“When you died, you did not beg, you did not scream, and you did not speak curses into the world. You just accepted the end. I was so angry with you, and it would take years to forgive you, to realize what you had done—what you had seen.”

I continued to caress her cheek.

“I grieve that I did not realize it sooner, that I spent so much time feeling such resentment when I could have continued to worship your memory.”

I had never admitted this aloud. I had barely let myself acknowledge that I’d had such feelings. They were what made me feel like a monster, what made me feel like I had betrayed her.

But if she felt that way, she did not say. She was quiet and took my face into her hands, pulling me to her.

Our lips crashed together, and once again she was the focus of my world.

I began my slow descent down her body, kissing every part of her—each dip and curve, each dimple and scar. As I moved along, letting my lips linger, my tongue taste, her body responded, tensing with anticipation and easing with relief. She made my cock pulse; she made my mouth water, and I was eager to taste her heat, knowing she would be warm and wet.

I pushed her legs apart even farther and took her swollen clit into my mouth, sucking and licking. Her breath caught in her throat, and she arched her back, pressing her hips into the bed, her thighs clenching around me. I dug my fingers into her skin, holding her in place as I licked at her entrance. She was slick and silken, and I suddenly preferred to drown in this.

“Sit on my face,” I said, drawing myself up.

We switched places, and I grinned as she straddled me.

“Fuck.” I looped my arms around her thighs. “Yes.”

I buried my face inside her.

A guttural sound escaped from her mouth, and I watched her as she reached out to steady herself, gripping the headboard. Her breasts bobbed as she began grinding into my mouth.

“Ah, fuck,” she inhaled, a hissing breath, and suddenly she did not seem to know what to do with her hands. They moved from the headboard to her breasts, squeezing as she sought desperate relief, and I was eager to give it.

Her moans gave way to keen cries and then her fingers tangled in my hair as her body seized and she stared down at me as she came.

She shifted to lay atop me, breathing hard, body sated and warm and perfect. Then she pressed a kiss to my chest and sat up, straddling my stomach, and my whole body tightened at the thought of being inside her. I thrust my hips, and she shifted down so her slick heat coated my cock.

She laughed and bent, her face hovering over mine.

“Do you want to fuck me?”