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I leaned in again, mouth brushing hers, my breath skating across her lips.

“You’re beautiful, Sass,” I murmured, hands gliding up her sides, thumbs tracing the underside of her breasts.

Her lips parted, a shaky breath escaping—and I caught it with my mouth, swallowing the sound as I kissed her again. Rougher

I wanted her so badly I could’ve split the mattress clean in half with my dick.

My body ached with it, hard and straining, my restraint fraying by the second.

Holding back felt like walking a razor’s edge between instinct and discipline—and one wrong move, one sound, one breathy plea, and I was gone.

And once I started, I wouldn’t stop.

Once I let myself have her, really have her, it wouldn’t be one stolen moment. It would be a reckoning. All the nights I’d spent wound up in my sheets, eyes on the ceiling, imagining her—writhing, breathless, begging for me.

Which was exactly why I had to keep my damn head.

Not to mention, we were in her parents’ house, and though they loved me like their own, I was pretty sure they wouldn’t be thrilled about me making their daughter scream my name while I fucked her so hard, I rattled picture frames off the walls.

Still... I needed a taste.

I dropped my mouth to her throat, planting a slow, open-mouthed kiss against that spot where her neck met her shoulder.

She tasted like warmth and want and something sweeter than I deserved.

My tongue dragged across her skin, and she gasped, her nails digging into my shoulders like she didn’t know if she was pulling me closer or pushing me over the edge.

I didn’t give her time to decide.

My fingers slid down, hooking into the waistband of her cream shorts. I dragged them down inch by inch with her underwear, exposing skin that made my vision blur. Her head fell back against the pillow, eyes on me.

I trailed kisses down her collarbone, slow and biting. Enough to make her arch into me. I shoved the thin straps of her bra off her shoulders, savoring the way she trembled under each inch of skin I uncovered.

“Rye…” she breathed, my name breaking apart in her throat.

“Shh.” I kissed the top of her breast and unhooked the bra, pulling it off. “I’m not going anywhere.”

Not tonight. Not ever.

Her nipples pebbled from the chill, and I put one into my mouth, sucking slowly, teasing it with my tongue. Her moans cracked, her fingers lacing through my hair and dragging me closer.

I let her—until I was the one in control again, flicking my tongue, then sucking harder. She moaned softly, her grip loosening enough for me to do the other. Her tits truly were perfection, round and filled my hands.

But it wasn’t enough.

I kissed my way lower, across the slope of her ribs, her stomach, every inch of her shaking.

Her thighs were already tense around me.

Her scent coiled in my head, wrapping around everything.

I kissed her just above the navel, then dipped lower.

My hands gripping her hips to hold her still as she squirmed.

“Yes…” she whispered, voice wrecked.

I grinned, then looked at my late-night meal.

“Fuck, Sass…” I rasped. I would never get over seeing her like this. She had the smallest, neat triangle of her hair—trimmed, perfect—but the rest of her was smooth as glass.

She tried to close her legs, shy, but I wasn’t letting her hide. I slid my hands up, spreading her wide. My thumbs stroked the insides of her thighs, mouth brushing over soft skin.

I pulled back just enough to meet her eyes. “Want my mouth on you, baby?”

“Yes, please,” she panted.

“You can do better than that. Beg for it, Sass,” urged, voice low.

She froze, just for a breath.

Then her lips parted, her brows pulling together like she wanted to give me what I asked for, but couldn’t. “I… I don’t know how.”

My chest tightened.

Of course, she didn’t. She’d never had this.

Ashton couldn’t have pulled this out of her if he tried.

He never deserved her softness, or the part of her that burned quietly behind her eyes like a hidden wildfire.

I leaned up, my lips brushing hers in reassurance.

“Nothing you say could ever be wrong. You just have to be honest.” I looked down, seeing how wet she was, no longer surprised to see she was damn near dripping.

Can’t say that didn’t do wonders for my ego.

“You feel it, don’t you? That’s mine. Say it.”

She swallowed, her breath shaky. “It’s yours.”

“Yeah, baby. It is.” I kissed her again, deep and slow, letting her feel what I meant. “You don’t need to be good at this. You just need to want it. And I know you do.”

“I do,” she whispered, voice barely audible. “—I want you.”

“Then say it.” My lips traced the shell of her ear, my hands spreading her thighs wider again, thumb teasing the crease at the top. “Tell me you want my mouth on your pussy.”

“I want your mouth on me,” she whispered.

I didn’t make her wait. I kissed back down her beautiful body, and dragged my tongue over her, slow and deliberate, from her entrance to her clit, tasting her, savoring the way she gasped, the way her back arched off the bed.

“Keep talking to me.” I kissed her inner thigh again, slower this time—just to feel the way her body trembled beneath my mouth. “Tell me what it feels like when I touch you,” I coaxed. “Use your words, Sass.”

“I—Rye…” Her voice shook, hips lifting when my breath fanned across her center. “It feels… so good.”

I hummed encouragingly against her, gripping her thighs in both hands to keep her still as I brought my mouth back to where she needed me most. My tongue dragged over her slowly again, long, deliberate.

“Say that again,” I rasped. “Tell me how it feels.”

Her back arched, breath catching. “You’re driving me crazy…”

“Good,” I growled. “That’s the point.”

I licked her again, harder this time. She gasped, her thighs tightening around my head.

“Don’t stop, give me more,” she demanded, gripping my hair.

My blood turned to fire.

“There she is.”

I sucked her clit between my lips, rolling it with my tongue, savoring every twitch and sound she made. Her taste was addictive. Warm. Sweet. Mine. She tried to stay quiet, biting her lip, but her body betrayed her—hips rolling, her legs trembling around me.

She whimpered, breathy curses slipping through parted lips. “Oh my god, Rye, don’t stop…”

I didn’t.

I was too focused on the task. This was one of the most crucial jobs in my life: making her feel good. As often and as thoroughly as I fucking could.

I licked deeper, my tongue slipping inside her, slow and firm, while my thumb circled her clit with unrelenting pressure. Every movement was deliberate. Every sound she made fed something primal in me.

She gasped—sharp, ragged—as her body locked up beneath me, thighs trembling around my head.

“You’re doing so fucking good, Sass,” I murmured against her, voice low and raw. My breath ghosted over her soaked skin. “Let go for me.”

She tried. Fought it. Her hips jerked up instinctively, chasing more. Her fingers tightened in my hair, nails dragging against my scalp as she yanked me closer, a whimper tearing from her throat.

I groaned, tongue thrusting again, slow and deep.

I felt her body clench around my tongue.

Her thighs clamped tighter. Her breath hitched.

When I sucked her clit again, she came with a soundless cry.

I kept her pinned down, using my tongue to work her through it, relentless and worshiping.

I couldn’t get enough. She writhed beneath me, hips rocking against my face, every breath a broken, gasping plea, her come and juices all over me.

I was obsessed with making her come back-to-back.

She came two more times, and then she tried to twist, to escape, overstimulated and undone.

I held her still.

“You taste like fucking heaven,” I rasped, lips still brushing her soaked skin. “Let me have one more, baby. Don’t hold back.”

Another moan tore from her. Her legs shook. Her fingers slipped from my hair, then tightened again as another wave hit.

I still didn’t stop—not until her entire body had gone slack beneath me. Her chest rose in uneven bursts. Her thighs trembled from where I had hooked them over my shoulders. Her lips were parted; her pretty eyes shut like she was struggling to remember where she was.

I pressed one last kiss to her inner thigh—slow, lingering, possessive—then pulled back just enough to look up at her.

She was flushed. Sweaty. Beautifully wrecked.

Mine.

I moved over her, and she cupped my face. “Kiss me.”

Our lips met, and she kissed me like she needed to feel exactly what I’d just done to her, and I let her. Let her taste herself on my tongue. Let her feel the way she still coated my jawline, slick and sweet.

Her fingers threaded through my hair as her tongue moved against mine, soft at first, then she got into it, and I was the one groaning into her mouth, barely holding on.

She pulled back just enough to whisper. “Ryder, you—”

I cut her off with another kiss, swallowing the words before she could say them. “This was all for you, Sass.”

I couldn’t hear her say she wanted me to fuck her right then.

I was many things, but when it came to her, restraint was my special religion.

Patience wasn’t new to me. Control was what I’d been raised on.

What I lived by. With her, it had taken on a whole new meaning. Apparently, I could be a fucking saint.

Because if she came apart like that from just my mouth and hands…I wasn’t sure how she was going to handle all of me.

Still, I’d wait.

I reached down, threading our fingers together, guiding her hands to rest gently beside her head. I ignored the sting, dull but insistent, beneath the gauze wrapped tight across my knuckles as I kissed her again until she melted into me.

This was what mattered.

Her.

Her pleasure. Her comfort.

Because one day, she would break. Not with gasps and trembling thighs, but in the way she needed to—so I could rebuild her with every jagged part of myself I’d kept buried in the dark.