Page 18 of Intersect
“Yeah. And you know what this means, right?” I ask. “If this is related to the Rule of Threes, this kid we have must be a time traveler. And for that to be the case,youhave to carry the mutation as well. Which means it’s just as likely to be someone in your family behind this as it ismine.”
He cocks a smile. “She’s not even your mother-in-law yet and you’re already blaming shit on my mom.” I’m so startled by thatyet, as if it’s a foregone conclusion, that my mind goes blank for a moment. Fortunately, he doesn’t seem to notice. “I wondered what my role was in all this, why it’s the two of us who keep being brought together, and I guess the mutation would explain it. But I don’t have a lot of family either. I’m not seeing an obvious culprit anywhere. I can’t picture my mother having some kind of supernatural power, and I don’t have anysisters.”
I pull my lip between my teeth. “You should probably ask her, though. Your mom, Imean.”
He laughs. “You want me to ask my mom if shetime travels? And I thought telling her I broke up with Meg was going to be the most awkward conversation I’d have with her anytimesoon.”
My gaze flickers to his face. “I guess she liked Meg, then? Is she going to be upset?” Her sonwasdating a beautiful doctor who will probably lead a long and healthy life. I’m not sure what exactly he got in exchange for that. His mother will probably blame me, and I won’t be able to fault her forit.
His fingers slide through mine. “She’s going to love you. It wasn’t anything about Meg, necessarily. She just wants grandkids.” He grins. “Believe me, if she had any idea how easily you can get pregnant and how badly I seem to want to do it, she’d be sending us upstairs to a bedroom rightnow.”
Just the mere suggestion of it has me feeling needy and overheated. I lean back on my elbows, gazing up at him from beneath my lashes. “So, just out of curiosity, how badly do you want to doit?”
He groans. “Quinn, stop looking at me like that or I’m going to show you exactly how badly I want to, and I think we’ve both just realized how excruciatingly careful we need tobe.”
My tongue slides over my lower lip in anticipation. “Babysteps.”
His eyes close and suddenly he’s on his feet. “Fuck it,” he says, grabbing my hand. “If we’re going to take baby steps, we’re going to start right fuckingnow.”
* * *
We get to his parents’room. The moment he kisses me I start sinking into a darkness I don’t want to come back from. I only know his mouth, his hands, the rasp of his five o’clock shadow against my skin and the sound of his sharp inhale. My bikini bottoms and his trunks are pushed to the floor and I’m not even sure how ithappened.
He winces. “I’d like this to last longer than five seconds thistime.”
I would too. But there is absolutely nothing rational about us rightnow.
I step away from him and go to the bed, pulling down the covers before I lie on one side. “Comehere.”
He turns. It’s my first real look at him completely unclothed, and the sight leaves me purring…and intimidated. He’s so beautiful, but Trevor’s guesses about the size of thepackagewere absolutely on the mark, and something that size will be a novel experience for me if we ever get around to havingsex.
He gets in on the other side of the bed and rolls to face me. My fingers tentatively press to the center of his chest and roll down an inch or two. “We were here before. Just like this,” I tellhim.
“Was it good?” he asks, his voicestrained.
“What do you think?” I allow my hands to slide outward, to the curves of his triceps, up to his perfect shoulders, over his clavicle. His eyes flutter closed and he swallows. There is nothing hotter to me than the way he is struggling for control. “Too much?” Iask.
He pulls me against him, where he is every bit as hard as he was earlier. “No,” he says between his teeth, pressing his mouth to mine, his body taut with restraint. I want to dig my hands into his hair, wrap my leg over his hip, but I sense there’s something so tightly coiled inside him it could snap with very littleeffort.
His hand skims the outside of my bikini top, which is the only shred of clothing still separating the two of us. “Too much?” heasks.
“No.”
He swallows. “You need to tell me when it is.” His fingers glide over my skin—up the curve of my hip to the dip in my waist, my body strung tight with anticipation. His hands span my rib cage. His index finger moves, drawing a smooth line up my breast until he reaches its tip, already hard, waiting for him. “I need to seeyou.”
He unties the bikini. His eyes find their destination, and then he leans down, taking my nipple in his mouth—pulling with his teeth, soothing with his tongue—until I am flat on my back and gasping, arching fruitlessly for more. He moves his hand down my belly, slipping between my legs to find me slippery and ready for him, while I let my own hand wander, skimming that line of hair below his belly button. When my hand wraps around him, the air hisses between his teeth. “Jesus,” hegroans.
His fingers glide against me, infuriatingly slow. My grasp on him is harder, from his base to the tip, which leaks copiously enough that my palm slides easily, andfaster.
“Fuck,” he gasps, rolling me to my back, pulling at my knees so he can push betweenthem.
“Nick,” I whisper, and at the sound of his name his eyes open, hazy and unfocused. “Don’t.”
He gives me the smallest nod, as if some distant part of him has heard what I said. The pace of his hand between my legs quickens and we begin to kiss. No longer careful, but sloppy,voraciously.
“Oh God,” I whisper. The moment I start to come he does too. And the world is still dark and full of stars but I already want more from him in a way I cannot explain. As if one orgasm was merelyforeplay.
He supports his weight, still breathing heavily, before he finally flips onto his back, pulling me with him. “Jesus Christ,” he says. “I told you it was going to be slow and I lasted about twentyseconds.”