28. Ava
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Ava
Three for three
I distantly heard Tanner crying my name, gasping in a ragged breath as he jerked against me.
My own release was still moving through me.
I felt as if I were riding the intense pleasure crashing through me again and again.
Each time, it would tighten at my core and then break in sharp, rolling waves, so intense I could hardly bear it.
I felt the heat of his release filling me, and I held on tight as my own began to abate, shifting from crashing, tumultuous waves to ripples and eddies.
I savored the delicious stretch of him inside me, the press of his hard, muscled body against mine.
I could feel the flex of his back where my fingers pressed the base of his spine.
I was honestly still in shock that this had even happened. Tanner was good at this. Like, really good at this. Was it him? Or me? Or was it the fact that I felt safe with him? I didn’t know.
Right now, I didn’t care.
After a moment, I felt his weight begin to shift as he became heavy against me, curling an arm around my waist and deftly rolling us to the side. Somehow, he managed to keep my ankle in mind the whole time.
“Are you okay?” he asked as he adjusted me against his side, carefully.
“I am better than okay. I’m amazing.” I gathered myself enough to ease up on an elbow.
“No pain in your ankle?” he pressed.
“No pain at all. In fact, I think orgasms are a painkiller. They should bottle them and sell them,” I announced.
When Tanner chuckled, I could feel the vibration of it in my body.
I giggled too, and even though I wanted to look away, I couldn’t.
The intimacy I was trying so hard not to experience shimmered in the air around us—little sparks, a net of warmth, holding us at this moment.
I relaxed against him again, pressing a kiss into the divot at the base of his throat.
“How do you feel? Any pain?” I teased in return, trying to distract myself from the swirl of feelings rising again.
At the sound of his low laugh, I savored the warmth of it in my chest. “I feel great. And I agree—orgasms could be a painkiller. I wasn’t in pain before, but I have no doubt that if I had been, I would’ve completely forgotten it.”
“Oh!” I leaned up again, catching his gaze. “How was sex without a condom?”
He narrowed his eyes at me, and I instantly regretted asking. But then I saw the flare of heat in his eyes. “Better than I could’ve imagined.” His voice was low and somber.
“You are such a good boy.”
“Boy?” he all but yelped.
“Actually, how old are you?”
“Thirty-two,” he said uncertainly.
“Okay. You’re thirty-two years old, and you’ve never had sex without a condom. That means you are a responsible man, hence a good boy.”
He chuckled. “I’m not perfect. But birth control is a thing.”
“I admire that about you.”
“What do you mean?” he countered.
“That you’re that responsible. I hear a lot of guys are assholes about birth control.”
“Including your ex?”
I nodded. “Yeah. That whole ‘condoms don’t feel right’ bullshit. Whatever.” I rolled my eyes and then added, “And thank you.”
“For what?” He looked genuinely puzzled.
“Well, the orgasm. That’s three for three.”
Tanner waggled his brows before his gaze sobered. “Sometimes I think it’s a matter of just fitting well together.”
“I don’t know what you mean.” I felt silly because I didn’t. My sexual experience was now up to two men. I didn’t have many reference points.
“Just that sometimes the chemistry is just right.”
“Oh. So maybe that was the problem with my ex?”
Tanner paused before shaking his head. “Maybe, but also your ex was an asshole. We’ve established that.”
“Oh. Well, he totally was,” I agreed.
“I don’t just mean because of the cheating. About sex.”
“I didn’t have anything else to go by.”
“Well, now you do,” he pointed out.
“I know. This might be a problem, Tanner. You might have ruined me forever.”
He grinned, sifting his fingers through my hair before leaning close to give me a quick, fierce kiss.
“That’s okay,” he murmured. “You might have ruined me forever.”