Page 46 of The Bookbinder's Guide to Love

He caressed her thighs and moved his hand higher, cupping her pussy and rubbing the heel of his palm against her. Her skin was soft and supple. He liked touching her. When she got turned on she moved against him like he had just been named the sexiest man in Birch Lake. She widened her legs and he caressed her as she shifted on his lap. He felt her hands in his hair, and she tipped his head back so she could kiss him more intimately.

As his cock hardened, all he could think about was fucking her. Here in this room surrounded by the books they both loved, the fire crackling behind them. The scent of leather and lavender. In his mind he was crude, and he knew the response was a way to balance how soft he’d felt after sharing his past with her.

Her hands moved down his chest, opening the buttons on his shirt; he’d taken his tie off earlier. She rocked back on his lap and reached between them to undo his belt and then the opening of his pants. Her fingers were cold against his and she laughed when he sort of pulled back.

“Cold hands, warm heart,” she said.

Then her eyes went wide as if she hadn’t meant to imply he was in her heart. He knew he wasn’t. They were slowly becoming friends.

He lifted her hands to his mouth and blew on them, and she smiled in a way that made his cock jump. There was a softness in her eyes that hadn’t been there before.

Warm heart.

The words echoed in his mind. The emotions he’d striven to keep bottled up threatened. He lifted her off his lap and undid his pants, pulling out his cock.

She reached under her skirt and took off her tights and then undid a few buttons at the top of her dress so the bodice gaped open, away from her body. She climbed back on top of him and the moist warmth of her pussy pushed against his cock. She looked down at him as she slowly lowered herself until he was fully inside her.

Their eyes met and he opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but before he could, she leaned down and bit the lobe of his ear.

“Fuck me.”

He was unable to think after that. His cock jumped at her words and he put his hands on her waist as she started to move on him. He lowered his head and used his nose to push the fabric of her dress to the side, until he found her nipple through the lace of her bra. Sucking it deep into his mouth, he thrust up into her using his hands to pull her down on him.

She rode him hard and fast, taking him deep, everything inside him building to a climax. He wanted to make it last, but today he had no control over anything. In this room he felt his best self and his worst self. Books made him the man he was and they’d driven him to be his worst self when he first heard of Sera. But without that jealousy and anger and fear that he’d felt toward Serafina Conte, he’d never have gotten to know this Sera, the woman who set him on fire, who made him hope he could continue to change.

He needed to come, to have that moment where his body was in a null space with this woman draped over him. But he wanted her to come too. He reached between their bodies, flicking his finger over her clit, and heard her breath catch and then tiny moans.

Her pussy tightened around him as she rode him harder and faster, taking him deeper than before. Sensations ran down his spine and his balls felt full and tight and he knew he was going to come; he gently bit her nipple and felt her spasming around his cock as she threw her head back and called his name.

He thrust up into her two more times before he emptied himself into her, and then he kept thrusting as she flexed around his cock, and she rocked against him until she collapsed against his shoulder. He held her in his arms and knew this room would never be the same for him again.

He held her, realizing that once again he hadn’t touched her hair. She’d used one of those elasticized hair bands to hold it in place. He pulled at it gently. It came free and the damp strands that had been in the bun started to curl. She had warned him it might feel crunchy but it didn’t. It was soft and smooth and he couldn’t keep from touching her hair.

He watched them as he held her. He didn’t want to let her go. He knew they couldn’t stay like this forever, and he hated to admit this even to himself because it was going to make their lives more complicated, but for the first time since he could remember he didn’t feel alone.

She opened her eyes and looked up at him. He saw the questions there and wanted to say something reassuring, but all he could think was that he didn’t want her to go.

No matter what she’d said earlier, he knew he’d sound needy if he asked her to stay. He was too emotionally unstable.

She gave him a sad smile as she reached up to touch his mouth, running her finger along his bottom lip. “Oh, Wes.”

Just then he shook his head and pulled her closer, lowering his head until he could whisper in her ear, “Stay tonight.”

He was afraid to hear her response. The change he’d thought he wanted, the change he’d put in place by compromising and letting down his guard, wasn’t what he’d expected. That change was pushing him into new territory and he wasn’t at all sure he liked it.

But there was no going back.

“Okay.”

That was it. Just a small answer. The breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding came out in a long exhalation and he just wrapped his arms around her, holding her and pretending nothing was going to be different even while knowing that everything was.

Twelve

She had no clothes to change into but Wes offered her a pair of his sweats and a Pokémon T-shirt that had been washed so many times the Charizard had started to fade. She left her hair down and didn’t let herself worry about it, even though she knew half of it was curly and frizzy while the top was straight. She probably looked like Mia Thermopolis before her makeover.

Wes changed into sweats and a plain black tee as well.

Sera’s stomach growled and she flushed. “Sorry about that. I couldn’t eat at the reception.”