Page 68 of To Love the Stars too Fondly

The lights were dim, with only the bedside table lamp illuminating the scene. Alex sat on the bed, wearing an identical robe. She gazed up at me with exhausted eyes, her smile sincere to juxtapose. “Hey.”

“Hey.” I sat beside her, daring to lean my shoulder against her.

She said nothing else, instead stealing my lips into a fervent kiss.

I gasped but melted into the motion, following her lead as she deepened the kiss with an open mouth. My fingers tangled in her cropped hair, holding her there, a silent plea to stay.

She whispered against my lips. “If you just want to sleep, I understand. You’ve been through so much today.”

The question lay unspoken, but I heard it in the hitch of her breath. “I want you,” I said, the depth of those words never more poignant. “Please make love to me, Alex.”

Make love—I’d never called it that before, but that’s what it was, wasn’t it? We could have all the sex we wanted, yet something deeper always seemed to connect us, leaving us breathless and free.

I was amiable as Alex guided me into bed. She wasted no time before touching me beneath my robe, parting the neckline, and freeing my breasts.

I loved her hands, strong from disciplined violence, yet so gentle here and now. She groped me as her lips trailed kisses across my sternum, then took one of the sensitive nipples into her mouth, leaving me groaning.

There she stayed, sucking to the light chorus of my moans. One of my hands wrapped itself into her cropped hair, soothing tender lines across her scalp. Oh, she was such a tease, heat brimming in my core from just her mouth on my nipple.

Her mouth stayed put as she busied her hands with the ties of my robe, soon parting the entire thing to reveal my naked form. She kissed down my stomach, then lingered at my hipbones, gracing them with soft caresses before moving to my thighs.

She parted my legs, lavishing praise upon the soft skin. I shuddered at the first touch of her tongue to my vulva folds, the vision of her feasting too hot for words. I pushed up onto my elbows to get a better view, enamored as she kissed softly and slipped her tongue in deep.

“Fuck, you feel good,” I managed to say, weak when she glanced up and winked.

I fell back against the pillow, sighing as her tongue lapped at my entrance, the shallow fucking utterly meteoric. She truly was an artist with that tongue of hers, painting pleasure like the master she was.

When she kissed up to my clit, her fingers teased my entrance, electricity jolting through me when she sucked with all the care as she had to my nipple. I gasped as she pushed inside, the missing piece of my soul.

Perhaps she felt the shift too, given she left my clit and instead came up to kiss me with perfect, soiled lips. Her thrusts were slow, deliberate, forcing me to savor the moment. And oh, did I ever, smothered by her body, her kisses, feeling her move deep inside me. Alex was pure pleasure; she’d lit in me something that had been dormant for years.

But more than that…when she left my lips, I caught her gaze, entrapped by those beautiful eyes. “Stay here,” I whispered. “I’ll touch myself.”

Alex obeyed, stealing my lips once more. My hand crept down, numb amid her fucking, and rubbed furiously against my clit, the pleasure immediately escalating. I cried into her mouth, all manner of expletives and words of adoration smothered when she snaked her tongue into my mouth.

But, oh God, did I adore her. It was so dangerous and brilliant and new.

Orgasm took me. I spasmed against her body, my cries smothered by her kiss. Her thrusts suddenly pounded, milking the last few moments as my vision blurred. My soul left my body.

And Alex was there to coax it back to earth.

With some reluctance, she withdrew. As my breath settled, she pulled me against her chest with a childlike desperation. I held her in turn, kissing her hair when I felt her break in my arms. “Alex—”

“I’m sorry,” she sputtered, breath heaving. “I never should have let you go. Y-You could’ve been killed, and I never would have told you how stupid I was to lose you.”

“It’s okay, Alex. I promise. You have me now, if you want me.”

“I want you in my life, Princess,” Alex said, and though my heart wanted to soar, it shattered for her broken words. “It’s a shit life, but I’m yours.”

I didn’t have the heart to tell her that a last-minute reservation at the fanciest resort in a premier tourist city was hardly a ‘shit life’. Instead, I planted a kiss on her cheek, tasting salt. “I would love to be yours, Alex.”

Saturday

Amid dreamless sleep, soft lips caressed my own.

My eyes fluttered open, and there was Alex, her whisper coaxing my mind to spin. “Good morning, Sleeping Beauty.”

My confusion lingered for only a moment, memories of the previous night finally surfacing. Crisp, morning air startled me with my inhale, but I wasn’t at home, no. I was in Sedona. I was safe with Alex.