Page 34 of The Fractured

“What if I changed my mind?”

She shook her head but remained close. “I don’t want you to think you’re a rebound. Because you’re not. You mean more to me than that.”

“Then I’m not your rebound.”

There was a pause as she thought about it and took one step back. “We have seven seconds to figure out what we’re doing.”

“Why seven seconds?”

“It was the first number that came to my head.” She cringed slightly, raising a shoulder.

“Seven seconds is disappearing fast.”

“And we haven’t moved.”

“I don’t want to, Kira.”

Her pupils were dilated, her hair was a damp mess, and there was a faint curve in the corner of her mouth.

Those lips.

“Fuck it,” I muttered and closed the gap, kissing her as she grabbed my face.

My hands went to her thighs, and I hoisted her up to my waist to bring her to the bed.

Chapter 11

Kira

I hadn’t been like this with anyone in so long. Someone gentle and kind who respected boundaries but also encouraged me to do better for myself — to expand my comfort zone and relearn how to accept love. A better kind of love. The kind of love from a good friend.

The way Seb’s hands gripped my thighs and the way I rolled my hips against him said he was more than a good friend.

His hands were lightly calloused and strong from working days as a roof tiler, but each touch, full of want for my body to be connected to his, was gentle. Slow. Everywhere he touched burned deep, nourishing the growing ache within me that had been neglected before.

He underestimated how far up the bed he was when he lowered me to it in our hot and heavy frenzy, accidentally knocking the top of my head against the small shelf on the wall above my bed. It was home to several succulents and a newly planted Pothos vine. Their pots rattled slightly at the sudden disturbance, and I clutched the top of my head, giggling.

“Shit, Kira. I’m so sorry,” Seb said, resting on his elbows. His dark brown eyes were full of concern as he looked at the top of my head.

I traced my thumb along the fullness of his lips. “Seb, I’m fine. This is okay.”

Seb grinned with relief, and then we were kissing again. I found comfort in the weight of his toned body on mine, and smoothed my hands down over his muscular back.

He drew back to his knees, slow and steady as he drank me in with his eyes.

The rain outside eased, and the clouds parted, creating a perfectly timed natural spotlight to illuminate him as he knelt between my legs. All he was doing was making room to remove my jeans, yet every motion sent my heart soaring.

I watched every beautiful inch of him as he unzipped my jeans. When it came to removing them, still damp from the rain, there was a bit of resistance as they clung to my thighs. He tugged them off in length, meaning my legs were up in the air as he stood over me, with both of us laughing as the pants came off.

“Yours too,” I said breathlessly, brushing my unruly hair from my face.

He knelt again, hastily undoing his fly until I couldn’t resist and pulled him down to kiss him.

“I can’t take off my pants if you keep kissing me,” he mumbled onto my lips.

My teeth grazed his lip as I smiled, but I let him sit back again.

After rolling onto his back to awkwardly tug his jeans off and toss them across the room, Seb returned to rest between my legs. The bulge in his underwear pressed against me as the kisses grew more intense and the reality of the situation settled around us. But neither of us were stopping. There were no reservations, not when we smiled as we moaned and laughed softly when we discovered how our bodies reacted to each other.