Page 179 of Broken Brothers

Now, there was officially nothing to stop us from having sex.

“Just make love to me, Chance,” she said. “I want you to feel it as I feel it.”

It was so sweet and so kind, I couldn’t find the words to say so. So I just positioned myself right over her pussy, hovering, gently sliding up and down her clit as she let out more gentle cries of intensity.

After a few seconds of this, I decided enough was enough. I put myself inside her, going inch by inch, hearing her let out gasps of moans as I fill her until I could go no deeper. I just hovered there for a second, appreciating this moment, realizing what it meant.

This girl…

I liked her.

I really, really liked her.

So much so, in fact…

“Oh, Layla,” I said as I very gradually picked up a rhythm.

The rhythm was nothing more than to make sure I wasn’t just stationary inside of her. I wanted to take the full Layla in right now—no makeup, no emotional shields, no pretense of erotic dates. I just wanted Layla in her full natural, waking state.

“Chance,” she said breathlessly.

We lost ourselves into each other’s eyes, as if falling into a portal into the other’s soul. I saw Layla’s pain, but also her joy—I saw the feelings she had about her family, but also of me. I saw how she felt about leaving her uncle’s family, but also the stress she had from leaving her secure job. I saw her fears and her hopes, her past and her desired future, and everything in between.

It was unlike anything I had ever had. It was a little terrifying to realize just how much I could pick up from a moment like this, but it was also incredibly uplifting to know that Layla had this much soul to her.

Slowly, I started to pick up the pace, in part because I was scared of going too deep into her soul at the moment and part just because of the physical sensation, but I knew that this wouldn’t be the last time that I dove so deeply into her like this. The moment was just too profound and too… dare I say special for me to not want to pick it back up.

The sex that followed was nothing special physically, but I couldn’t shake the feeling—not that I wanted to—that it truly was the best sex I had ever had. It didn’t feel like I, Chance Givens, was having sex with Layla Taylor. It felt like we were one entity, bonded together in this moment. Even though I had pulled myself back from gazing too deeply into her eyes, I still felt that the connection had been made, and it would be all but impossible to shake it.

I shuddered when I realized some time later—it all went by in a blur, frankly, given the emotional rush of it—that I was very, very, very close to coming. In that moment, Layla was on top of me, leaning forward, and I was thrusting into her.

“Layla, I’m so close,” I said.

She positioned her head by my neck and kissed me gently. The rush of a release that came… it was indescribable. I held on to Layla for dear life as it felt like I was pouring my entire life into her, a sort of placement of a part of me inside of her. My arms wrapped around and held her close, very much living up to the idea of just one entity between the two of us.

I collapsed into her, giving some minor thanks that I was not looking her in the eye for how emotional and overwhelmed I felt in that moment. The world might be going to shit around me and my brother might have abandoned me, but no one couldfake what I had just felt with Layla. I had her, at least, and there wasn’t anything that seemed to change that.

“Oh my God…” Layla said in awe, as if she had actually just seen God. “Chance…”

“I know,” I said, adding nothing more.

Layla then slowly got off of me, but that was only so she could then get to the side and cuddle with me. For what felt like a nap’s worth of time, we didn’t say anything, just being two people who, dare I say it, loved each other and wanting to stay close in a turbulent time in the world. I didn’t see anything wrong with it, and I would fight anyone who dared to fucking argue with that point.

“Would you do that again?” Layla finally said, barely having the strength to lift her head.

I gently brushed her hair as I spoke to her.

“Of course,” I said. “You’re the one thing stable in my life.”

“Baby,” she said, kissing my chest and then looking at me before kissing my lips.

I let out a long sigh when she finished, tilting my head to the ceiling and closing my eyes.

“Just hold tight. I promise things will get better soon.”

Wait. What?

I looked up at her as I realized that those were the exact same goddamn words that Morgan had said to me at the coffee shop.