to my shoulders, writhing beneath me. Raw power coursed through my veins. It was the confident knowledge that the woman I loved also loved me. It was a deep gratitude for the connections that brought us back together. It was her vulnerability. Her openness. That charming smile and goofy humor coaxing me back to a life filled with color.

It made every other type of power I’d felt in my life pale in comparison.

Her hands landed on the zipper of my shorts, fingers clumsy. “Now, Dean,” she begged. “I want you, here. Just like this.”

We made quick but awkward work of kicking off my shoes and tearing off my shorts. We were laughing by the end, my lips traveling over her hair, across her face. “The next time we do this,” I said, dragging my cock against her. “We will be naked. We will be in a bed. We will not be on a couch or against a door or in a shower or the back seat of a fucking truck.”

“I completely agree,” she said, still giggling until I hooked her knee high and thrust my cock deep in one fluid motion. I groaned raggedly, overwhelmed with too many sensations. I pulled back a few inches. Gave her a few slow, shallow strokes that became fast and deliberate. I drove between her legs with our lips close, kisses messy, teeth nipping at skin. She grabbed my ass, urging me faster.

“So close…so close,” she cried. Her internal walls were squeezing tight, pushing me to the brink. I reached between us to caress her clit, and she gasped.

“I love you,” I whispered.

“I love you too. I love… Yes, oh God.” Tabitha came, taking me with her, and my climax was earth-shattering and satisfying in a new and different way. We lay together, panting and sprawled on the couch. When I finally had the strength to lift my head, Tabitha was flushed and gazing at me like I was the love of her life.

“How was that astral plane?” she asked, brow raised.

Once I started laughing, I couldn’t stop. She held me like the other night, when I wasn’t happy but in agonizing pain. Both times I was in love with her. This time, we had a future to look forward to.

“You’re really staying here?” I asked.