AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I’m still reeling from this revelation when the pressure starts to build all over again. My hands grip his shoulders, nails digging into the tender flesh. He lets out a hiss, but I can’t tell if it’s from pleasure or pain. Then I look up at his face as his body starts to shake, as his eyes roll to the back of his head. Definitely pleasure. But even though he just finished, he also started something again I’m aching to complete.
“Tell me what you want, Marcela.” I shiver at his lips on my ear, his hot breath on my skin awakening my senses. Maybe he felt me squirming against him, but however he can tell without me having to say, I’m grateful. “My hand or my mouth again?”
“Let’s see if your hand can redeem itself,” I say, because I’m not sure I can take the sight of his head between my legs twice in one night. He complies, pulling out of me as his fingers find my clit.
I’m right at the edge when his voice is in my ear again. “I love watching you come apart.”
“Yeah?” I’ve never heard my voice this ragged before.
“Yes.” His hand works faster. “God, Marcela. How has no one snatched you up yet?” His breathing is heavy, voice shaky. “How are you all mine?”
I freeze up. The question douses me in ice water until I’m close to drowning.
How has no one snatched you up yet?
Ben’s face is branded in my mind, and then behind my eyelids as I squeeze my eyes shut. Those warm hazel eyes, that shy smile reserved for me. And then, the face morphs into one that’s become even more familiar to me. Hazel to dark blue, shy to devilish. Strong jaw, ash blond hair, until it’s Theo’s face I can’t shake from my mind.
How are you all mine?
“Marcela?” His voice is a question, and it’s only now that I notice he’s stopped moving. My eyes flutter open, his face filling my vision. Closer than I remember. “Are you okay?”
“Sorry.” I start to sit up. “I just got caught up in my thoughts.”
“Don’t apologize,” he says, shifting away to give me room to breathe. “Do you… wanna talk about it?”
“What?” I croak.
“What you were thinking about,” he clarifies. “Do you wanna talk about it?”
I shake my head.
“Okay,” he says. I turn the word over in my head for traces of emotion. Is he mad? Is he disappointed?
“Do you want me to leave?”
I hesitate a beat, and then I shake my head again. His chest falls as he exhales, like he was holding his breath. “I want you to stay,” I say, not sure if I’m being fair to him. Not when I just realized something that might change things between us from here on.
“Good.” He pulls me into his arms and runs a hand through my hair. I close my eyes, lulled by the soothing strokes as his fingers work through my curls. “I’m not going anywhere.”
He throws the wrinkled duvet over our bodies. My head rests in the crook of his shoulder. I count his breaths in my head, marking the times his chest rises and falls beneath my hand. Children count sheep. Adults count their lover’s breathing. One… two… three…
How are you all mine?
How, indeed.
Nineteen
The next morning, I wake up to an odd sound. I rub my bleary eyes and try to sit up, but I am prevented from doing so by the cage of Theo’s arms. I turn over to face him, but his eyes are still closed, his chest rising and falling with slow breaths. My lips turn up of their own accord, and a swell of happiness fills my chest just from looking at him. But it’s edged with something else, a bitterness that makes me ache for more time. To rewire the clock above our heads like a cheat and ensure that this—we—never expire.
That’s not the way I should feel about a rebound.
I stare at him until his eyes blink open, hazy from sleep.
“Morning,” he says, voice raspy, mouth lifting into a soft smile. He pulls me in until my head rests against his chest, right below his shoulder.
“Morning, sleepyhead,” I say.
“How’d you sleep?” His arms tighten around my body, pulling me flush against his. There’s a tentative quality to his voice, and at first, I’m not sure where it’s coming from. Then I remember how we left off last night, and the awkward tension that surrounded us.
