Page 27 of Tides Of Your Love (Riviera Shores #3)
Owen
I WAS STILL INSIDE her.
Our breaths had steadied, but she was still tight, warm, wrapped around me like we were made for this. For each other.
My weight was mostly braced on my forearm, and Rio’s hands stroked my back, up and down, like she wasn’t ready to let me go yet. I wasn’t ready either.
Her skin was damp beneath my lips as I pressed them to her shoulder.
She sighed, shifting under me, her legs still tangled with mine.
Every part of me wanted to go again—to chase that fire we’d barely let burn out—but right now, this was enough.
Holding her. Being inside her. The moment stretched, lingering.
Eventually, I slipped out and removed the condom, remembering how I had buried another in the bathroom of her parent’s house. I tried not to think about it now, not to let anyone between us.
I pulled Rio into my arms. She lay her head on my shoulder, her leg draped over mine .
She traced her fingers idly on my skin, first on my chest, then on my arm.
I realized it was the ink she was tracing. Her fingers followed the words on the inside of my left forearm like she was reading them through touch.
“Goal is love; love is goal,” I translated.
“You never told me you had a thing for Latin,” she murmured, voice hazy with exhaustion.
It had always meant one thing. But now—feeling her with every part of me, inside and out, watching the words move under her fingertips—I felt the weight of them differently.
No green grass, no goalpost, no net, no top-notch goalkeeper stood in front of my eyes.
Just a pair of deep brown eyes, framed by soft bangs.
A smile that warmed them—and my heart—every time.
A voice that told me truths I couldn’t escape.
I ran a hand over her hip, meeting her gaze, letting her see my emotions without voicing them.
Rio’s lips parted like she wanted to speak but didn’t. Yet, she didn’t look away.
She shifted, nestling her body closer, wrapping her legs tighter around me. Her hands slid into my hair, her lips whispering over mine. “I want to feel you.”
A low ache tightened my stomach. I understood exactly what she wanted.
I pulled back just enough to search her face. “We’re always checked medically,” I assured her, voice rough with restrained need. “Are you sure?”
She nodded. “I’m sure.”
“I want to feel all of you,” Rio repeated .
Fire surged through me, fierce and consuming—like heat spreading through my veins. I yearned for the same.
She pulled me by my shoulder, guiding me to roll us over so I’d be on top of her.
As much as other positions were fun, this was the only one where we’d be face to face, body to body, from head to toe. We’d save the rest for later. Right now, I understood her need.
I pushed inside her again, slow, deep, deliberate. The feel of her without any barrier between us, tore a groan from my throat and a loud moan from hers.
And maybe because this time—for the first time, we were skin to skin, soul to soul—something else gripped me. Something I wasn’t ready for. A swell of emotion so raw and unguarded it nearly stopped me in my tracks.
With her, I wasn’t just bare in body.
I was fully there in mind, in heart.
My breath hitched. A sting burned behind my eyes as I buried myself deeper inside her. So sudden, so unexpected, I blinked hard, forcing it back.
Rio saw everything.
Her hands cupped my face, her thumb brushing my cheek. She didn’t say anything, but I was sure she saw it. She pulled me closer, wrapped herself around me, and let me fall deeper into her than I ever had before.