Not in love

And he was going to be so good to her. “How would you prefer I make you come?” he asked. “Fingers? Mouth? Cock?”

Her chest heaved. “I said no—”

“Come on, Rue. You know I can make you come with my cock without putting it inside you.”

Her eyes fluttered closed, and when they opened again, they were glossier. “Why don’t you surprise me?”

“Because you clearly have limits and preferences, and I don’t want to fuck up my one chance.” They held each other’s eyes for a long, swelling moment. He waited and waited, but she never replied. “Okay,” he murmured, kneeling in front of the bed. When he yanked her hips closer, she gasped in shock, but her heels remained on his shoulders, exactly where he’d placed them.

She liked it—a bit of roughness. A hint of violence. Yielding control. Just as much as he liked to clutch it. If this had been the begi

“D-do I?”

“Fuck yeah,” he said before swiping the length of her with his tongue.

He loved doing this. It was something he’d unabashedly, enthusiastically enjoyed since he was in his teens—the flavors, the scents, the sounds. And with Rue . . . maybe it felt special because she was usually so guarded. Now she was still quiet, no loud moans or over-the-top whimpers, nothing purposefully meant to broadcast pleasure, but her breath hitched, her thighs tightened around his ears, her pelvis tilted to rub against his mouth. Eli felt each little tell right in his cock.

I would do this a million more times, he thought. I would spend a million more hours like this. With you.

He hoped he’d feel differently after an orgasm. And since Rue was likely to agree, when she began cresting closer to her peak, when her abdomen started contracting under his palm and she shuddered against him, he pulled back.

She let out a small, plaintive breath. Eli wanted to go back and finish her off—or keep her here forever, with him, on this edge. “Not yet.” He looked down at her flushed, trembling body. She was so close. So beautiful. “Can I put my fingers inside you?” he asked.

She nodded eagerly.

He showed her his hand. “How many?”

A pause. “No more than two.”

He lay down next to her, and being inside her was a slick, tight fit that made the prospect of never fucking this woman absolutely devastating. When her face showed nothing but pleasure, he added another finger, and that was a game changer.

“Oh my god,” she whispered, canting her hips against him.

“Yeah? You like it?” He crooked his fingers, and her thighs began trembling. “I think you like it,” he said against her shoulder. He found the hood of her clit with this thumb, tapped it gently, and it was like lighting a match.

This was supposed to be a brief stop. Just a slight detour before Eli got to do all the other things he wanted. Bite into her ass, eat her out some more, maybe fuck her tits for real this time, and then get her off. But Rue contracted around his fingers abruptly, with a breathless, shocked gasp, and all of a sudden every single thing within the hotel room was pushed miles beyond his ability to control. “Fuck. Fuck, you’re so close.”

She turned her head, gazing blindly at him. “I—” She gasped against his mouth. “Yes. I’m going to.”

He grazed her clit, and that was it. She arched in a curve of pure pleasure, eyes open and unseeing, lips parted in a soundless scream, and she looked so—beautiful and fuckable and lovely, Eli was completely ruined. His orgasm thundered through him with no warning. He ground his cock against the tender flesh of her hip and came like a freight train, the pleasure pulled from him in large, pulsing gusts.

He started kissing her instinctively, before fully coming down. And then he kept on kissing her, and kissing her, and kissing her, through the tail end of her orgasm and through the crest of his own. She didn’t always kiss him back, overwhelmed by the shudders ru

It wasn’t over yet. It couldn’t be over. They’d just gotten started, and the things he could do for her, the things they could do for each other were beyond this world, and—

Rue turned away from him. “Eli.” Her fingers slid down to grip his wrist. “I have to go.”

“What?”

“Please.”

He moved away, giving her space. But said, “Rue. Come on.” Body still twitching with pleasure, she slid out of bed. The moment she stood, her legs almost gave out. Eli reached forward, steadying her before she collapsed. “Rue? What the hell?”

“I’m fine.” She took a deep breath and held out a halting hand. She sounded weak. Not like herself. “Just a . . . a cramp, I think.” She turned to him, and she was undone. Destroyed. As ruined as he felt, and Eli wanted to pull her back. Have her underneath him. He wanted to clean her up and do everything all over again, a thousand times over.

“Rue.”

She ignored him, silent in a busy, industrious way that involved cleaning herself of his semen with her underwear, pulling on her T-shirt with trembling hands, retrieving her pants. Not meeting his eyes.

He exhaled a laugh. “Are you really . . . you’re done,” he half said, half asked.

“Yeah.” She shrugged. Her breathlessness belied her indifference. “You aren’t?”

Fuck no, he thought. Said nothing.

“I’m going. I . . . thank you. It was fun. Maybe I’ll see you again. If not, have a good life and all that.” She was gone before he could think of a response. He watched the door close behind her, and when he glanced away, his eyes fell on her panties, forgotten in a heap of dark blue cotton on top of the sheets.

Eli covered his eyes, wondering how he’d ever thought that once was going to be enough.