Chapter 19 Shep
SHEP
THEO’S MOUTH PARTED, and I swept my tongue inside to taste him, effectively sealing our deal. It wasn’t the outcome I’d wanted, but every relationship needed compromise, and I was realizing there wasn’t anything I wouldn’t do for the man who’d stolen my heart.
Fuck, I’d told him I loved him and hadn’t even realized the words had come out of my mouth. Obviously I’d known, had been trying not to say it until the right moment, but there was no controlling how I felt about Theo.
And he loves me too…
My chest squeezed, my heart feeling so full I thought it would burst, because holy shit. I was in love with Theo Rinaldi. Never in my wildest dreams had I expected the two of us to end up together, yet here we were, making promises in my kitchen.
Life was funny that way. Only a few weeks ago I’d felt more alone than I had in my life and didn’t see that changing anytime soon, and now…
I didn’t just have Theo in my arms with his mouth on mine—I had his heart.
“Say it again,” I whispered against his lips before dropping my forehead to his. This time I wanted to hear it, really hear it and soak it up.
Theo lifted his head, those stunning blue eyes meeting mine and drawing me in. He brought his hands up to cradle my neck. “I love you, Shep. I never want to know what it’s like to not love you.”
I didn’t know why his face began to blur until I felt his thumb brush under my eye, and then he pressed a kiss to the same spot.
“You’re mine now,” he said, giving me a smile that had that edge of mischievousness that was so Theo and exactly the man I’d fallen in love with.
He drew his hands down my hoodie, then moved them up underneath to touch me.
His hands were cool against my skin as he trailed his fingers up over my abs, then up my chest to pinch my nipples.
I bit down on my lip as the tweak of pressure shot lust straight to my dick, which, judging by the smirk on Theo’s face, was exactly what he’d wanted.
He pulled my hoodie up, and I lifted my arms, letting him take it off me and toss it somewhere across the room.
“Si sexy et tout à moi,” he said, and I cursed that I didn’t know what he was saying—other than the fact that it was clearly nothing bad, with him looking at me the way he was.
I needed to learn French—the sooner, the better.
“Let me guess,” I said, as he lifted his own shirt over his head and got rid of it, “you said something about how you want to lick every inch of me?”
“No, that would be: Je veux lécher chaque centimètre de ta peau. And I do.” His hands went to the waist of his pants, flicking them open. He slowly drew down the zipper, making a show for me that had my cock straining behind my jeans. “But I said, ‘So sexy and all mine.’”
“Damn French,” I said, palming my erection and giving it a rough rub.
Theo’s eyes heated at the move, and he shoved his pants and boxer briefs off and stepped out of them.
“I can teach you.” His breath was a whisper against my lips as he moved my hand aside and slipped his own into my briefs.
The second his fingers wrapped around me, I gasped. “Say, ‘Je veux te baiser, mon amour.’”
The way he said it was a seductive caress, but when I attempted the phrase and stumbled over the pronunciation, completely butchering it, Theo’s lips curved.
“Sounds like you said you want to fuck me, my love.” The hand he had around my dick squeezed, making me moan, and then he said, “Permission granted.”
Fuck, that was hot, and I wasn’t waiting another second to get him beneath me. My mouth crashed down on his as I hauled him up against me, lifting him so that he wrapped his legs around my waist.
Thank fuck my bed wasn’t far, because I didn’t want a quick fuck against a counter—I wanted him writhing in my sheets.
When my knees hit the mattress, I dropped him onto it so I could get rid of my jeans.
Theo scooted up the bed, that beautiful body still bruised, but getting stronger every day.
He widened his legs in invitation, lowering his hand to his cock and teasing the head with his fingers as he watched me watch him.
I reached inside my top drawer for the lube and tossed it on the mattress before climbing up over him. I ran my hands over his spectacular legs, the muscles strong and flexed under my fingers.
“Spread these for me,” I said in a voice I barely recognized, as I stared down at the most spectacular body I’d ever had under me.
Theo immediately obeyed, then upped the ante when he reached for his knees and pulled them up to his chest. My dick throbbed at the carnal sight of him, and the knowledge I was about to be buried deep inside him.
I poured some of the lube into my hand and dropped between his legs, trailing my fingers down the heated strip of skin he’d exposed to me. With my eyes locked on his, I slowly slid my finger up and down the sensitive skin until I reached his tight little hole.
Theo sucked in a breath, his body clenching as I teased and tormented his opening before moving my hand back up to his balls. I cradled them in my hand, fondling him gently, as I scooted in closer on my knees and wrapped a second hand around his cock.
Theo’s eyes slid shut as his feet hit the mattress, then he arched back into the pillow and pushed his hips up, and I watched on hungrily as his thick cock glided through my fist, the shiny head peeking through the opening and showing me just how excited he was.
“So goddamn gorgeous,” I whispered as he began to writhe on the bed and use my fist like he would my ass if he were in it. I let go of his shaft and Theo moaned at the loss of contact, but I needed to be closer, needed to be inside him—now.
I dragged my fingers down the underside of his length, and when it jerked in response, I couldn’t help my smile. It seemed he was just as eager as I was, just as needy. So much so that this time, when I reached his entrance, Theo wrapped a hand around his cock and gave himself a rough pull.
“Putain, Shep. Put something in me.”
My lips quirked at his breathy demand. “Please?”
Theo dragged his tongue over his lower lip and answered in true royal form, “Now.”
I chuckled at his impatience, and the way it matched mine, and was struck yet again by just how perfect we were for one another.
“How could I ever refuse such an order?” I quickly slipped a finger inside of him, making him groan. “Oh, I like the sound of that—let me hear it again,” I said as I pulled my index finger free and tunneled back inside with two.
His curse was full of guttural pleasure as I began to scissor and swivel my fingers inside him, stretching him wide and getting him ready for what came next. Then I twisted my hand, located his p-spot, and massaged it until he was stroking his dick in time to each thrust of my hand.
“Shep,” he panted, as he jacked his hips up and then bore down on the fingers I had lodged in him. “Shep, I need…”
I knew exactly what he needed, as his voice faded out and his toes curled into the mattress.
But, no longer content to be a bystander to his pleasure, I pulled my fingers free and reached for the lube again.
I slicked up my palm and looked down at the beautiful man still working his cock as I got ready for him.
When I moved between his knees and Theo reached down to pull his legs open for me, I gave thanks that this man was mine.
I guided myself to his waiting body, catching and holding his blue gaze.
“I love you,” I told him, wanting him to know that that moment in the kitchen, the absent-minded way I’d confessed my feelings, wasn’t some accident, that this connection we shared went way beyond the physical—it was soul deep, something I wanted him to see on my face, hear in my voice, and feel through my body when I laid claim to him right here in my bed. “In ways I never knew possible.”
Theo blinked up at me, his eyes swirling with all the emotions coursing through me. “Je t’aime aussi,” he said, and I didn’t need to understand a lick of French to know he’d just said it back. I could see his heart right there in his eyes.
I gently pushed forward, and as his body enveloped mine, my eyes slid shut and I savored every delicious sensation of being back inside my man.
“Shep,” Theo moaned as I bottomed out. Our lips met in a kiss full of all the love, tenderness, and affection I felt for him. The enormity of those emotions outweighed any other in that moment as I allowed myself to finally let down the last of my walls and show him every side of me.
I braced my hands on either side of him, as Theo’s tongue swept inside my mouth to rub up against mine. His body clenched around my throbbing cock, demanding I move.
“Take me, Shep,” he whispered against my lips as he trailed his fingers down my cheek. “Love me.”
I brushed a soft kiss across his jaw, up to his ear. “I already do.”
His breath caught on a groan. As he arched up underneath me and his eyes shut, I ran my hand down his side to his thigh and took hold, keeping him steady as I began to move.
In and out, I rocked over the top of him, shallow thrusts that widened him and let him get used to the fullness.
I savored the look, touch, and feel of him as he wound his arms around my neck and held on for the tumultuous ride ahead.
But there was no stopping it now. Not when I had him wrapped up in my arms, and his breath was mingling with mine on every sigh.
He was perfect. Everything I’d ever wanted. And he’d been right there in front of me all along.
“Open your eyes. I want to see you,” I said, looking down at his gorgeous face. “I want you to see me.”
Theo’s legs tightened around me as he craned up to say against my mouth, “Eyes shut or eyes open, you’re all I see. All I want. Just you…”
My heart swelled, and I crushed him to me, taking his mouth in a fierce kiss. All of the love and protectiveness I felt poured out of me as I got caught up in the pure rush of desire.
Theo knew me, understood me and wanted me in all the ways I needed, and nothing had ever felt more powerful than that acceptance, that feeling of belonging fully to another. I began to move inside of him as though we were one.
One mind. One body. One soul.
Every move I started, he ended. His hands in my hair, anchoring me to him in a way nothing else could, as I drove us both to the very heights of ecstasy, where we both lingered, never wanting the moment to end.
It wasn’t until he put his hand over my heart and said, “Il est à moi. Mine,” that we finally let go, understanding that this was something far beyond the coming together of two bodies.
It was the coming together of two men, two lives, two hearts.
Forever.