Brody bent, reaching beneath me to unclasp my bra. He tugged it free, allowing his fingers to trail over my skin as he did. That barest touch sent sensation crackling across my skin, waking up every nerve ending with the promise of what was to come.

Brody’s thumbs hooked on the sides of my panties, dragging them down so slowly I thought I might scream. I lifted my legs as if to hurry him along, but I should’ve known that Brody wouldn’t bend to my silent demands.

“I’m taking my time. Looking my fill so I can commit this to memory. I’d paint your face just like this. Need coloring your cheeks. But I don’t want to share this view with anyone.” With one final flick of his wrist, he tossed the last bit of lace to the floor.

He pulled open the drawer in his nightstand and pulled out a small packet. I watched in fascination as he rolled the condom over himself, my stomach hollowing. Brody trailed his hands up my thighs, a finger dipping into my core. Teasing, testing. His eyes grew hotter, and my breath caught in my throat.

“I want to feel you.” The words didn’t even sound as if they belonged to me. They were from some stranger inhabiting my body. But I didn’t care one bit.

His tip bumped against my entrance. “You’re sure?”

“Please.”

He entered me in one slow stroke. My breath caught, my lungs stilling. The stretch, the fullness, the slightest bite of pain. Brody’s hand cupped my cheek. “Too much?”

“Perfect.” And it was. Everything about the feeling was what I needed to reinforce that I was alive.

As Brody slowly began moving, gliding in and out, every sensation melted, transforming into warmth and want. My legs hooked around his hips as my hands found his shoulders, his neck. Every movement I made begged for more, deeper. I wanted to feel him everywhere.

With one angle of Brody’s hips, he gave me just that. The hum that our bodies created together radiated to every muscle and synapse. I wasn’t sure I could take much more. I’d never felt this much all at once. And with a brush of his roughened thumb across my clit, I found I couldn’t.

All that sensation collapsed in on itself and then exploded out again, a shower of sparks from my very center cascading across the rest of me. Light danced across my darkened vision. And no part of me doubted that I was here. Breathing. Alive.

27

Brody