L. Marie Adeline- S.E.C.R.E.T

eneath that, something velvety and dark.
“Do you still accept the Step?” he asked, his black eyes on me, his hands pushing his
wet hair back in a way that reminded me so much of Will.
“I … guess,” I said, my chin jutting out over my blanket like an impudent child’s. “But
I don’t know if I can feel sexy and terrified at the same time.”
“Let me help,” he said, taking a fistful of my blanket in one hand.
He drew the blanket away from my shoulders and nestled it around my waist. He took
a long look at me, then tugged me closer to him, tilting my head up and putting his salty
lips to mine. He loomed over me, making me feel safe again, protected. He told me over
and over that I was okay, that I’d be okay, slowly nudging the blanket at my waist to
the oor and pushing me back onto the bed. I felt my damp hair spread out around me,
and his skin, that expanse of smoothness, meeting every inch of my own esh. I closed
my eyes and let my resolve melt. And I took in his smell: the ocean.
“I’m going to take very good care of you, you know that, right?”
I nodded, too stunned to talk. This was a man the likes of which I’d never seen, never
experienced. He made me feel soft and small and delicate. In my constant selfsuciency,
I had forgotten it might be possible to have a man protect me, to be my
anchor. I swear to God I trembled as I watched him move to the foot of the bed, gently
fold his enormous hands around my ankles, lift a foot to his face, then run his tongue
along the tender arch, kissing the tips of my toes, then putting them in his mouth. I
couldn’t help but giggle. I relaxed back on my elbows as he slipped his hands up the
length of my calves, my thighs, and then stopped to look at my face, devouring me with
his eyes. He knelt on the bed, resting my legs on either side of him, and parted me. He
trailed his hands along my quivering thighs (yes, they really were quivering!). He
skimmed over me with his thumbs, not quite touching me there, then up my torso to my
breasts. I arched forward, aching for him. I arched in a way that said, Now, please! And
yet he continued to tease me with his tongue, arousing me so quickly and so fully. See?
See what you’re doing to me? I wanted to say. But I was speechless. Oh God, I had never
been with a man this compelling, this strong. He was a work of art.
“Do you want me inside you, Cassie?” he asked, propped up on one elbow, his free
hand caressing my breast.
Do I?
“Um … yes.”
“Say it. Say you want me.”
“I … want you,” I said, with an urgency that had me on the brink of tears.
With that, he trailed a hand from my breasts down to my stomach and thrust his nger
inside me. “You do want me,” he said, a dark smile crossing his lips.
I almost made a joke about going overboard, but I shook it out of my head. His face
came towards mine and his kiss was full of vigor and re. I kissed him back with the
same force. It was dierent from Jesse’s kiss, or any kiss I’d ever had. This one was allconsuming.
I kissed him like my life depended on it. Then his hand reached beneath a
pillow and freed a condom, and he stopped kissing me just long enough to rip the
package open with his teeth. He slipped it on with ease and then guided himself into