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“Sweet mother of God,” he breathed, staring back in utter amazement before he scrambled to release the top button on his jeans. “You are so fucking beautiful.”

I smiled, never having actually felt that way until this moment.

He groaned again, spurred into action by my grin, and he returned his attention to his pants, pushing them down just enough to release himself.

Watching, I took in his size and girth as he held his cock at the base and started to slide a condom on it. It looked so different than?—

Realizing who I was remembering—who I was comparing him to—I blinked in surprise and horror because I hadn’t even considered him until now.

Hadn’t recognized the fact that this was the second penis I’d ever seen until it was right there, long and thick in Keene’s grasp, definitely longer and thicker around than the first I’d been acquainted with.

Recalling how much the first one had hurt, I swallowed thickly and licked my lips, wondering if it was too late to back out.

I closed my eyes and repeated my therapist’s words in my head. Sex shouldn’t hurt. With the right person, your body will be ready, and it’ll actually feel good. It won’t hurt.

Assuring myself I was ready for Keene—my readiness was embarrassingly evident as it dripped down the insides of my thighs and tightened my nipples into hard points—I opened my lashes again just as he finished sliding the condom into place.

He lifted his gaze to check on me. And I fell in love with him all over again. Even at his most desperate moment, he had to make sure I was okay.

God, he was the best man ever.

“Ready?” he asked, watching me closely.

I nodded, glad he hadn’t looked up two seconds earlier, and I blasted him with a smile so wide his gaze went unfocused with arousal, and he immediately caught my hip, lifting me to him as he lowered himself between my legs.

I spread wider to receive him, my knees framing him as he took position.

And then he was there, ready and hard. He met my gaze again and pushed forward, hissing as the head sank in. My eyes flared, surprised by how good it actually did feel to be penetrated by a truly welcome invasion.

“Oh my God,” I blurted, letting my head fall back in wonder as I opened my thighs wider, encouraging more.

“Waves.” Keene plundered deeper, his thickness stretching and rubbing against nerves and tissues I didn’t even know I had, nerves that were so sensitized by each move he made that they tightened and locked around him, seeking more, demanding their due.

“There,” I gasped, gripping his ass and trying to pull him right back in as soon as he withdrew. “Right there.”

He chuckled lazily, as if not at all affected by the same need for speed and ferocity that I was. His eyelids were half-hooded when he met my gaze, leaving me to think he was on the verge of taking a nap instead of fucking me like a ravenous beast.

“Right there?” he asked, his voice even sounding as if he’d just woken from a nap. But then he slid his cock back into me at the perfect angle, and I shuddered, losing all semblance of time and space, just luxuriating in the way he moved.

“God, yes,” I groaned, enjoying it until I started to need even more. “Faster,” I ordered.

And I tried to urge him along by gripping his ass and pulling him back into me.

Except the bastard resisted. “Patience, woman. We’re getting there.”

Not fast enough we weren’t. He was driving me insane. “Aren’t you the one who couldn’t wait to savor anything and only wanted to pound into me a few minutes ago?” I demanded, irritated by his one-eighty.

But he only shook his head. “That was before I actually sank inside you. Now that I’m here…

” He shook his head and let out a low whistle, shuddering when he paused deep.

“Darlin’, there are just some places that are so sacred that banging it with the same force you’d use on an uncooperative ketchup bottle should be forbidden. ”

Gritting my teeth in frustration, I grabbed his ears and forced him to look me in the eyes. “Keene Dugger, if you don’t pound me like a ketchup bottle in the next two seconds, I’m kicking you off this couch and taking care of myself.”

His eyes flared with interest over that threat, and a grin took over his face. “Yes, Mistress,” he whispered, and he shoved into me with enough force to make me cry out.

“Oh, God.” Clutching his ass with nothing but nails, I hissed, “Yes,” and I bowed up to meet each thrust. “Yes.”

Pleasure spiraled, thickening with each plunge, and both of our breaths quickened until he cursed and surged deeper, gripped by a fury. Our frantic breathing filled the room, broken up by a few groans until I gasped, overtaken. My nerve endings shattered, and my body contracted around his.

Keene choked out a desperate sound, and his mouth attacked mine, his tongue surging as he began to come seconds after me.

He took my mouth over and over again as we ignited, and he didn’t stop until we’d both finished.

Only then did he tear his lips away so he could press a tender kiss to my brow.

And finally, he collapsed on top of me, bracing one forearm next to my head to keep from giving me the full force of his weight.

“Holy shit,” he said into my ear, panting hard. “Holy shit.”

Pleased by how startled and surprised he seemed, I wound my arms around him and hugged him to me, delighting over the warm press of his flesh and the solid feel of his muscles under my arms.

He huffed out an amused sound at my insistence to cuddle, but he willingly obliged, smoothing a hand up my arms and burying his fingers in my hair as he ran his nose along the side of my neck and hugged me back.

Smiling, I closed my eyes briefly, committing this moment to memory before I opened my lashes to notice an inspirational quote written on a poster on the wall next to the door.

It said

Laugh Hard, Heal Harder

in huge, blaring font with a small quote underneath from Kevin Hart that read,

Laughter heals all wounds, and that's one thing that everybody shares. No matter what you're going through, it makes you forget about your problems.

Cupping the back of Keene’s head until his hair spiked around my fingers, I focused on those words and held onto the man still inside me, honored he’d chosen me, that it was finally my time with him.

When I’d last craved special attention from someone and gotten it, it had wrecked my entire life. But I knew this would be different. This time, it would patch all the broken pieces inside me back together, and Keene’s infectious smiles and laughter and buoyant energy would heal me.

He would wipe away everything bad that had ever happened to me. I knew it in my bones.