Page 14 of The Year of Us: May

I licked my lips nervously, hooking a finger through one of his belt loops and pulling him close. “Earlier at the club, you said everyone’s been looking at me like I was the most surprising thing they’ve ever seen…”

I trailed off, kissing Cory’s neck when he offered it to me.

He hummed, encouraging me to finish the thought.

I left a wet kiss against the underside of his jaw. “You look at me that way too. Sometimes, when you don’t think I’m looking.”

He swallowed hard and exhaled a shaky laugh into my hair.

“Reese,” he whispered, skating his hands up the length of my back. “My good boy. My very best…what am I going to do with you?”

There were lots of answers to that question, but I knew better than most that when your entire understanding of yourself was called into doubt, the only thing that could bring you back to center was the thing you trusted most. There had been a time when Cory watched me struggle with my own brain, and to quiet those demons, he’d offered me his submission. Even temporarily. Standing there in his arms in the entrance of his New York City condo, I could offer him the same thing in return.

Iwantedto offer him the same thing in return.

Reaching back, I grabbed his wrists and pulled his hands back down to my waist so I could extricate myself from his embrace.

“Whatever you want,” I said, sinking to my knees and gazing up at him with all the trust that he’d spent five months cultivating in my heart.

He blinked hard, tangling his fingers into my hair far more gently than he had when we were at The Black Door earlier in the night. His touch was—for the first time—tentative, almost unsure. I pushed the top of my head against his palm, sighing when he finally took hold.

“At what cost?” he whispered.

If he’d asked me that three months earlier, the answer might have been very different, but now…

“No cost,” I promised him, reaching up and curling my fingers around his wrist. “I’m exactly where I want to be.”

“Reese.”

My name was a prayer as Cory sank to his knees in front of me, bringing us almost eye level. The concrete floor of his loft was less than ideal for pouring one’s heart out while being on their knees, but the kind of vulnerability he was about to offer was more rare than anything I’d seen from him over the course of the year. I pulled his hand away from my head and kissed his knuckles. Turned it over and kissed his palm.

“Is it selfish to say I don’t want you to go?” he asked, lashes fluttering as I scraped my teeth over the thin skin of his wrist, his pulse hammering against my lower lip. “That I want to keep you here. Just for myself.”

I exhaled and smiled, shaking my head. “It’s flattering.”

“I know you have a life back in LA.”

I kissed his wrist bone before letting our hands fall between our bodies, fingers half-threaded together.

“I never expected you,” I admitted, tucking my chin against my chest to hopefully hide the flush that had colored my cheeks with the confession.

“That’s an understatement.” Cory gave me a sad smile. “And what now?”

“You’re asking me?” I made a self-deprecating noise in the back of my throat. “I thought you were the one in charge.”

Cory chuckled, rocking back and sinking down deeper onto his heels.

I took the change as an opportunity to drop onto my ass, sitting cross-legged in front of him. My palms were sweaty and I already missed the feel of his fingers in mine.

“I don’t feel like I ever have my feet under me when you’re around.”

“Could have fooled me.”

Cory smiled sweetly across the entryway, and I’d never wanted to kiss him more.

“You make me want things I never thought I could have.”

“Like what?”