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My fingers are trembling, and I take a deep breath, failing miserably to calm my racing heart. I feel like a fumbling teenager again, with my high school girlfriend on the couch in our old den while my parents were away, trying to keep quiet because Ronan and Fallon were asleep upstairs. There’s something about this moment that feels as monumental as that one did. More, even.

But Scarlett deserves better than shaking hands. I push down the nerves and focus on every minute response from her body as I drag my thumb over the front of her underwear, and her thighs instantly fall apart, inviting me in.

“Can I?” I ask, pulling on the band of her underwear.

“God, yes.”

I force myself to focus on her underwear as I take it off, before finally letting my gaze fall on Scarlett. Bare. Lying in front of me like she’s all mine. And for now, at least, she is.

“Christ, Scar,” I groan, moving closer to her until I’m caged by her legs. Officially, my new favorite place to be. I can’t take my eyes off her, and I can feel hers on me. There’s a tension in her body, like she’s anticipating my next move, and tense is the last thing I want her right now.

I lick my lips, desperate to taste her, and duck my head, but pause as Scarlett’s voice rings out:

“Wait. You don’t have to do that.”

I frown, looking up at her. “I can’t tell you how badly I want to do it.”

“Oh.” She shifts uncomfortably.

“Do you not like it?” I’m not going to do anything she doesn’t explicitly want.

“I, uh, I don’t know. No one’s ever …”

My dad is the last person I want to be thinking about right now, but what the fuck is wrong with him? Scarlett literally birthed his children and he didn’t … Jesus. Another thing to be pissed at him for.

“I would really like to change that, love, if it’s okay with you,” I say, rubbing my thumb gently over her inner thigh. Scarlett draws her lip between her teeth. “If you don’t like it, you just say the word, and I’ll stop. But I’m pretty sure you’re going to like it.”

She swallows, but nods, and her trust in me only makes me want her more.

I bow my head to her, and take a deep breath before finally, finally, tasting her.

Christ. Now, this is a religious experience.

20

Scarlett

My back bows off the bed and a feeling I’ve never felt before zips through me, drawing a cry from my chest. Holy shit.

I’m semi-aware of my fingers sinking into Killian’s hair, my hips rising to meet his face, but I’m so lost in the sensation of his tongue pressed flat against my clit that everything is a little blurry around the edges. He was right; I really, really like this. And if the way he’s fucking devouring me is anything to go by, he does, too.

Killian holds my thighs apart, his thumbs pressing into my skin, and his tongue moves over me masterfully, like he was made for exactly this. Every time he circles my clit with the tip, or blows cool air against me, it feels like a mini orgasm in and of itself. I twist on the bed, the blankets and Killian’s stubble both rough against my skin.

Flames engulf me from head to toe, and Killian makes them flare again and again. There’s a spring coiled in my core, so tight I might burst. I don’t notice him releasing my thigh, but I notice when his finger presses against me.

He sits back, looks up at me, and the sight of him makes my heart stop. His green eyes are more pupil than emerald, his hair is a mess from my hands, his cheeks are flaming red, and his face … glistening wet. Because of me.

Fuck. This man is making me lose my mind; I’m a second from asking if I can take a picture of him so I can remember exactly how he looks in this moment, when he speaks.

“Is this okay, love?”

“Yes,” is what I mean to say. What I say instead is, “You could do literally anything to me right now and I’d say thank you.” Same thing, really.

I didn’t think the picture of him could get any better, but the corners of his lips lift, and his eyes soften. He really is so beautiful.

He keeps his eyes on me as he slides his finger inside me. I want to watch him, to soak in his expression, but it feels too damn good and my head falls back, followed by the rest of my body. Killian curls his finger before closing his lips around my clit once more, and it’s more than anything I’ve ever felt. I’m lost to the fire, somewhere outside my body. At some point, he slides a second finger inside me, and it’s the beginning of the end for the tiny shred of control I still possess.

I wrap my legs around him, holding him to me, and all it does is spur him on more. His tongue becomes more insistent, his fingers rougher. I clench around him, and he moans. The sound vibrates over me, but that’s not what tips me over the edge; it’s the knowledge that what he’s doing to me, the way he’s making me feel, is making him moan that makes me come undone at the seams.