Page 52 of Collide (The Rhapsody of Heartbeats #1)

I exhale—then drag in air and sense in the same breath. Slipping off the counter, I dart upstairs, desperate for release. Desperate to erase the lingering of what-ifs.

Pushing open my bedroom door, the hallway light spills across the bed where Alex lies flat on his back, mouth parted, chest rising, slow and deep with sleep.

Walking to him, my heart hammers, feet silent on the carpet. For a moment, I watch him, the way the sheets cling to his hips, the way one arm flops loose across the mattress.

I crawl into bed beside him, pressing my body into his, needing the warmth, the solidity, the yes I know he’ll give me without hesitation.

“Alex,” I whisper, lips brushing over his bare torso in soft, open-mouthed kisses. I’m tempted to ask him to fuck me—beg for it, even—just to drown out the thoughts of Broderick. But I won’t. I know I’ll regret it if I do it for the wrong reasons, if my heart isn’t fully in it.

Still, I need Alex to make me feel good—in the way I know only he can.

He stirs, grumbling low in his throat, shifting toward me. My fingertips trace the line of his stomach, inching lower, finding him already half-hard under the thin fabric of his briefs.

I stroke his cock—slow, coaxing—and feel him swell under my hand.

“Elena,” he rasps, voice thick with sleep and heat.

“Can I play?” I whisper, my voice trembling.

“I’m yours.”

It’s all the permission I need.

I tug the waistband of his briefs down, freeing him, greedy and eager to drown myself in something real and hot and now. Alex gasps, the sound sharp in the dark.

With the flat of my tongue, I drag a slow lick along the entire length of his shaft. His cock throbs against me, growing harder with every wet, hungry pull of my mouth. Between strokes, I pull back just enough to murmur, “Alex… touch me.”

I grab his hand and press it between my thighs.

“ Now. ”

He lets out a low, amused laugh. “Bossy little thing,” he says, his voice thick with approval.

His hand trails up my thigh, painstakingly slow, fingers slipping beneath the silk of my negligee. He hooks my panties with two fingers, pulling them down and tossing them somewhere into the dark.

Then he strokes the inside of my leg, slow at first, then firmer, the rough pads of his fingertips skating higher, closer, like he can feel how badly I need it, how close I am to unraveling already.

“Now, Alex…please,” I whimper, the words barely audible, muffled around the head of his cock as I suck him slow and greedy.

Alex groans, hips twitching under me, his hand curling tighter around my thigh.

“Fuck, Elena,” he breathes.

He tugs lightly, urging me up, pulling me toward him.

“Come here,” he says, voice rough and lazy and full of heat. “Sit on my face.”

My whole body jolts.

“What?” I gasp, mouth still full of him. “How…”

“Like this,” he growls, grabbing my hips.

In one swift motion, I’m propped on his chest, thighs straddling his shoulders, my crotch and ass mere inches from his mouth.

I gasp, heart slamming against my ribs.

Panic flickers—what if I suffocate him, what if…?

But Alex just grips my hips tighter, steady, sure, grounding me.

“You’re already so wet,” he groans, voice rough with desire. He plants a kiss on me. “I want you gushing all over my tongue—drown me in it.” He peppers kisses along my inner thigh before pulling back just enough to murmur, “Now, be a good girl and fuck my face.”

Heat flashes through me, so fierce it borders on pain.

He eases me down, his mouth finding me like he’s been starving for it. He licks the lips of my pussy so slowly it makes me sob, finally , lapping up my wetness before tapping my clit with the tip of his tongue. A sharp, wicked flick that makes my thighs tremble.

I need this.

Then he drags his tongue from my center all the way to my ass. Slowly, he swirls his tongue and licks.

Oh. My. God.

This wasn’t in the manual.

He swipes his tongue over my backdoor in gentle strokes until I nearly shatter, the sensation sending ripples of electricity shooting through me. Every thought, every fear, every almost from downstairs wiped clean in a white-hot flood of sensation. This is something else.

I’m trembling, shaking with every kiss, every filthy, perfect move of his lips and mouth.

Alex grips my hips tighter, groaning into me like he can’t get enough, like he never wants to stop. And I hope he doesn’t.

My hips have a mind of their own, grinding into his face, taking his tongue deeper, harder against every point of pleasure he’s got unrestricted access to.

His dick pulses against my palm—insistent and still begging for my mouth.

I lean forward, swallowing his cock, and we lose ourselves in each other. I spit and slurp on his head, taking him into the back of my throat, stroking his shaft, the saltiness of his precum coating my tongue. His hips thrust, meeting my every move.

Together, we’re a tangled mess of limbs and mouths.

Alex’s tongue moves with purpose now—slow, deep strokes, pushing in and out before teasing my clit with the flat of his tongue. Then he slips his tongue in my ass again, leaving no part of me untouched, every tender spot claimed. My whole body quakes above him.

His fingers dig into my hips, squeezing my ass, spreading me wide. He holds me steady, dragging me down onto his mouth—unyielding—while I writhe, overwhelmed by the sheer force of it.

I whimper around his dick, trying to keep rhythm, trying to hold on, but the fabric of my being is being ripped apart at the seams, with every stroke of his tongue.

“You taste so good,” he groans against me, the words vibrating through my core. “Sweetest fucking thing I’ve ever had.”

I moan helplessly, the sound vibrating down his shaft, making him buck up into my mouth.

“That’s it, Darling,” he murmurs, voice wrecked with need. “Use me. Fuck my mouth. Take what you need.”

His filthy words make my hips jerk against his face.

Alex groans in approval, tongue tapping harder against me, relentless now, chasing my release like it’s the only thing that matters.

I pant around him, my free hand clawing uselessly at the sheets, trying to anchor myself. I rock against him, grinding into him harder, the weight of me settling into him. He might suffocate. He might die like this. But in this moment, I don’t think he cares. Neither do I.

“Talk to me,” he rasps, voice ragged between licks. “Tell me how good I make you feel.”

I pull off him long enough to gasp, “So good, Alex—Fuck! It’s so much, you’re making me?—”

“Tell me what you want,” he growls, teeth grazing lightly over my pussy. “Tell me how bad you need me.”

His voice alone makes my pussy clench, wetter, needier, grinding down onto his mouth without thinking.

“I need you,” I cry out, frantic now, thighs shaking. “Please, Alex—Please don’t stop—I’m so close?—”

His fingers scrape against my skin, pushing me deeper into him. The sound of his muffled moans, the wet slide of my arousal—it’s all too much. It sends me over the edge.

With a strangled cry, hips bucking helplessly against his mouth, the orgasm rips through me like a tidal wave, blinding and violent, as my wetness runs down my thighs.

I shudder, collapsing against him. My legs tremble so much, he has to hold me steady.

He keeps licking me through it—slow, savoring every twitch, every aftershock—until I’m whimpering from oversensitivity.

When I finally ease down, boneless, and wrecked, I take his throbbing cock back into my mouth, yearning to give him the same undoing.

He’s so hard now, leaking against my tongue, his hips jerking up without control.

“Fuck, Elena,” he groans, voice strangled, hands fisting the sheets beside him. “Just like that. Don’t stop. You’re perfect.”

I hollow my cheeks, sliding him deep, letting him feel all of it.

His groans grow louder, desperate, until with a choked gasp, he thrusts once, twice, and spills into my mouth, thick and hot.

I take him all, tasting the salt and heat of him, not stopping until he finally slumps back against the pillows, utterly spent.

For a long moment, there’s only the sound of our breathing before we both drift off into a dreamless sleep.