Author: Tiffany Reisz

Her lips moved down to his neck and she kissed the water drops off his shoulders.

“Laila...”

“What?” She pulled back immediately. “Did I do something wrong?”

“No.” He took a ragged breath. “Not wrong at all.”

“Something right?”

He nodded. She stepped forward again and dropped another kiss on his right shoulder, a second slow kiss onto his left. She feathered more soft kisses over his neck and chest and to each end of his collarbone and back again.

“I love how tall you are,” he said, dipping his head to kiss under her ear. He brushed her hair off her shoulder and she shivered at the light tickling sensation of his fingertips touching such delicate skin. “Not used to that.”

“I like looking you right in your eyes.” She met his eyes then and saw desire and concern in his gaze. She ached for the desire. She adored him for the concern. “I never liked being this tall before. I do now.”

Laila ran her hands up and down Wes’s arms and then over his chest and stomach. When her hand came to the waistband of his jeans, she hesitated.

“It’s okay,” he whispered, kissing her again. “You can touch me.”

With shaking hands, she unbuttoned his jeans and unzipped them. Straight from the shower he had on nothing under his pants. She tried not to stare or gape but she’d never seen a naked man like this so close before, so close she could touch him. She wrapped her hand around him and stroked upward.

“You’re big,” she said, blushing against her will.

“And you’re a virgin.”

She shook her head as she continued to trace the length of him with her fingertips.

“Don’t. Don’t think of that. I want to take care of you tonight. That’s why I’m here.”

“I’m not going to forget that you’re a virgin, and you better believe I’m going to try to take care of you, too.”

“We’ll take care of each other.”

“I like that idea.”

Wes reached past her and yanked the covers down on the bed. She sat down and scooted back as he crawled in and on top of her.

They kissed again for a long time, long enough for Laila to truly start to relax underneath him. Everything he did to her sent reverberations through her whole body. The kiss he placed on the center of her chest she felt in the backs of her thighs. His hand sliding from her knee to her hip caused her lower back to tighten.

“Anytime you need me to stop or slow down, tell me,” Wes said as he came up on his knees and looked down at her.

“I will. But I don’t want you to stop. Not now or ever.”

“Good.” He gave her a wide grin before raising his hand and crooking a finger at her. She sat up and waited. He gathered the edge of her nightgown in his hands and started to pull it upward. For a split second, Laila froze in a moment of sudden self-consciousness. But she forced herself to raise her arms and let Wes undress her.

Now wearing nothing but her panties, she laid back down on the bed and looked at anything and everything but Wes.

“You have amazing breasts,” he said. Laughing, she crossed her arms over her chest. “Don’t you dare.”

He took her wrists in his hands and forced them to the sides of her head.

“Wes...”

“I let you see me and touch me. My turn.”

He let go of her wrists and she kept them at her sides as he brought his mouth down to her chest. He kissed her over her pounding heart.

“You’re beautiful, Laila.”

She shook her head. “You’re the pretty one.”

“English lesson, little Danish girl. I’m a guy.” He looked down at her. “Guys aren’t pretty. I am not pretty.”

“So my English isn’t perfect. What are you, then?”

“I’m stunning.” He winked at her and she burst into laughter, laughter that turned to a gasp as he dropped his head and took a nipple into his mouth. The heat from his mouth on her breast caused her entire body to tense. She felt like a knot inside her was tightening with every kiss, every touch, every new intimacy. How did people get anything done when they could be doing this instead? She wanted to do this for the rest of her life, lay in bed with Wes and touch him and be touched by him, kiss him and be kissed by him, give herself to him and take everything he had to give her.

She closed her eyes and let herself drift into the pleasure of his hands and his mouth on her. He stayed at her breasts for what felt like an hour—kissing, sucking, teasing her nipples in such a way her hips lifted and a muscle deep inside her twitched with need.

When Wes finally pulled away from her swollen breasts, her nipples ached and a light sheen of sweat covered her body.

“Please...” she whispered, not even knowing quite what she begged for, only knowing that whatever it was, no one could give it to her but him.

Some part of her felt a woman’s pride when she felt Wes shaking under her hands, panting with his own need.

“Are you sure?” He pulled her close and she melted against his body. She couldn’t get enough of his skin, his warmth, his touch, couldn’t get enough of him.

“Yes.”

With a ragged breath, Wes rolled back onto his knees again and slowly dragged her panties down her thighs. Laila stared up at the ceiling and tried to stay calm even as Wes stood up and stripped out of his jeans. With every moment that passed it become more and more certain, more real, more irrevocable...they’d gone too far. They couldn’t, they wouldn’t, go back.

Wes lay with her again, this time at her side. He slipped his hand between her legs and nudged her thighs apart.

“It’s okay,” he whispered. “I’m going to use my fingers first.”

Laila nodded as she opened her legs more for him.

“I want this so much,” she said as he traced the curve of her hip with his hand. “I’m nervous. That’s all. Please don’t think I want you to stop.”

“I understand nervous. And I won’t stop unless you tell me to stop.”

He cupped her between her thighs and she pressed into the heel of his hand.

“Is there a way you like to be touched?” Wes asked as he made slow circles against her with his palm.

“I don’t know...I’ve never done this with anybody before.”

“With yourself?”

Laila laughed and stared at him.

“Don’t laugh. I lived with Nora for a year and a half. Trust me. I know what you women do in the privacy of your own bedrooms.”

“Okay...so we do. Sometimes. I’m not saying, I do, but...”

“You do. I do it, too.”

“Fine. I do.”

“Good. Then show me.”

“Show you?”

“Show...” Wes kissed her quick on the mouth. “Me.”

Laila sighed.

“Please,” he said. “Use my hand. Teach me how you like to be touched.”

Tentatively she covered his right hand with hers. His hand became her hand’s shadow as she guided his two fingers to her clitoris.

“Does that feel good?” Wes kissed her neck, nipped at her shoulder.

“Yes...so good.”

“Good,” he said, and slipped a finger inside her.

Laila arched her back as his touch sent a wave of pleasure through her entire body. She opened her legs a little wider, inviting more of him. He responded with a second finger.

“Too much?”

“No, I want more.”

“Greedy,” he teased, kissing her on the mouth again. He slowly moved his fingers in and out of her. She’d grown so wet she could hear her own fluid on his hand. But Wes didn’t seem to mind, didn’t seem disgusted or even amused. She’d fantasized about this night as long as she could remember and she felt nothing but gratitude she’d chosen to do this with someone who knew what he was doing.

He pushed his fingertip into a spot inside her and her vagina twitched around his hand.

God, did he know what he was doing.

He rubbed her clitoris with his thumb. Rising up on her elbows, she stared down the length of her body and watched his hand moving inside her. She’d never seen anything so erotic, so beautiful, as Wes’s fingers disappearing into her and pulling back out again, shining with her own wetness.

He took her nipple in his mouth again and sucked deep as he pushed a third finger into her. This time she felt her body’s resistance. Still she breathed through the slight pain and in a few minutes the pleasure, all of it, had come back.

His hand moved faster inside her and her hips pushed in time with his hand. She’d come whether he wanted her to or not if he kept this up. Closing her eyes she relaxed against the pillow and let the sensations wash over her. Something built inside her. It felt like a river pushing against a dam and any minute the dam would break. She wanted it to break, needed it to break.

She panted as her fingers dug into Wes’s back and the sheets. So close...almost there...

Abruptly Wes pulled his fingers out of her and covered her body with his.

“Laila?”

She opened her eyes and gazed up at him.

“Ready,” she whispered.

He reached between her legs, parted her folds with his fingers and kissed her mouth. Her last kiss as a virgin...she almost didn’t want it to end.

“Do you want me to stop?” he asked, and she shook her head.

“Never.”

With arduous slowness, Wes started to push into her. She wanted it so much, wanted to feel him filling her, but she couldn’t stop herself from flinching as her body protested against him.

Wes kissed her again, kissed her cheek, kissed her forehead, all the while barely moving inside her. She breathed because she forced herself to breathe. It burned inside her and part of her wanted to push him out of her, anything for relief from the pain. A cry of pain escaped her lips.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “Do you need to stop?”

“No...don’t stop.” She wrapped her legs around his back, desperate to keep him close, keep him in her. As much as it hurt she didn’t want to let him go.

He pushed in and she inhaled sharply as she felt something tearing.

“Breathe,” he ordered as he pulled out of her.

“Wes?” She immediately felt empty the moment he left her.

“We’re not done, I promise.” He smiled down at her and wiped her hair off her forehead. When she’d entered his room she’d almost felt chilly. Now sweat covered her body and she burned from within. “But you’re in agony. I don’t like agony. Maybe this will help.”

“What will help? Anything. I don’t want to stop.”

Wes kissed her chest and her stomach. She twined her hands in his hair as his lips feathered delicately over her hips. When he pushed her legs open wide she almost stopped, but his mouth upon her silenced any protest. Carefully he spread her wide and licked her clitoris. He teased it with his tongue until she started panting again from the pleasure. He moved lower and licked her aching lips, even pushing his tongue all the way into her. Moans, deep and guttural, escaped the back of her throat. She felt wanton, beautiful, erotic, even womanly, as he opened her up with his mouth. He lavished her with his lips and tongue. Her moans turned to pleas, begging him to enter her again.

He covered her again with his body. Hooking his hands under each of her knees, he forced her legs wide open as he sat between her thighs. With short thrusts of his hips he worked himself into her again, this time with much less pain and almost no resistance. Laila reached out her arms and Wes fell into them as he pushed all the way into her. She needed to hold him, needed to touch him, needed to have as much of him as possible in her and against her and on top of her. She couldn’t quite believe it...Wes was inside her. They were joined, their two bodies moving as one. She might love him...she did love him. Even if it wasn’t forever, she did love him tonight. This was love, what they did together. Two people saving each other from a night spent alone and lonely. They brought their pain to each other and each accepted the gift. This was love, keeping watch together until dawn. This was love, not letting the people who hurt them win. This was love, taking a risk for someone else.