Page 99

She gritted her teeth against the pain as the last bit of her barrier was torn away. He stayed there like that for a moment. And she clung to him. Waiting for the pain to become pleasure.

It didn’t take long.

It was different. Having him in this deep. So deep it was like their bodies had become one. And when he began to move inside of her, the pleasure that built was something all-encompassing. Something new and different and wonderful.

She moaned, gripping his shoulders, looking into that face. That gorgeous, familiar face that had brought hope and pleasure and this deep, unending care into her life.

She suddenly felt overwhelmed. The depth of emotion expanding inside of her was something unexpected.

Pleasure was one thing. This connection... it transcended pleasure. It was more. More than she had expected. More than she had ever hoped to experience.

His movements were measured, rebuilding the pleasure within her.

Until she was strung out on a glittering wire, suspended over all the stars.

“Bix,” he said, her name rough on his lips. And she had never liked her improbable name all that much, but broken, on Daughtry’s lips, she thought she might love it.

His movements became hard. Intense. And she lost herself. In the rhythm of it. The intensity of it. The desperation of it. She herself was wrapped all up in that glittering wire now. Everything drawn so tight she thought she might never be able to breathe again.

And then it snapped. And she cried out his name as she fell. Into that endless sea of shining stardust. It was more than a handful. It was more than anything. It was everything. All-encompassing and glorious. A moment of pure, glittering glory.

She opened her eyes and met his gaze as he thrust into her, his breath coming in short bursts, the tendons in his neck standing out. He was trying to control himself. Trying to hold on.

She lifted her head, and whispered in his ear, “Let go. Just let go.”

He groaned, his thrusts becoming wild, hard.

Pushing her over the edge again as she clung to him, as his own climax overtook him, and he came holding her hips hard, pulsing inside of her.

She let her head fall back, his name a prayer on her lips as she gave herself over in an endless surrender.

She had lost control.

She had forgotten to protect herself.

She had forgotten to hold any part of herself back.

She was replete.

She was happy.

And for the first time in her memory, she fell asleep entirely, exceedingly comfortable.

Chapter Seventeen

He looked at Bix while she slept. He waited for guilt to come, but it didn’t. He found that disquieting. Concerning. He should feel guilty. For deflowering her in quite such a spectacular fashion.

But he could feel nothing but a bone-deep satisfaction. She looked young, sleeping like that, her blond hair all in disarray. She was curled up like a child, her breathing heavy and hard.

He reached out and pushed some of that blond hair off of her forehead. She stirred. She rolled over onto her back and opened her eyes. She smiled. Sleepily. “I’m the one you use the condoms with.”

“What?”

“Oh, I wondered. That first night. I went through your drawer, obviously. And I just couldn’t imagine who you were using them with. Because you were just such a sweet, upstanding man.”

“I hope I have disabused you of that notion.”

She stretched, her arms going up over her head, her hands clenched into fists. Her perfect, round breasts moving up with the gesture.