But that voice had quieted.
I no longer heard the girl of my past screaming in pain, no longer felt her constant reminder of what he’d done to me. A softer version had moved in, one armed with the truth about that day, about everything that had happened since.
And now, all I could think about was the past couple of months, about late nights with him and the guys, video games and parties, him cooking for me, the candles, the rooftop, the jacket, last night at the bar, today at the tattoo shop.
He’d offered me a place to stay when I had nowhere to go.
He’d given up his bed for me without thinking twice.
My heart kicked so hard I sat upright.
Because now, the one overwhelming thing I felt was that I wanted him in that bed with me.
I didn’t let myself overthink it, didn’t consider how it might hurt in the morning. I threw the rest of the covers off me and scrambled out of bed, all but tripping over my bare feet as I lunged for the door. I yanked it open so fast the air blew my hair back.
And then I froze, because Leo stood waiting on the other side.
His jaw was a hard line, the muscle of it ticking under the skin as he stood perfectly still. All he had on was a pair of black sweatpants, and my eyes trailed the hills and valleys of his tan abdomen before they snagged on the fresh ink marking his chest.
My ink.
My art.
Mine.
The word echoed inside me the longer I stood there, hand still wrapped around the doorknob. Leo’s hands were balled at his sides, like he’d been restraining himself to keep from knocking. His eyes flicked between mine with ragged breaths leaving his chest like he was in absolute agony.
The entire universe teetered precariously in that moment, the stars and planets stalling as if one wrong move from any of them would alter destiny’s plan.
Slowly — so achingly slowly that my chest seized with the pressure of watching it — Leo lifted his hand. He stretched it out, toward me, his eyes following the movement until his fingers found my t-shirt. He caught it right above my hips, and we both stopped breathing with that one singular touch.
Then, he twisted his fist in the fabric and pulled me into him, catching me as we collided in a kiss that shattered time.
It was like a first breath and a last all at once, how we both inhaled together, our lips melding with a firm, delicious pressure that sent heat all the way down to my toes. My chest loosened with relief all while my heart surged and swelled and came alive.
He was everywhere.
His hands ran roughly up the length of me, a deep groan vibrating my lips as he traced every curve until he held my face in his grip. I felt that groan like my own heartbeat, his body pressing into mine, backing me up one heated kiss at a time until we were in his room and he kicked the door shut behind us.
Back back back, he pushed and invaded until my spine hit a wall and he could properly surround me, caging me in as if I’d ever want to escape now.
So many times I’d imagined what it would feel like to kiss him, to feel want radiating off him and know it was for me. Not just when we were younger, but here in this house, when I felt that tension so tight between us that one long-lasting look could have snapped it.
Now I knew that nothing I could have dreamed up would have ever compared to reality.
“You have consumed me for months,” Leo breathed against my neck, maneuvering my head so he could kiss along the column of my throat before working his way back to my mouth. “Para a?os.” A bruising kiss punctuated that anguished confession before he pressed his forehead to mine, our breaths hot and frantic between us. “I couldn’t sleep one more night without making you mine.”
I whimpered at the words, at the way he sealed them with another punishing kiss that jolted me to the core. His thumbs held my jaw steady, fingers curling around the back of my neck possessively and holding me to him as he coaxed my mouth open and swept his tongue inside.
Another moan, another jolt — this time hotter and wetter and pooling between my thighs. I squeezed them together, as if that could bring relief, as if I could do anything to spare my body or my heart from the hurricane that was Leo Hernandez as he crashed upon the shores of my soul.
“You couldn’t either, could you?” he asked, nipping my bottom lip. “You were coming to find me.”
“Yes,” I breathed.
“Tell me you want this, too,” he begged, and for a moment, he held me still, eyes searching mine. “Tell me you need me.”
My chest rose and fell in time with his, every breath louder and hotter than the one before it. With my eyes on his, I wrapped my hand around his wrist, guiding him away from where he held my face. I dragged his hand over my collarbone, over my chest, over the swells of my breasts, savoring the groan he let loose when his thumb brushed over the metal piercing my right nipple. Down, down, down, his palm surveying my hips and ass until I swiped his hand up and under my t-shirt and guided him where I needed him most.
“I think this speaks louder than words,” I said, lining my fingers behind his as I pressed him to my core, slicking both of us with just how badly I wanted him.
“Fucking Christ,” he cursed, and then he was kissing me again, pushing me so hard against the wall with his body that I felt pressure everywhere. But none of it compared to where he spread my legs wider with his thigh, skating one digit through my wetness before dipping the tip of his finger inside me.
I gasped, arching into him, and he visibly shook at the contact, burying his face in my neck as he toyed with my entrance before pressing just a little more inside.
“Sweet, perfect fucking pussy,” he praised. “Wet and ready for me. I should just turn you around and fuck you against this wall right now. I’d slide inside you so easy, fill you to the fucking brim.”
“Yes,” I said, the word a breath and a plea.
Leo smiled against my lips, but then his hand withdrew, and I shuddered at the loss.
“No,” I whined.
“If you think I’m going to fuck you without worshipping this perfect fucking body first, you don’t know me at all.”
“Fuck now. Worship later,” I managed before wrapping my arms around his neck. I climbed into his arms, surprised that he lifted me so easily, that he held me like I didn’t weigh more than he did.
He held me sturdy with one arm wrapped around me, and it had pulled up my t-shirt just enough to expose the bottom half of my ass. Leo’s lips curled up again as he reared back and laid his palm against the exposed skin with a slap.
“I’ve played by your rules all summer,” he growled. “Tonight — you play by mine.”
I didn’t have an argument left in me when he tossed me back into his bed, the scent of him invading me once again. But this time, it wasn’t just the sheets. It was his hands bracing either side of my head, his triceps flexing under my fingernails, his hips pressing into my middle, thighs spreading my own for him as he settled between them.
“Te ves tan bonita en mi cama,” he said, eyes raking over where my hair splayed out over the pillow. “You look so fucking pretty in my bed.”
Then, he leaned back on his knees, grabbed my t-shirt in a fist again, and pulled me up until he could peel the fabric up and over my head. He tossed it somewhere behind him and then wrapped his hand around my neck, gently guiding me down until I was splayed naked in the sheets under him.