He bared his teeth in a way that made her laugh. Then he started to thrust for real. She was holding him so tightly in the clench of her legs that he couldn’t pull out very far, but he didn’t need to. He pushed hard against her until she fell into rhythm with it, meeting his downward thrusts with urgent bucks of her hips.
He took her like that, giving her everything he had. Soon they were both grunting like animals and banging the bed against the wall in their vigor.
He loved the shameless sound of it. Loved the way the clamp of her channel was getting tighter and tighter. Loved the way her breasts and hair jiggled from the force of his thrusts. Loved the way she tossed her head, arched her neck, gasped out helpless little words that went right to his head. Yes. Please. Fitz. Harder.
She was close to coming. He could see it in her face, feel it in her body, hear it in the frantic urgency of her voice. She clawed her fingernails down his back as he thrust hard and fast.
Then she choked on a loud gasp as she shuddered through an orgasm. It looked like a really good one. It lasted a long time, and she couldn’t control the way she cried out his name or raked painful lines down his back.
The sight and feel of her coming sent him over the edge. He jerked clumsily as the pressure of climax broke hard inside him. He bit back the words that came to his throat and ducked his head to hide his expression. Because everything he felt for her was coming out with his release. All of it. All of what he wasn’t allowed to feel.
When the last of the spasms burst out of him, he collapsed for a minute, hot and exhausted and utterly replete as little aftershocks rocked him.
She was gasping just as loudly. Her legs had come unwound from his waist. “God. Oh God. Oh God, Fitz.” She was caressing the scratches she’d made in his skin.
When he recovered enough to find the energy to raise his head, he lifted up to meet her eyes. She smiled at him, and he couldn’t help but smile back.
“The condom is going to start leaking soon,” she told him.
“I know. I’m taking care of it.” He wasn’t at the moment, but he managed to do it soon enough. When he’d thrown it away, he got back into bed to kiss her again. The passion had overtaken them fast and hard, and he wasn’t ready for it to disappear yet.
“Are you still going?” she asked him, pulling out of the kiss after he’d deepened it with his tongue.
“You got a problem with that?”
“No. I’m just impressed with your stamina.”
“Well, it’s going to be a while before I’m entirely ready to go again, but I’m sure we can find something to do in the meantime.”
Her eyes brightened in surprise. “Really?”
“Of course really.” He kissed her again. Then he spent a long time caressing her. Turning her on again until she was squirming and begging. Making her come with his fingers and mouth. By then he was hard, so they tried out a few different positions until he discovered she liked it best on her hands and knees with him behind her. So he took her that way until she came again, even louder and messier than before. Only then did he let himself come.
They collapsed afterward, exhausted and fully sated.
Fitz’s mind was a hot haze of satisfaction, and he managed to ignore the warning voice underneath it, reminding him that he couldn’t have this. Not for real.
There was a tidal wave of reality waiting, always lurking at the edges of his mind.
But for right now he could ignore it.
At least for tonight.
Seven
BELINDA HAD NO INTENTIONS of falling asleep in Fitz’s very small bed. If they were fully pressed up against each other, there was room for both of them, but the size certainly wasn’t conducive to two people sleeping comfortably.
But she felt so good—and so worn out—after sex that she dozed off anyway for a couple of hours. Then she woke up hot and sticky and a little sore and confused about why she was cuddled up with a bear.
It didn’t take long for her mind to process the situation. Where she was. What she’d done. Who she’d done it with.
Her first instinct was a sheepish kind of pride. Then hot satisfaction. And only then did a little quiver of anxiety creep in.
Had she really just had sex with Fitz? Fitz?
She pulled away from his chest, withdrawing against the strong arm he had wrapped around her. He grunted as she moved—a sleepy kind of sound—but then he must have woken up too because he pulled his arm back and readjusted as she sat up.
She wasn’t wearing any clothes. She couldn’t believe she was naked, and Fitz was in bed with her, watching her sit up and smooth back her messy hair. His blue eyes were on her face, occasionally slipping down to her bare breasts.
Since he wasn’t saying anything, she did. “Well, that was... unexpected.” She reached down to the floor for her bra and top.
He gave a soft, one-syllable laugh. “Definitely unexpected. But good.”
“Yes,” she admitted, hooking her bra and then reaching to pull her panties out of the tangle of fabric her leggings had become. “It was really good. I hadn’t realized you’d be quite so impressive in the bedroom.”
“I’m full of surprises.”
She shot him a quick look, but his expression was bland. Relaxed. His eyes were warm on her face in a way that gave her a delicious shiver.
She put her sweater on and then worked on dragging her leggings up her legs. They really were a ridiculous piece of clothing. She had to search to find both her socks, but eventually she was fully dressed.
It was two thirty in the morning, and she was sitting on the edge of Fitz’s bed. What was she supposed to do now? He wasn’t saying much, and she really wished he would give her a hint about what he thought had just happened and what he wanted to happen now.
How were women supposed to navigate these murky waters? She had no experience in this at all.
She was a type A personality. An all-the-way J on Myers-Briggs. She liked decisions made. Puzzles solved. Questions answered. She’d rather embarrass herself than leave this room confused.
So she looked over at Fitz and said, “So what... what just happened?”
His eyebrows arched.
“You know what I mean,” she said. “What are we supposed to do about this now?”
“I don’t know,” he replied slowly, sitting up on the bed. “Honestly, I have no idea. I didn’t expect this to happen.”
“Me either.” She stared down at her hands, which were twisting in her lap. “I’ve never had sex out of the blue like this before. I mean, I’ve only had sex with two other guys, and we were sort of dating at the time.”
“Sort of?” He scooted over to drop his legs over the side of the bed so he was sitting beside her. “How do you sort of date someone?”
“I don’t know. I guess we were dating. But it didn’t feel...” She sighed, wondering how she’d stumbled into this confession. “With both of them, I was the one who kept initiating things. They went along with it. I mean, they were both decent guys, and I liked them, and I guess they liked me well enough to go out with me and sleep with me. But I kept expecting them to take steps forward, and they never did. And eventually I gave up because I wanted them to... to want me enough to take initiative. It’s kind of embarrassing that both relationships happened in the same way. What does that say about me?”