Chapter 41 #2
She can think of a few things—kissing her being at the top of the list. They should probably talk things through first. “Lay the blanket out on the moss there.” She points to a bright patch of green moss, watching as he does as she instructed. “Now we should lay down. I ordered a meteor shower.”
They settle on the blanket, lying side by side. He takes her hand, threading their fingers together.
Unable to let the silence linger, she says, “I got your letter.”
“I figured.” He leans up onto an elbow, angling toward her. “Does this mean you forgive me?”
“Yes. Do you forgive me?”
“There’s nothing to forgive.” He reaches out and brushes a hair away from her temple.
“That’s not true. I shouldn’t have left you the way I did. Knowing your history, that was cruel. I’ll never do that again. I promise.”
He cups her cheeks. “I forgive you, then.”
She leans into his touch. But before she melts into him completely, she jabs a finger into his chest. “Here’s how this is going to go.”
Res6 blinks.
“We’re doing this, okay?”
His throat bobs. “Yes, please.”
She huffs a laugh. “You sound like a manupartner.”
He offers a small grin. “Whatever you like.”
It earns him an eye roll. “New rules. No more lying, for starters.”
“No lying,” he agrees.
“No manupartners.”
He nods. “Who needs one when I have you? Where will you live?”
She shrugs, glancing away. “I could still get my own place?”
He frowns. “Why?”
“I don’t know. Are we moving too fast?”
“I hate not having you there,” he says, groaning. “But if your own place is what you need—”
She cuts him off with a kiss. When their lips break apart, she says, “I don’t need my own place.”
His eyes are hopeful as he searches her expression. “So you’ll come home?”
“You’re sure that’s what you want? I’m human, remember?” she teases.
“You’re certainly no compliant manupartner,” he says, and she opens her mouth to protest, but he leans over her, pressing her back into the soft ground.
“And I wouldn’t have it any other way. Tonight you will sleep beside me.
Tomorrow we can go get your things, and if it’s up to me, you’re never leaving again.
I want you, Electra. I want you so fucking bad. ”
Thunder rumbles softly in the distance. “Oh, shit.”
“What?” he asks, glancing over his shoulder to see what she’s staring at.
“Rain clouds.” Right as she says the words, the first fat droplets fall. “They must have programmed the wrong shower!” she shrieks.
As the rain falls in earnest, he pushes off her and helps her to her feet. She scans the faux forest and points to a copse of trees. “Do you think those trees would offer us shelter?”
“One way to find out.” He snatches the blanket, grabs her hand, and drags her to the spot she pointed out where the rain is noticeably lighter.
He tosses the blanket onto the ground haphazardly and pulls her into his arms, kissing her deeply.
“DumBot suggested a date called Kissing in the Rain. Romantic or not so much?”
She chuckles. “I need more data. Why don’t you try it again?”
He takes her jaw in his hands, angling her head so he can control the kiss. He’s slow and methodical as he explores her. All she can do is grip the damp fabric at his hips and surrender. When he pulls back to examine her, she’s breathless.
“So?” he asks
She blinks, unable to speak. The rain clinging to his thick lashes and running down his warm skin makes her mouth water.
“I’ll take that as a yes.”
She raises up on tiptoe, bracing against his shoulders as she runs her lips over his jaw, then down his neck, tasting his hot skin as she moves lower. She tugs aside the fabric at his neck, exposing the hollow over his collarbone, licking and biting at the flesh there.
“Fuck,” he cries, neck arching back as he grinds his hips into hers. “We have far too many clothes on for this.”
She makes her way back up to his lips, whispering, “What are you going to do about it?”
It only takes him a second to unfasten her dress and push it off her shoulders, eyes trailing down her body as the fabric pools at her feet. “You are the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”
He runs his fingertips down her neck, over her breast, and gently palms her, thrumming her hardened nipple with his thumb. Heat pulses between her legs.
Cool raindrops fall on her overheated skin, giving her chills.
“Cold?” he asks.
She nods. “A little.”
“Lie down.”
She does as he says, staring as he strips out of his wet clothes. He kneels before her, parting her legs, eyeing her sex for a second before crawling over her.
She hums as the delicious warmth of him presses into her.
“Better?” He brushes a wet strand of hair away from her face, kissing her before she can respond. “Tell me what you need?”
“No fancy sex god tricks. I just want you inside me,” she says, watching his golden eyes catch fire.
“Anything you like,” he says. He claims her mouth while taking hold of her knee, pulling it up against his hip. The movement presses his erection against her clit. Her inner walls clench at the promise of him. “Are you ready for me?” he asks, teasing her entrance.
“I was ready for you ten minutes ago—oh God,” she cries as he sheaths himself inside her.
He stills for a moment, letting her adjust. He presses his forehead to hers, making soft circles on her throat with his thumb. His hand, which still grips her knee, pulls her tighter against him, changing the angle so he’s impossibly deep.
“You feel so fucking good, Electra. I thought”—he takes a few staggered breaths of the air they share—“I thought I might never have you like this again. I thought you were gone. I’m so stupidly in love with you, I thought I might die.”
She opens her eyes to take him in. That isn’t rain dripping on her face. Those are his tears. Her heart feels like it may burst. “Move,” she commands, before leaning up to claim his mouth.
He obeys, rolling his hips, and the emotion barreling through her works in tandem with the ache building at her center.
The pressure is devastating as his thrusts build with intensity.
With her free leg, she presses into the ground, chasing that feeling coiling deep inside her.
He releases her mouth, burying his face in the side of her neck.
“Please, Electra, I want to feel you unravel.”
Their rain-slicked bodies move, skin sliding against skin, stoking her desire. Her pleasure. The orgasm that she’s been holding back since the moment he thrust inside her sits on the precipice, waiting for her to let loose.
He sends her over the edge with four little words. “Please come for me.”
Her body trembles as bliss shoots through her, giving her the bursts of starlight the simulation chamber failed to. “Oh God, Res6!” she cries as her muscles contract as wave after wave washes over her.
“Zorg, I can feel you strangling me. So. Fucking. Good.” Res6 moves sharply, emphasizing each word with a thrust before stiffening. She holds him through his pleasure. When he comes back to himself, he collapses onto her, face still tucked into the crook of her neck.
She strokes his silky hair, and eventually their breathing evens out. “You okay?”
His chest rumbles as he pushes himself off her. “I’m hopeless for you, but yeah, I’m okay.”
It takes them a few minutes to dry off with the blanket and make themselves presentable enough to make it to the locker rooms. His grip on her hand lingers, and she can tell he’s reluctant to let her out of his sight.
He’s given himself over to her completely, and she knows how much trust that requires.
Oh God, she didn’t say it back. She meant to, but she was so lost in the moment.
Shit. She’ll rectify that as soon as they’re home—when he’s ready for round two, because after several weeks without him, they have some time to make up for.
“I’ll be fine. Just give me ten minutes to do something with this.” She gestures to her wet and rumpled clothing, and stringy hair. “Then we’ll go home, okay?”
He nods, eyeing the door like he might fight it. “Fine. I’ll be in the lobby waiting when you’re finished.”
He turns to walk away, but she calls, “Res6.” The words she needs to say dance on the tip of her tongue. But saying them in this nondescript hallway won’t be romantic, and he seems to be into that—imagine her luck.
He stops midway down the hall, turning as if ready to run to her aid. “Yes?”
She grins, feeling very doted on by the attentive man. “Nothing. I just wanted to say that everything is going to be fine. Better than fine.” Her grin turns into a full smile as the certainty of it washes over her. “It’s going to be perfect.”