I stuttered out a “thank you” that I wasn’t even sure he heard. His hands were planted on either side of my waist, and he was staring at me like he’d never seen me before, but he was still in his pants. That didn’t seem right, so I sat up, pressing my hot face into the space between his neck and shoulder. My fingers fumbled along the band of his pants, and he drew back, giving me access.

I tugged on them and he leaned over, helping me get them down his thighs. He took over at that point, which was good, because I had no idea how I was going to get them down his long legs without sticking my butt up in the air. When he was in nothing more than a pair of black boxer briefs, I felt like my tongue would loll out of my mouth. I could see the length of him straining against the material.

His hand curved under my chin, lifting my gaze. Our eyes met. There was something soft in his gaze, something I doubted many people had ever been on the receiving end of.

Biting down on my lip, I reached again for him. His hand left my chin, folding over my wrist before I could get hold of his boxers. Startled, my gaze rose to his again.

He was still looking at me in that way. “Unless I’m totally way off, there’s something I think you should be telling me.”

“What?” That I was about to come out of my skin?

Seth dipped his head, kissing my bare shoulder as he drew my hand to him, pressing my palm against his length. I gasped at the heat that seeped through the material, and he groaned. “Josie, have you ever touched a guy like this?”

My fingers closed around him, and his hips jerked forward. He slid my hand up the long length as he lifted his head, kissing the corner of my mouth. “Josie…’

“No,” I whispered, tightening my hand around him, through the briefs. “I’ve never…been with anyone before.”

He shuddered as he lifted his head, his gaze snaring me. “And you’re going to give me that?”

“Yes.” And I nodded, just in case he was confused.

Pulling my hand away, he rose, slanting his head to kiss me deeply as he pushed me onto my back, with his weight draped over me. “I’ve never had anything that was my own,” he said against my mouth. “Nothing that was ever for just me and no one else. I’ve never been anyone’s first.” He kissed me and then lifted his head. I stared into his eyes. “I’ve never been anyone’s only.”

That made my heart ache for him as I raised my hand, pressing my palm against his cheek. “You’re my first,” I whispered. “You’re…you’re my only.”

His lips parted. “You can’t say that and not mean it.”

I held his gaze as my chest swelled. “I mean it.”

He smoothed his thumb over my lip. “I really am a lucky son of a bitch.”

Before I could process that, his mouth replaced his thumb. It was like those words had formed some kind of unbreakable bond, and that kiss sealed it. Like we were making our own prophecy, our own fate that couldn’t be unwritten.

“We aren’t going to do this,” he said.

My eyes flew open. “What?”

He laughed softly and then groaned. “Yeah, I can’t even believe I’m saying that, but there’re other firsts I want from you. Other things that I want as mine before we move to that.”

“But—”

“That’s what I want,” he told me as he shifted, sliding his hand down my stomach, between my thighs. “This is what I want.” His hand folded over me, and my hips rose. “And there are a lot of ways I want it. A lot of ways I’m going to make it mine.”

Oh geez.

He slipped a finger through the wetness and then inside me. My entire body tensed, and as he began to move his finger slowly, he watched me. “That’s one of the ways.”

“Seth.”

His eyes flared bright and he did something with his hand that caused my head to kick back and my breath to come out in short, quick pants. “You’re so beautiful like this,” he said, twisting so that his gaze dragged down the length of me, to where his hand was. “You have no idea.”

My hips were moving in rhythm to his hand, and the sounds that were coming out of my mouth would probably embarrass me later, but right then, I couldn’t care less. I threaded my other hand through his hair.

“There’s another first I want.”

The smile that appeared on his face was nothing short of sinful. I caught a glimpse of it before he kissed me deeply and then worked his way down, lingering in some areas more than others. He kissed a path around my belly button and then slipped his tongue in, and by then my hips were grinding against his hand. I was so close that, when he pulled his hand away, I cried out.

And then he kissed me where his hand had been.

“Seth,” I hissed, my fingers tightening in his hair. “I…I’ve never done this either.”

“Figured that, Josie.”

“But, seriously, I haven’t—”

“I know. And it’s all mine,” he said. “Relax.”

I couldn’t relax for a thousand reasons. He was between my legs, his breath warm against my thigh as he blazed a path to my center. When his mouth closed over me, heat flooded my veins and he made a sound that reminded me of a man starved.

“So fucking sweet,” he said.

My heart doubled its beat as he kissed me just like he’d kissed my mouth. Slow and soft at first, and then deeper and wetter and hotter until I was squirming so much that he placed a hand on my lower stomach, holding me, guiding my hips to match the thrusts of his tongue. Sensation pounded through me, intense and beautiful. I didn’t think how intimate this was, but instead I reveled in how perfect it was with him.