Chapter Sixteen #2
"There’s no guarantees in life but if I walk away now, I’d be guaranteed of losing you and your love."
For several seconds neither of us spoke. The words settled heavily between us because they carried so much truth. Eventually I shifted closer.
"Aurora."
Emotion flickered across her face.
"I love you, Jasper."
"I think I've loved you ever since I saw you sitting in that beat up car."
I reached for her hand and she immediately threaded her fingers through mine. The simple contact felt more meaningful than I could explain.
"I don't want to lose you, Aurora," I admitted.
Aurora squeezed my hand.
"I don't want to lose you either."
The response carried none of the uncertainty that had existed a week earlier. Instead, it carried conviction. Honest and unguarded.
I studied her face.
"What happens now?"
Aurora smiled softly.
"Now we stop pretending this is something we have to solve and start living but I'm still going to worry."
I nodded.
Aurora shifted closer.
"So promise me something."
I nodded.
"Always be careful. Promise me you’ll always try to come home."
The request sounded so simple yet I understood exactly what she meant. She wasn’t looking for a guarantee or an impossible promise. Just a promise do everything I could to always come home.
"I promise."
Her eyes searched mine then she nodded.
For the first time since arriving, all the tension that had existed between us finally began to disappear.
The kiss started slowly.
Neither of us rushed.
Neither of us felt the need.
The days apart had stripped away every remaining doubt about how we felt.
When Aurora's hand slid up into my hair, I deepened the kiss without hesitation.
She moved closer until the distance between us disappeared completely, and I wrapped an arm around her waist while weeks of anticipation finally gave way to certainty.
When the kiss eventually ended, neither of us moved very far.
Aurora rested her forehead against mine and I looked down as a smile touched her lips.
"That was a very long week."
I laughed softly.
"It really was."
Her hand remained wrapped around mine.
For several moments we sat together enjoying the simple relief of being together again. The apartment felt warmer than I remembered. Maybe nothing had actually changed. Maybe the difference existed entirely inside me.
“Talk’s over,” Aurora stated, her voice a low murmur.
She stood, offering her hand. I took it, her skin warm against mine, and let her lead me down the short hallway. The door to her bedroom was ajar, darkness beyond.
She pushed it open and turned to me. Her fingers reached for the buttons of my shirt, working them slowly, her eyes locked on mine. Each release felt like a heartbeat. The fabric parted, and she pushed it from my shoulders. It whispered to the floor as her palms slid down my arms.
I reached for her, but she caught both wrists, guiding both hands to her hips instead.
Her own top was a simple wrap and I untied it with a single, deliberate pull. It sighed open, revealing the gentle swell of her breasts, and the flat plane of her stomach.
My breath caught. I’d imagined this, but the reality was a quiet shock. The pearlescent sheen of her skin in the dim light, the confident arch of her spine as she let the garment fall had my dick thickening.
I bent forward, my mouth finding the pulse at the base of her throat. She gasped, her hands tangling in my hair. The sound, raw and wanting, unraveled the last of my restraint.
My lips traveled lower, tracing the curve of her breast before I took her nipple into my mouth. She cried out, her back bowing, pressing herself more fully against me.
We hurriedly stripped. I grabbed a condom from the pocket of my jeans and rolled it on before we stumbled toward the bed, a tangle of hungry mouths and seeking hands.
The sheets were cool against my back as she followed me down, straddling my hips. Her curls fell around our faces like a curtain, sealing us in our own world. I could feel the heat of her, the damp readiness at the apex of her thighs, pressed against my aching hardness.
“Jasper,” she breathed, my name a plea and a command on her lips.
I gripped her hips, guiding her as she rose up. For a suspended moment, she hovered there, the tip of me nudging against her entrance. Her eyes were wide, dark pools reflecting my own desperate want. Then, with a slow, controlled roll of her hips, she took me in.
The sensation was blinding—a tight, wet, perfect heat that sheathed me completely. We both shared a shuddering inhale. Her lashes fluttered as she adjusted.
“Aurora,” I groaned, the word torn from me.
She began to move. A slow, rocking grind that built into a deeper, more urgent rhythm. I thrust up to meet her, each drive drawing a sharp, sweet gasp from her throat. The room filled with the sound of our joining: skin sliding against skin, the soft creak of the bed, our ragged, mingled breaths.
I rolled us over, pinning her beneath me without breaking our connection.
The new angle drew a keening moan from her.
I drove into her, again and again, each stroke hitting a deeper, more resonant place.
Her legs locked around my waist, her heels digging into the small of my back, pulling me deeper still.
One of my hands slid between our sweat-slicked bodies, my thumb finding the swollen, sensitive nub at her core. I circled it in time with my thrusts. Her head thrashed against the pillows.
“There…oh God, right there, Jasper, don’t stop…”
Her internal muscles began to clench around me, a rhythmic, pulsing tightness.
Her climax broke over her with a shattered cry, her body arching off the bed, taut as a bowstring.
The sight of her with eyes squeezed shut, mouth open in a silent scream of pleasure pushed me to my own edge.
With a final, deep thrust, I buried myself inside her as my own release tore through me, a white-hot wave that left me trembling and spent.
For long minutes, there was only the sound of our slowing breaths.
I collapsed beside her, carefully withdrawing, and gathered her against my chest. Her skin was damp, her heart still hammering against my ribs.
She nuzzled into the hollow of my shoulder, her fingers tracing idle patterns on my chest.
The city hummed on, indifferent beyond the windows. But here, in the tangled sheets, in the scent of sex and her perfume, I knew something new and fragile had been forged. Not just a first time, but a first chapter.