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“Do you want it to?” His voice was carefully neutral, but his eyes flickered with something.

I wet my lips as I fought for the right words, and then I shrugged when I couldn’t find them.

“Yes. Do you?”

He exhaled as if the air had been pulled from him, reaching to run his fingers up my arm.

“Yes,” he said roughly, as though the word had the weight of half a dozen more. Like he wanted to say more.

I knew then that everything would change, and it felt like relief, and permission mixed with something more gentle.

Because sometimes, you had to remember to breathe in before you could breathe out.

I reached for him hesitantly. The uncertainty wasn’t in whether I wanted him – of that I was absolutely certain – it was in the enormity of what this would mean. Something bigger. Real. Something that had been building for a while.

“Touch me, Kaiya, please,” he said raggedly.

My fingers brushed against the fabric of his shirt, pressing until I felt the familiar lines of his waist and the heat of his skin. I stepped closer, into his space, and his arms lifted around me, faltering, like he wasn’t sure where he was allowed to touch.

His chest rose and fell with sharp, uneven breaths, as if he’d just run across a stage, instead of standing still in the silence of my hotel room.

I ran my palms over his sides and beneath the hem of his shirt, letting my hands travel over warm skin. His stomach tightened beneath my touch, and I bit my lip as a wave of hunger pulsed through me.

He drew in a broken breath. Emboldened now, I pushed the fabric higher up his body, baring him inch by inch, until he raised his arms for me to pull it off over his head. His eyes never left my face. He stood there and let me look at him, watching me with an intensity that tugged at something low in my core.

I placed both palms against his chest, feeling his skin jump beneath my fingers.

“Kaiya,” he rasped, and the way he said my name was somewhere between pain and desire.

The sound sent a low, aching heat through me, and I slowly blinked up at him.

“Like this?” I murmured.

“Anything. Everything. Just–don’t stop.”

Holding his gaze, I reached down and grasped the hem of my top, pulling it off in one fluid move before dropping it to the floor next to his. His eyes travelled down the length of my torso before snapping back to mine.

I moved closer until our bodies brushed. Winding my arms around his neck, I rose up on my tiptoes, dragging my chest along his, the thin cotton of my bra doing nothing to stop the heat of his skin from burning me.

A rough sound caught in his throat when I pressed my lips just beneath his jaw, and finally his hands closed around my waist, holding me almost too tightly.

“Kiss me,” I murmured.

He lowered his face to mine, running his nose softly along the line of my jaw as he nudged my chin up.

“Kaiya,” he breathed against my skin, inhaling like he was trying to breathe me in, and then he sealed his lips over mine.

I clung to him, moaning against his mouth, and jumped up into his arms. He caught me effortlessly, my legs wrapping around his waist as though we’d rehearsed this a thousand times.

His hands held me tight as he walked us to the bed, and when he lowered me, he followed me down, covering my body with his. He pressed me into the mattress, his lips never leaving mine. I cradled him between my thighs as he lowered his weight onto me, and I groaned.

“Joon,” I murmured, as his lips left mine to trail soft kisses down the column of my throat. His hands trailed down my chest, leaving fire in their wake as his fingers caressed my breasts through the fabric of my bra. When his tongue reached my chest, he pulled the fabric down, sealing his hot mouth over my nipple.

I inhaled raggedly as my back arched. I wound my fingers in his soft hair, tugging, or pushing, I couldn’t tell. He groaned against my skin, the contrast of his hot tongue and the cool air pebbling my skin.

“Joon,” I whimpered, holding him closer, my hips squirming restlessly under him.

“I’ve got you,” he murmured against my skin, lifting his gaze briefly to mine before dipping his head down again.