Songs for Cricket by Laine, E. (best books to read in your 20s TXT) 📗

him. But it couldn’t be all that bad, or why would women all over the world enjoy sex?

His hands glided down my spine over my ass before lifting me up. I wrapped my legs around him and enjoyed feeling girly as he crawled onto the bed before gently laying me down.

I cupped his head and drew him back to me, wanting his kiss now more than ever.

“Finley.”

He said my name like a promise come true. When he palmed my breasts and squeezed them reverently, my back arched, and I gasped as his mouth covered one nipple, circling it with his tongue. The connection was like a rubber band tightening all the way to my core. The pressure built there made me greedy for more.

His head slipped from my hands where I’d held him in place and dipped lower. There was no chance to ask what he was planning before his hot tongue set me ablaze between my legs. Licks, sucks, thrust, and repeat, until I could barely hang on.

“Oh my,” I cried out.

The band snapped, and the most intense orgasm I’d ever experienced in my life exploded within me. For the next few seconds or minutes, I couldn’t be sure, I rode the wave until my body went limp. I felt drunk and sleepy as his head lifted. He licked his lips and grinned at me.

“Good for you?” he asked.

I playfully swatted at him. “Yes, and you well know it.”

He was adorable with his self-satisfactory smile, but all too soon he turned serious.

“We can stop now. I can wait for the rest when you’re ready.”

I rose up some on my forearms, fighting for strength I didn’t yet have. “Are you crazy? I’ve waited too long for this.”

What I didn’t tell him was that when I’d decided sex was an option I was willing to consider, he’d been the first and only person I’d wanted to explore it with.

“So have I,” he said, throaty and low.

He stretched over me reaching into a bedside table drawer. He pulled out a box and had to move to sit on the side of the bed to open it. I could tell by the noise the box made, it hadn’t been opened before.

“New?” I asked.

“Yeah, your—”

He stopped what he’d been about to say, and I was grateful. I could guess my dad had gotten them all boxes of condoms before we left for school.

“You haven’t used them?” was a bigger question.

I didn’t go into this foolishly thinking that in the few weeks we’d been here Shep hadn’t banged a girl or two. He and August had made a sport of it in high school.

“There’s been no one but you on my mind. I didn’t want to screw up any possible chance I had with you by hooking up with someone else.”

I was up and tackle hugging him, kissing him like tomorrow wouldn’t come.

We lost ourselves in the kissing and touching until I found the courage to curl my hand around him. He hissed through his teeth.

“If you continue, this will end before it begins. I’ve wanted you so long, the anticipation alone is going to completely fuck with my ability to last.”

I let go as if the heat radiating off him burned me.

He rolled me underneath him and threaded his fingers through my now free hand, guiding it to the side of my head. His mouth tasted of me, and I marveled at how natural it was to do this after he’d feasted on me.

“Are you sure?” he asked one final time.

That time I didn’t verbalize an answer. I moved my head in a quick jerky motion, drawn to the square package he tore with his teeth.

Then he rolled it over himself, and I marveled at how it could stretch without breaking. His probing fingers were next as he tested my readiness.

Once he positioned himself at my entrance, I had a moment to think, this is it, before he pierced that veil creating a sharp pain inside me that stole my breath.

When he didn’t move, I opened my eyes, which I’d squeezed shut. I met his confused gaze and waited for him to say something because I couldn’t yet speak.

“Shit, I’m sorry. What you said the other day . . .”

I blinked, unsure what he was talking about.

“You said Billy wasn’t the first,” he finished.

My lungs expanded with the air I drew in. “I—uh—I just said that to get August off my back.”

My concentration was torn between the dull ache the fullness inside of me caused and his mystified expression.

“I’m so fucking sorry. I would have been gentler. Forgive me.”

I lifted my head, unable to move anything else with him heavy atop me. I pressed my lips to his, trying to sooth his feelings. “It’s fine.”

“It’s not.”

He started to move off me, and I snaked my arms around him to hold him in place.

“What’s done is done. Don’t ruin this moment by stopping now,” I urged.

I loved him more for the concern on his gorgeous face.

“But I hurt you,” he said, sounding angry with himself.

“According to everyone, it was going to hurt no matter what, and you’ll hurt my feelings more if you stop.” I let go with one hand and brushed hair away from his eyes. “Please,” I added.

He closed his eyes a second, then opened them with more resolve. “Promise me if this gets too uncomfortable, you’ll tell me to stop.”

I felt tears prick at the back of my eyes, knowing the waiting had been worth it. He was everything and more. His love for me was the most unexpected gift I could have asked for.

“Don’t cry.” He swiped the pad of this thumb under my eye.

“They’re happy tears. No more talking,” I said.

I pulled him back to me so our tongues could tangle together, and I wiggled beneath him, trying to spur him on.

When he started to move, it didn’t feel great. Not at first. But Shepard knew exactly what to do. His fingers played over my skin like I was his