Twenty-Eight #2
I crane my neck to peer at the messy scrawl.
Big post-sledding date with Juno and Dylan. Since we know your candy cane isn’t getting any action…Merry Christmas to us! —Ro and Lix (P.S. Sorry. Stores are closed.)
“I’m going to strangle those little pricks with tinsel.” Theo’s eyes bounce around the room, to the door, then back at me like he’s buffering. “Do you…does… uhh …does Ash—”
I bite his bicep. “Drag any more of your brothers into bed with us and I ’ll have to strangle you .”
Huffing a half laugh, half growl, he presses an irritatingly chaste kiss to my nose. “Okay.” He starts to pull away. “ Okay. Give me a sec—”
“Wait.” I stop him from moving by locking my ankles around the backs of his thighs. “I’m on birth control.” I look up at him, cheeks flaming at what I’m about to propose. “All tests clear.”
Breath lodged in my throat, I watch his gaze darken with understanding.
This brazen idea has never crossed my mind before. Letting someone in without a barrier—physical or emotional—isn’t my style.
With Theo, of all people, the risk to my heart should terrify me.
Instead… it turns me on .
“If you’ve also been tested since your most recent relationship…”
For a second, I swear his soul leaves his body.
“Never mind,” I blurt, panic flaring. “Let me che—”
“No,” he chokes out, voice hoarse. “Tested. I’m good.” A shallow breath drags through him. “And in case you’re wondering about any encounters…” His throat works around a hard swallow. “It’s been a while.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah. Spent the last six years obsessing over this girl I couldn’t have.” His eyes blaze. “Kind of impossible to notice anyone else when you’re staring straight into the sun.”
“ Oh .” It takes me a second to fully process what he’s saying.
What? How? Why?
I could use a few more minutes— days, months, years —to unpack his words, but Theo is done waiting.
He nudges against me. “Don’t let it go to your pretty little head, okay?”
“Looks like it’s gone to your pretty big one.” I wind my arms around his neck.
Is this what six years of delayed gratification does to a man? Turns him into a force of nature?
My thighs grip his hips, legs sliding around his waist to pull him closer. “Show me everything you’ve been holding back. Please .”
The invitation shatters Theo’s restraint .
“ Isla .” He surges forward on a low grunt. “Isla— fuck .” His forehead drops to mine. “I’ve never—” The rest burns up between us as he presses in.
Just. The. Tip.
“ Shit , Sunshine.” He freezes, teeth gritted, chest heaving. His hold tightens, the tendons in his body strung so tight they seem ready to snap. “You’re killing me.”
Control with a capital C pulses inside me.
He sinks in another inch, and I see stars. My hands fly to his biceps, nails biting into muscle.
“You got me ready." His fingers had worked me open, shaped me to fit him. “I should be able to—”
“You can ,” he rasps against my throat. “You’re perfect. So warm and wet for me.” His teeth scrape over my pulse. “Just… tight .”
He shifts, pushing deeper. Testing his theory—and my limits.
My brain blanks. A hot flash of white bursts behind my eyes.
“More,” I plead, even as my body flinches around the fullness. “I need—” Well past the point of any semblance of control, I’m not ashamed to beg. “I need you all the way, Theo.”
“All the way,” he promises, but then pulls out, breath hissing through his teeth. “Come here. You’re gonna show off just how well you can take me.”
Before I can mourn the loss, he shifts us. In a series of quick, seamless motions, an arm bands tight around my waist, lifting and turning me with ease as he climbs higher on the bed.
We end with his back flush to the headboard, legs spread beneath me, hands gripping my hips. While he may have the body of a battle-ready king, right now, he’s serving as my throne.
Thighs bracketing his, I straddle him, soaking his lap as his cock throbs hot against my stomach .
“I think it’s trying to file a formal complaint,” I murmur, stroking up his length. “For edging-related crimes.”
Theo huffs a quiet laugh. It’s a low, rough sound that crumbles into a growl the second I rise onto my knees and grind along his shaft.
“Keep doing that and you’ll definitely earn yourself some handcuffs,” he warns.
“ Aww , but you already gave me all my Christmas presents.” I nip at his bottom lip, daring him to act on his promise with another defiant thrust of my hips.
His palm lands on my ass in a light tap—more suggestion than sting. A call to attention, really.
My nipples tighten in response. Theo’s gaze drops, darkening as he takes in the sight.
His arm winds around my back, guiding me higher so his mouth can play.
He sucks hard, tongue lashing and teeth scraping at the tender peak.
His other hand kneads my ass, fingers drifting lower, seeking out my slick heat from behind.
He’s giving me exactly what I want—pressure and pleasure mixed with just the lightest bite of pain.
Impatient, I rock against him with even more urgency now. The friction is everything, but I need more.
More of him.
“ Fuck , that feels good,” he murmurs, kissing his way up my chest. “I want you to do that again.” His mouth trails to my neck, latching onto a spot wired straight to my clit. “With me all the way inside, this time.”
Settling back, he hooks his fingers on the headboard above him, every muscle strung tight on display. With his other hand, he fists the base of his cock as he offers himself up to me.
“Go on, Sunshine. Sit on it.”
Oh. Wow.
The sight is lethal.
But if this is the way I go—the ride will be worth it.
So very worth it.
I drag myself over his tip, coating him in our shared mess. “Do I need to sign a waiver first?”
“ Isla .” I’ve never heard a sterner sound. Or a more starved one.
Batting my lashes, I give him my most innocent look. “What?”
His hand travels along my spine in a touch disarmingly gentle for the fire in his eyes.
“You’re cute.” He gives me a light kiss.
“ Adorable , actually.” Another kiss. “So fucking funny.” Again.
“Talented, too. Intelligent. A perfect woman in every way.” The next one is longer.
Rougher. “But, right now, you need to be a good girl and put me out of my misery. Please .”
Well…that’s it for me.
Fire lit under my ass— literally —I grasp his shoulders for balance, align myself over him, and brace for impact.
The physical kind, anyway.
No room for feelings or emotions in this safe space.
Theo’s grip tenses the moment I start to lower, clearly fighting the urge to dominate the pace.
“Just like that,” he rasps. “Take what you need. At your own speed.”
Inch by stinging inch, I impale myself on him, muscles clenching at the instant pressure building inside me.
Theo’s head tips back against the headboard, jaw locked, eyes hooded, but his gaze never strays. “Fucking incredible.”
His praise sends a rush of heat spiraling through me, spurring on my eagerness.
I moan as I sink further down, working him deeper. My thighs tremble, walls fluttering at the stretch.
The fullness is… sublime .
So good I’m about to come from a move barely past foreplay.
“A little more,” he commands. Begs ? I can’t decode his tone over the roar of blood in my ears.
Then his thumb slides across my clit, and I act on instinct, dropping the rest of the way with a sob steeped in pure ecstasy.
Fully seated. Utterly stuffed.
Ready to split apart around him.
Clutching his biceps, I grind down even further. My breasts graze his chest, and the contact sets off a full-body shiver. We’re no longer just skin meeting skin. We’re cells colliding, matter erupting.
“Good?” He grips my waist, yanking me flush against him.
“So good.” Sex with Theo is a fantasy come to life.
Except for the part where I obviously should’ve dreamt bigger.
“You?” I whisper.
“Great. Now… move . Ride me like you mean it.”
He doesn’t have to ask twice.
I start slow, lifting to my knees, then slipping back down in one smooth, greedy glide.
Before long, my hips roll with each rise and fall, spine arching to bring us even closer.
As I pick up speed, my muscles begin to burn, and my thighs shake with the effort of keeping up with the need cresting inside me.
“Look at us,” Theo breathes, fisting my hair and moving my head so he can tip my gaze to where we’re joined. “Such a flawless fit. Fucking made for me, aren’t you?”
What tumbles from me in response is a chain of nonsensical syllables. Nothing but base pleasure claws its way out of my throat. The noises pale in comparison to the obscene ones my body is putting out as I ride him toward oblivion.
Theo doesn’t seem to mind. In fact, he looks ready to emboss the soundtrack on vinyl .
“So good, Isla,” he grits, palming my ass. “Own it. Own me.” When his fingers dig into my flesh, the force of his restraint is imprinted in his grip.
It’s killing him not to be in control. But he’s doing it.
For me.
And that knowledge fills me with so much pride.
It’s what gives me the bravery to ask for what I need to take me further.
“Theo…I…want…”
Him. In the lead again.
“ You . Please.” It’s a request born of instinct.
“I’m going to need a few more words,” he instructs.
“No,” I counter. “I want you to make me forget how to speak.” I’m always burning around him, and my mouth keeps adding fuel to the fire.
“I’ll gladly fuck you senseless, Sunshine.
But I’m leaving you with one word.” His palm presses to my chest, right over my wild heartbeat.
“ Mine .” He shifts his hold, one hand slipping beneath my thigh to drag it higher.
Tilting my hips with the other, he takes charge of the angle, forcing himself even deeper.
Holy hell.
When he finally thrusts up, it’s with enough vigor to make me choke on his name. Stars explode behind my eyes, body bucking from the impact.
Not giving me a chance to recover, he sets a pace so completely claiming all I can do is hold on and enjoy the ride as my body communicates with his in some primal, physical language.
A dialect of mass destruction I surrender to freely.
Eagerly. Every nerve ending is pushed past its limits, and I still beg for more.
Especially when he hits a place that shatters my vision.
“Don’t stop. Please . I—I’m—”
“I know, Sunshine. Let go for me. Come all over my cock.” His thumb rolls over my swollen clit before he pinches it.
The combination of his words and his touch sends me soaring over the edge.
My orgasm detonates as I moan Theo’s name.
I’m a live wire, and the man has stripped me of all insulation.
He pounds into me through the aftershocks, chasing his own climax while dragging every last tremor out of mine.
We’re slick with sweat. My nails score his back. His fingers bruise my hips.
Our eyes lock. Time halts. The universe blurs into nothing.
Nothing but us .
Skin on skin. Heart to heart.
He’s lodged so far he feels… mine .
Mine, mine, mine.
“Isla? Where do you want it?” Though still just as powerful, his claiming movements grow more erratic. “Where do you want me?”
My lungs fight for air as I rush to respond. “Inside. I want you with me when you come. I want all of it. All of you.”
“You want me to fill you up? Mark you as mine?"
I nod wildly.
"You like being the first—the only —to ever have me bare?”
The sheer thrill of that revelation lures me toward another orgasm. The reverse is true, too—there's a rush in giving him what I'd never dared share with anyone else.
“Same,” I pant. “You’re my first. My only.”
My words break him.
Control to carnage in under two seconds.
He snarls my name and slams deeper, rhythm unraveling and thrusts turning desperate. A man on a mission, he’s chasing the end of the world and taking me along for the ride.
I hold on tighter. If he’s going down, I want to go with him.
When he comes, it’s with a worshipful “ Isla ” that vibrates through me. A reverent sound torn from his chest and slammed straight into mine.
He buries deep, grinding his release inside me, as if intent on leaving a permanent mark. The grateful way my body clings to him in return makes me think it has the same idea.
Our heartbeats sync, pressing together like they’re trying to fuse. Somewhere between our shared breaths, our souls entwine too.
As we descend from our shared high, Theo doesn’t pull out. Instead, he wraps me in his arms, dragging the top sheet over our tangled bodies without breaking our connection.
“Stay right here,” he murmurs against my temple, brushing sweat-damp hair from my forehead. “I want to keep you like this. Full of me. Mine .”
My brain warns me to run, but my body begs to stay. I lower my cheek to the center of his chest, promising myself I’ll move in a minute.
Just one short minute. Sixty seconds max.
As I begin to drift off, Theo shifts us and pulls me tighter. Closer. Hooking one leg over mine, he wraps me in his firm arms until it feels like every surface area of my body is covered in him. Even his breath soothes—warm and steady in my ear.
So why is it that I already miss him?