Page 111 of When In Doubt

Oscar lies down next to me, our bodies running in parallel.

“You alright?” He pushes back a strand of hair that had fallen in front of my eyes.

“Yeah?” It comes out like a question.

“Do you wanna stop?”

“No,” I say quickly. “I’m just having a moment, I’ll be good to go in a second.”

“Take all the time you need.” He kisses my hair. “Is there anything I can do that’ll help?”

“Can you just take your clothes off or something?” I say it without thinking. Then, hearing it back, I bury my head in the covers, trying to hide the burn that overtakes my cheeks.

“Can you just take off your clothes… or something,” Oscar repeats thoughtfully, drawing out every syllable. “How romantic.”

I peek out with one eye to see his grin. He rests a hand between my shoulder blades. He always seems to know exactly when I need to be touched, when I need that kind of grounding.

“You know, if you’re trying to seduce me, you’re gonna have to do a lot better than that,” he teases.

“Oscar,” I groan, hiding again.

He laughs, dropping his head down next to mine. “Sorry, sorry. You want me to get undressed?”

I nod. “I’m just feeling very naked right now.”

“And you don’t want to be the only one who’s naked.”

I shake my head and he nods, sitting up. At first I stay tucked away, but curiosity wins out and I roll back over. He’s on the final button of his shirt, revealing the hard planes of his chest, dusted with dark hair that leads down to the slab of his stomach. He’s all muscle, made from days on end of hauling and lifting, constant labor. But there’s a touch of softness, too, that somehow makes him even sexier.

He catches me staring and runs his tongue over his bottom lip, slowing down his movements as he shrugs his shirt off. His pants come next and my jaw nearly falls open at the sight of him pulling his belt loose and wrapping it around his fist into a tidy roll that he sets on my dresser. Before he drops his pants, he roots around in his pockets, pulling out his wallet. I don’t realize what he’s doing at first, but when he pulls out a telltale foil packet, I can’t help but smile.

“You were confident,” I tease.

“Not at all.” He shrugs, the tips of his ears turning pick. “But I won’t say that I wasn’t hopeful.”

I smile at him. “Then I guess you got what you hoped for.”

He stops what he’s doing, just looking. “You have no fucking idea.”

He shucks his jeans and socks, leaving him only in his boxers. My breath stalls as he catches me dead in the eye before his thumbs slide into his waistband, pushing down and taking the fabric with it.

My first reaction when his erection springs free is to look away, that this is something I shouldn’t see. But that’s not true, I get to look all I want. Right now this man is all mine, so I take my fill, examine every inch of him. He’s long, and so hard it looks painful.

When he comes to stand at the foot of the bed, I sit up, anticipation building.

“Still with me?” he asks.

“I’m with you.”

The bed dips with the weight of one knee, then the other, then he’s crawling over me. I fall back, my head bouncing off the mattress as he covers my body. He braces himself above me with one hand, the other nestling in the dip of my waist.

I want him so much I can’t bear it.

I place my palm on his chest and he pauses, looking down at me with a question.

“Can you go slow?” I whisper.

He bends to kiss my forehead, a puff of air coasting across my hairline. “Of course.” His hand reaches down and I feel him line himself up with my entrance. “You ready?”