Page 118 of Always: A Legacy Novel

“You just get to enjoy the background noise, huh?”

Cross grinned against her cheek when she turned her face alongside his. “Yeah, I just get to enjoy your noise. And you make beautiful noise, babe.”

“Because of you.”

“Don’t feed my ego. It’s big enough.”

Catherine’s smile faltered against his cheek. “Still a little nervous. I don’t want it to be like a big deal or anything. It doesn’t have to be like that, is all.”

“Now you’re overthinking. You say okay. Or you say stop, Catherine.”

“Okay,” she whispered.

The moon made a pretty picture, painted high in an inky sky, with stars dotted all around. It was as though the windows were the canvas, and the sky presented its own art for enjoyment. The sight momentarily distracted Catherine as she tipped her head to the side. A slow exhale left her lips, but just as fast as she had released the air, she sucked it back in sharp and fast.

Her distraction only lasted as long as it took for her to take a breath.

A single second.

Then, she felt Cross’s mouth find a sensitive spot on her collarbone, where he sucked hard enough to leave a mark behind, but it was damn good, too. She understood perfectly well why her body always seemed like a fine-tuned instrument that she allowed him to play. He knew all her chords, and hit just the right ones to make a special kind of music. He did that because he listened, and he watched. Her. When he found something—anything—that made her move in just the right way, or had her breathing change even in the slightest, he picked up on that.

Then he did it, again and again.

Over and over.

He added something different to it. His tongue struck out against her skin, or his teeth nipped after a kiss. His fingers pressed lower, while his mouth worked higher.

Anything to make her move or breathe or sound the same way again.

That was exactly what Cross was doing to her, as she laid naked in soft blankets, and waited for the bliss to start rushing through her bloodstream. Again.

It was his mouth first.

Wicked and sweet all at the same time.

Tasting, relentless, and wonderful.

Now, it was his hand. His arm was pressed between their bodies; two fingers stroked and curled deep in the best way while his thumb circled and fucking circled.

He was listening and watching her, she knew. Listening for the stutter in her exhale, watching for when it changed to his favor. When her back curved as she lifted, or her breaths turned into high cries, he won.

That was when he won.

And so did she.

It was far more than just what he was doing, too. Although, he couldn’t possibly know that. It was his weight on hers, naked and warm, even when the room felt cold. It was the deepened grin, pleased and anticipating, when his dark eyes locked on hers. It was his length, already hard and sheathed in latex, digging into her inner thigh and almost there.

His thumb pressed harder, and oh, God.

Fuck.

Fuck.

“Do it for me,” she heard him say while drums beat loud in her ears.

Catherine tightened all over; every muscle in her body balling and ready to release.

“Shake again for me,” he demanded while her blood thickened.