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Wrong thing

"I don’t want to talk about Charlotte," hesplit second his lips were on me, and Liam--the same Liam who had teased and tormented and played and cajoled as kids, the one I’d captured fireflies in a jar with, who had gone on ca trips with my family ere little--was atothis very moment

Sam

Tears fore of my face Liam felt it as he kissed me tenderly, and wiped one away "A to roll off

Gratitude mixed with frustration and I pulled him back to me

"No Don’t stop Please don’t stop at all I want this I want more I want it all"

"You’re sure?" No question in his voice--he was confir

"I am What about you?" I asked

His warm lips and confident hands wereon top of a pile of peach cloth

And so Liaave, and it was pure and tender and what I needed

In the end, I had lost ht

Except with the last guy I’d ever iined

Chapter Five

Sam

Aain,hair at the back of her neck, our breath ues touched My hands shifted to her ar down and then--

Peace

So deep inside me just stopped, as if it could finally rest

Sanctuary

This wasn’t about fucking That I could get nearly any time I wanted after a show This was about inti them and you realize that you’ve been invited to cross an invisible line and enter a neorld We all build shells around ourselves, and cracking thee Sex itself isn’t what I’ and forging ahead with so intiain

It’s all about trust

My hands roamed over her waist, the curve of her side and hips, the ends of her long hair tickling ood, and the heat of her lush body felt made solely for me, conjured only for the space between us Herme rock hard as we entwined ourselves on her bed Months without sex ht band of need clenched every muscle in my body as Amy’s hands found my ass, then roamed up my back No woman I’d been with had ever been so bold, and it turned everything up a notch Wanting a willing body in bed was one thing; finding a wo to tellso much better had been a rich fantasy of mine for--well, forever

Could this really be Ah to look in her eyes, "I don’t getin some sort of surreal moment where it could all be taken away in an instant, like when I open my eyes, or when I blink, as if this is an alternate reality," I explained, asped, interruptingthose warm arms around my neck "It’s the past four years that were the alternate reality This," she added, punctuating her words with a kiss that shot downstroked, "this is the life we should be living"

"And noe are," I finished for her, so ready to make love to her, to connect and deepen, to serve her for all the rest of time--in whatever reality we could carve out for ourselves Pu need to be in her, to give et hot and sweaty and breathless on her bed hat I also knew--via a thin shred of restraint--needed to be respected

I’d hurt her so intio

Could I heal her with inti me the chance, then ain

A inhed,down his back What was left to want?

"I want to know everything about you, Amy How you want to be kissed, how you want to be touched" His eyes sought h his eyelashes as his mouth traversed my shoulder and collarbone

As his lips touchedas much to touch and know me as to communicate his own need, Sam’s words echoed inshort the yearning touch my hands wanted to continue Once with Liam, a year with Brent--that was it Sam must have been with so many people A drummer in a band? And so hot? Of course he had expectations and co of hier, the full iry kiss sweptertips, his hard, muscled back was mine to explore with my own hands

But so s? I’d played out this moment thousands of times in my head over the years Wondered hoould feel to hear him whisper my name, to be told he wanted me--needed me--craved h

I didn’t want enough I wanted so ht noith his ainstthe anticipated groan