“I missed you, Race. I want you to take care of me. Just do it this way instead.”

The argument I had about her being hurt got lost when she kissed me like we had been apart for months and not just a long couple of days or so. I let myself fall into her lips, into the seduction of her tongue as she coaxed mine to dance. I hopelessly gave in to the demand of her teeth when she used them to make her wants and needs clear. I put my hands on the curve of her hips and used the leverage I had to move us both to the center of the bed, her hands grasping at me the entire time like she was afraid I was going somewhere. She was almost naked and underneath me; there was nowhere else in the entire world I ever wanted to be.

I wrestled her top off over her head, careful of the delicate skin on the back of her head, and let her grapple with my jeans until she had them open and was using both her hands and her feet to get them out of her way. I grinned at her and climbed up onto my knees so I could strip the rest of them way, and felt my heart turn over when she used her index finger to dip into the dimple on my cheek. She smiled up at me as I hooked my fingers under the edge of her panties and started to work them down her legs. She would always be my absolute favorite present to unwrap.

“You’re something else, Race Hartman.”

Her stomach dipped and quivered a little when I bent my head and stuck the tip of my tongue into the concave little divot of her belly button.

“I was just thinking the same thing about you.”

I had to be mindful that she was fragile, breakable, and all too human. I couldn’t unleash on her all the things I normally did when I took her to bed. Normally she was my port in the storm while everything raged around us, but tonight she needed care, she needed delicacy and for me to show her she was safe with me.

I trailed my tongue down from her belly button and across the jutting ridge of her hipbone as she squirmed impatiently underneath me. She already had her legs open to accommodate where I was sprawled between them, so it was no work to get my mouth on all the parts of her that were already wet and slick with desire. I loved that she was as ready for me as I always seemed to be for her. There was passion, there was hunger, there was desire that made my balls tight and had my mouth watering for a taste of her.

She gasped my name at the first swipe of my tongue through her folds. Her fingers locked in a painful grip on my ears when I used my shoulders to move her legs farther apart so I could add my hands to the mix. I heard her whimper but was so focused on what I was doing, so drunk on the way she just melted into my mouth, that I didn’t stop to think if it was a sound of pleasure or pain. Her inner walls pulled at my fingers, her clit pulsed as I snagged it with the edge of my teeth, and her thighs shifted restlessly against my head as she moved with my caress. I felt her insides get tight, felt the moisture gathering against my fingertips, and ate her up as she broke over the crest while saying my name on a sobbing breath. If I was lucky enough to get her to react like that for the rest of my life, I would take all the other shit my life threw at me on a daily basis with a smile.

Her legs went slack over my shoulders and I pulled them down along my sides as I crawled back up over her. I stopped along the way to suck each of her pretty, pink nipples into my mouth and to nuzzle into the beautiful curve of her neck. My dick was rock hard, my balls were achy, and all I wanted to do was sink into her and stay there forever and ever. I held myself up over her on braced arms and waited until those sky-blue eyes peeled open and locked onto me. She had a hot flush on her cheeks and a soft smile on her mouth, and never had anything looked more beautiful. I would give up any fortune, fight any war, and bleed over and over again if she was my reward.

She ran her hands up and down my ribs and curled her legs back up around my waist. She used her hold on me to pull herself up so that just the tip of my straining erection slid through her welcoming heat.

“I need you.”

Her voice was husky and a little broken. I put one of my hands under her and clasped the curve of her ass and held her to me as I slowly allowed myself to settle into the cradle of her legs. As we both sank back onto the mattress, I found her mouth with my own and whispered to her:

“I need you too, Bry.”

I kissed her with everything I had, let her feel my heart in it, let her know with my mouth that she was the end of the road for me. There was nothing else beyond her. And then as I started to move, thrusting inside of her, moving against her, I used my tongue to mimic what the lower half of my body was doing, which had her writhing against me and digging her fingernails into the skin of my shoulders. I wanted to drive into her, to fuck her like I normally did, but I didn’t want to hurt her, and even through the pleasure, the hot and sexy burn of the blue in her gaze, there was a shadow of discomfort that kept me firmly in check. Her head was probably killing her.