Peeling off my wet jeans was awkward and humiliating.
Or it should have been. It would have been if Derek looked at me any differently than how he was looking at me now.
But he looked at me with that mixture of delighted surprise and desperate wanting. He only watched. That was it. But he watched with such careful focus that something as mundane as taking off my wet clothes became the most erotically charged thing I’d ever done.
My breath came faster. A rush of warmth spilled into my veins. His heavy-lidded eyes seemed connected straight to my core, so just the expression on his face was enough to ignite a throbbing pulse in my center.
When I was completely naked, we both let out a long, shuddering breath. Like a simultaneous release.
“Where?”
He licked his lips. “Here.”
Heart hammering in my chest, I approached the bed. Derek still didn’t reach for me, but his fingers curled until he’d gripped the down comforter in both fists. A tremor ran up his arms.
I crawled up to his chest and then rocked back on my knees. I was opened wide. Exposed. The sensation of cool air against that secret place made me shiver. I’d been nude in front of him before.
But I had never felt this naked.
Derek’s arm twitched, but he didn’t move. His incredible self-control helped me feel bolder.
I scooted higher and tilted my hips.
“Ahhh.” His groan of relief when his tongue found my center vibrated right through me.
Warmth fizzed through my veins and I fell forward to grip the headboard. “There, oh my God, there!”
He reached for me for the very first time. Strong hands gripped my thighs and held me right there, in the place I’d just begged him to stay. And his touch made what he was doing to me all the more intense. I was melting, liquefied, my whole body dissolved into a puddle.
I rocked back and forth, grinding against his eager tongue, and he let me. He let me control everything, fast and slow, hard and gentle. I fell back, desperately reaching for something to hold on to before my strength left me, and as I did, my fingers brushed against his arching hips.
He was hard. So hard he was fucking the air in the same rhythm he used to fuck me with his tongue. The shattering realization of just how much he wanted to do this, just how much he got off on getting me off was what tipped me over the precipice.
My eyes flew open in shock.
And then I came harder than I’d ever thought possible.
I transformed. I fell to pieces and became brand new. My wind-whipped cheeks, the scratch from the airbag, the purpling bruise on my shoulder, they all faded away and I was a new Aria Jane.
“Jesus, Derek!” I cried.
His eyes were nearly black with desire. “Yes, talk to me, I want to hear.”
“It’s…!”
“Tell me.”
“It’s so good,” I babbled. “So good.”
“Christ, you have no idea how good you taste,” he groaned as he drove his tongue deeper. “I can feel you ready to come again. You’re so swollen and tight, baby. Do you feel that?”
I felt it. I’d barely recovered from the first orgasm, but another one was already building. He was playing my body like a virtuoso musician, plucking the strings of love and ecstasy and the feeling was overwhelming.
Completely overwhelming.
It was too much
With a cry, I arched away from him. “Too much!” I cried.
And then burst into shocked tears.
Derek pushed himself onto his elbows. “Baby? Did I hurt you?”
“Don’t look at me.” I shifted until my back was to him.
“Okay.” He drew in a long, ragged breath. “But I’m going to go get you some water, okay?”
The mattress dipped and then rose. I hugged my knees up tighter to my chest.
Tears were falling and I had no idea why. I’d felt good, better than I’d ever felt in my life.
Why the hell did I pull back?
A glass of water hovered in front of my gaze. After a breath, I accepted it.
The mattress dipped again.
“I’m looking at the wall,” Derek announced.
I pressed my lips together.
“Why didn’t you tell me that picture was askew?”
A small snort escaped my mouth.
“I should paint.”
I burst out laughing. Buoyed up by a rush of gratitude, I crawled to the edge of the bed and wrapped my arms around him from behind.
He sought my hand and twined our fingers together. I pressed myself against his back and rested my head on his shoulder.
“Can I look at you yet?” he wanted to know.
“Wait,” I sighed. “Just… let me hold you?”
“I don’t think I’ve ever been the little spoon,” he mused. “This is nice.”
I laughed again and buried my nose into his neck, then sighed. “I have no idea what that was.”
“Are you okay now?”
“Yeah.”
He went still. His hand fell to his lap. I brushed my fingers across his chest and felt that even his heart had rate slowed. It was like he’d suddenly become a statue under my hands. His silence stretched out for so long, I made to pull away.
But he reached up and gripped my fingers to keep me close. “Do you want to know what I think happened?”
I swallowed and nodded against his shoulder.
“I might be wrong. Hell, I’m wrong a lot. But I know what it’s like to think you don’t deserve to feel good.” He squeezed my hand.
I buried my nose in his neck again and inhaled his scent. A tear slipped from my cheek and ran down his back. “You feel that way too?”
“I’m trying real hard to believe I deserve this, Aria. Because I’ve honestly never been so happy.”
“Look at me.” I knelt up higher.
He turned and I caught his face between my hands. “Me neither,” I said as I kissed him.