Chapter 15 #3
“Is that so?” He shifted, pulling out of me slowly—we both hissed at the sensation—and disposed of the condom before settling beside me, propped up on one elbow. His free hand traced lazy patterns on my stomach.
“I suppose I’ll have to provide additional data, then.”
“For the sake of scientific rigor.”
“Obviously.” His hand drifted lower. “How many data points do you think you’ll need?”
“Hard to say.” My breath caught as his fingers found me, still sensitive from before. “Probably ... extensive testing ...”
“As I mentioned before, I do find it important to be thorough.”
He stroked me slowly, gently, rebuilding the pleasure that had barely faded. His mouth found my breast again, tongue circling my nipple, and I arched into his touch.
“Graham—”
“I’ve got you.” He slid one finger inside me, then two, curling them just right. “I’ve always got you, Agnes.”
This orgasm built slower than the first, a gradual tide rather than a sudden crash. Graham seemed to know exactly what I needed, when to push, when to change the rhythm, and I came apart, again, under his hands with a soft cry.
“Beautiful,” he murmured, watching my face. “You’re so beautiful when you come.”
“You’re just saying that because you’re trying to get lucky again.”
“I’m saying it because it’s true.” He leaned over to kiss me. “Also because I’m absolutely trying to get lucky again.”
I pulled him over me, needing to feel the weight of him against me again. “How are you already hard again?” My eyes widened as I looked up at him.
“Years of pent-up frustration that you’ve put me through.” He settled between my thighs, and I could feel him pressing against me, ready. “Also, you’re naked in my bed. It would take a stronger man than me to not be affected by that.”
“Uh-huh.” I rolled my eyes. I wasn’t exactly what one would call a temptress.
“Agnes. I still don’t think you understand the spell you hold over me.”
“I’m hardly—”
“An enchantress.” Graham nibbled against my mouth and pulled away to protect himself.
I watched his muscles bunch across his back, and my throat went dry with need for him.
It had always been this way with him, and yet it was new.
There was a rawness here, to what we were sharing.
It felt like I’d crossed a line, and I didn’t yet know what the consequences would be.
The very idea made my breath catch, and my stomach twisted.
“Don’t, Agnes.” Graham reached over and smoothed his thumb over the worry line in my brow. “That’s for tomorrow.”
“But—”
Graham pushed inside me in one smooth stroke, and I gasped at the sensation. The stretch was easier this time, my body already primed for him, but the fullness still stole my breath.
“Goddess,” I breathed. “I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of that.”
“Good.” He started to move, slow and deep. “Because I plan to do this as often as humanly possible for the rest of our lives.”
The rest of our lives. The words should have terrified me and sent me spiraling into panic about the curse, about all the reasons this could end in tragedy.
Instead, they just made me hold him tighter.
We moved together, finding a rhythm that felt as natural as breathing. This time was different from the first. It was less desperate and more tender. Graham’s eyes never left mine as he thrust into me, and I saw the hope he’d never let die.
I pulled him down and kissed him, trying to pour everything I felt into it—my regret for the time we’d lost and the love I’d been too afraid to show.
“I love you,” I said against his mouth. “I love you, I love you, I love you.”
“Again.” His hips moved faster. “Say it again.”
“I love you.”
“Again.”
“I love you, Graham. I love you. I’m yours. I’ve always been yours.”
He groaned and buried his face in my neck, his thrusts growing erratic. I wrapped my legs around his waist, pulling him deeper, and felt the pleasure building again at the base of my spine.
“Together,” he gasped against my mouth. “Come with me, Agnes.”
And I came undone.
We found our pleasure together, clinging to each other like we were the only two people in the world. The pleasure seemed to go on forever, wave after wave, until I was completely and utterly spent.
Graham collapsed beside me, pulling me into his arms. We lay there in the darkness, listening to the rain against the windows, our heartbeats gradually slowing to something like normal.
“I should have done this years ago,” I admitted, my voice muffled against his chest.
“Yes. You should have. I accept your apology.”
“I didn’t apologize.”
“It was implied.” He pressed a kiss to the top of my head. “Also, you owe me approximately a thousand years of make-up sex. I expect you to pay your debts.”
“A thousand years of make-up sex? Someone’s being a bit dramatic.”
“Minimum. I’m willing to negotiate additional time for emotional damages.”
I laughed, tipping my head back to look at him. His face was soft in the dim light, his eyes warm and sleepy and full of love.
“I’ll see what I can do,” I said.
“That’s all I ask.”
I traced idle patterns on his chest, feeling his heartbeat beneath my fingers. This. I’ve missed this. Intimacy. Connection. Love. Goddess, I was thankful he never let go. Outside, the rain continued to fall, a gentle rhythm against the windows.
“Graham?”
“Mm?”
“I have to tell you everything. About the curse, about what I saw in the vision, about—”
“Tomorrow.” He pulled me closer, tucking my head under his chin. “Tell me tomorrow. Tonight, I just want this. Just us.”
“But—”
“Tomorrow, Agnes.”
He had a point. And I was so tired. And cozy. Also, I was just ridiculously happy.
“Okay,” I murmured. “Tomorrow.”
Although, it was hard to reconcile the positively wondrous thing that happened today. We saw a unicorn. A unicorn. And it bestowed on me something even more incredible than merely its presence. Answers.
But then I fell asleep in his arms, listening to the rain, and put my worries aside for one brief, stolen moment.