I let out a sigh at the feeling, but despite the provocative drift of her mouth, my focus on removing her clothes halted as I was flooded with a sudden sentimentality. I remembered what I hadn’t done yet. What I’d been so caught up in hearing that I hadn’t said it back. “I do love you.”
Ava’s teeth released their grip, but she didn’t move her lips away. “Say it again,” she panted, so hot against my ear that it sent a desperate shudder down my spine.
My hand at her hip jerked upward when she released another scorching breath, digging into her back in a pathetic attempt to keep coherent. “I love you,” I murmured.
Her lips trailed down my neck as she whispered pleadingly against my skin, “Once more,” and then they opened against the side of it so her tongue could press deep into the muscle.
But the searing intensity of her endeavor left me completely incapable of saying anything. I thought it repeatedly as her lips and tongue left me weak, but I couldn’t form the words. Not until she realized it, and left my neck to set her forehead against my own. Her lips grazed mine, every humid huff colliding with each of my own charged exhales, but instead of kissing me, she froze. Waiting.
I met her beautiful blue eyes, leaving the nearly undone tie of her bodice to cup her face, saying with every bit of sincerity, “I love you, Ava.”
There wasn’t the fragment of a missed second before her lips were back on mine with an earnestness like I’d never known, and I was right in it with her. Each kiss was open and deep and not nearly long enough because we were both panting for air. My hands returned to the ties, undoing the last of them so eagerly that I nearly ripped the thing off of her. And I was ready. So ready for it to be the shedding of everything keeping me from every inch of her flesh, but the stiff bodice was only one of the remaining two layers. It was a corset, and as I threw it to the floor and met the soft white underdress with my hands, I groaned my frustration into Ava’s mouth.
I felt her lips thin against mine with a smile, but it only lasted a moment. I hadn’t the patience to remove her final layer, but it was low cut enough that her chest, straight to the crown of her breasts, was exposed. My lips left hers to kiss down her neck to her collarbone, and when my hands and lips converged at the bare flesh of her chest at the same time, Ava sucked in a sharp breath. She arched into it as her legs wrapped around my hips, and her hands reached frenziedly for the belt around my waist. She undid it with ease, throwing it aside and grabbing the hem of my tunic, giving me no choice but to release her so she could pull it over my head.
Once it was gone, she didn’t give me a chance to resume what I was doing. She took my lips with her own, fingers clutching at my upper body to remove my chest wraps while still trying to bring me as close as possible. But I wanted more of her. Though I couldn’t get the dress off her without losing my mind with restlessness, I could get what I wanted. My hands reached behind me to find the bare flesh of her calves, and once they had, they started upward. My thumbs hooked over the skirt of Ava’s dress, bringing it with them as my hands traced the lengths of her thighs, until I’d pushed the dress all the way up to her hips.
I hadn’t been searching for it, but when it exposed Ava’s core and I pushed my hips firmly between her legs, I felt her heartbeat. In my pores and in my blood and in my head. It was rushing and hard, and when my hands reached the top of her bare thighs, it stumbled out of rhythm. I had the same dazed reaction to it as I had the first time, but more than that, I could feel her pulled square against me, her heaving chest at mine and her core brushing the skin between my hips, exposed by the low waist of my trousers. My hands, too, had lingered at the apex of her thighs, so I could feel against them and against my stomach the strong heat radiating between her legs. And the next time her lips opened against mine, her hips throbbed into me, begging so thoroughly with their moist heat that it consumed my every desire.
My arms wrapped around her waist, and like she knew what I was doing, her legs tightened on my hips, so that when I pulled her completely off the dresser, I was holding her. Her lips didn’t leave mine once as I carried her across the room to the bed. I set her down on it, climbing over her as she inched backward to lie at the center, and on my knees between her legs, I straightened up just to look at her. But she wasn’t looking at my face. Her eyes had dropped to my stomach, to a damp spot low amid my hips, one she’d left by being so wet and so close to me. I didn’t need to look down to know it was there, I could feel it. My gaze never left her face, and as she took in what the glimmering mark between my hips was, her cheeks darkened with a blush. One of her hands lifted, stroking across it with a delicate finger to wipe it away.
Right after she finished the action I caught her wrist and brought it upwards, pressing one gentle kiss to her knuckles before guiding that thieving finger past my lips. The moment my mouth shut around it, Ava took in a hard breath. My tongue swept over the pad of her finger, salvaging the taste of her, and I swear, for a moment as she let that breath out in a loud sigh, her erratic heartbeat stopped completely.
My eyes finally wandered away from hers to follow the shape of her chest, along the curve in her waist, to where her dress was hitched at her hips. By the time I met her gaze again, I could see the desperation in her eyes, the plea to delay no longer what we both yearned for. And I didn’t delay. I didn’t hesitate or tease or ease into it. There was no need to do anything but lower myself between her legs and bury my lips against her. Nothing to do but take what she had to offer, and give what I was so willing to.
The first stroke of my tongue through soaked flesh was met with her hands, shooting down and running through my hair as she let out a soft moan. The next time, her back arched. It pushed her hips down with her hands at the back of my head, pulling me deeper into her, and I loved it. Loved the way her fingers clutched without any hint of apology, because she wanted me too much to care. Loved every time she ground herself against my mouth and I could feel her heart skip out of rhythm. Loved every shaky exhale and each long, broken moan. And I didn’t like sweet things, but I loved the taste of her.
Listening to the sounds she was making, to her breathing and her heartbeat, I knew I could’ve finished it like this. Finished her like this. But I wanted to know and feel all of her. So one of my hands slid beneath my chin, and I glanced up her torso to watch her reaction as I slipped one finger deep into her core. Ava threw her head back instantly, and her chest heaved with a stunted breath as her hands left me to grasp at the bed. She grabbed a fistful of blankets while I pushed into her again, gifting my ears with the sound of my own name, rolling clumsily off her tongue through a series of fragmented gasps.
I knew she was nearing the edge. Could sense it in the speed of her heart, see it in the tense locking of the arch in her spine, feel it in the tightening heat around my finger. In the end, all it took was a well-timed combination of a push with my tongue and finger, and Ava froze beneath me. For several long seconds, she took in a breath, and then all at once she was moaning and writhing, unable to decide whether to pull away from my tongue or press against it harder, so all she could do was rock herself against me. I wasn’t even doing anything anymore. The movements of my tongue and hand had stopped and I just stayed there, letting her dictate each motion and thrust and enjoying the pulsing of her around me. And it lasted.