Des'ree - Kissing You - inspired title and chapter.

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"What are you doing?" I asked, trying to contain the nervous chuckle rising in my throat.

I needed to crack a joke. I needed to do something to make this seriousness go away. My fingers itched, telling me to tickle it out of Cassie, but I didn't listen. I felt paralyzed.

And pseudo-paralysis is a bitch.

"Kissing you," she whispered.

"Yes. I know this, but my forehead?" I raised an eyebrow, offering her a smirk that probably came out timid than knowing.

She pulled away, shaking her head with a soft smile, and brushed her fingertips over my eyes. "Close your eyes."

I did as I was told, but stiffened when I felt her warm lips against my eyelids, unsure of what was to come. She lingered for a while; placing light Eskimo and then real kisses over my lids, at the corners of my eyes... she went back and forth before dropping to my cheeks and repeating everything there. I opened my eyes curious she continued. She rubbed her cheek against mine like a cat would against their owner's hand. I lay still, my gaze glued to her face as she continued her chaste kiss journey.

"You are so beautiful," she whispered in my ear.

I swallowed and exhaled the breath I'd been holding. It wasn't the first time she'd given me such a compliment, but the awe in her voice startled me and once again I could think of nothing to say.

"Can you sit up for me?" she asked.

I shivered as her teeth gently tugged at my earlobe. "Like this?" I asked. I scooted up the bed, while still clutching her close, and sat so that my back was against the headboard.

She straddled my lap, bending her knees into the bed on either side of me. "Perfect." She gave me a wide smile that practically made me swallow my tongue. "I guess I don't have to do much to get you hard," she said with an amused chuckle as she reached between us.

"No, not much," I said breathlessly.

My eyes snapped shut as she gripped me tighter and with a small, very subtle, movement of her hips I was inside her. I wrapped my arms around her and angled her lower body so that she could take me all in. When she gave way, gripping me like a tight glove with heat enhancements, I let out a low moan and held on tight as she gave a tentative circle of her hips in my lap.

This time my groan was loud and my arms tightened enough to hold her still. My uncontrollable trembling was enough movement that I almost came right then and there. I couldn't handle her movement now. It would be over too soon and I'd waited a week for this. When she squeezed her inner walls around me, almost like she knew that I was trying to calm myself, I viciously swore.

"Please! Don't move! Please." I stopped to pant and catch my breath, surprised by a heavy pleading tone in my voice. Licking my bottom lip, I dropped my face into the side of her neck, trailing kisses over her heated skin. "God, I forgot how good you feel," I whispered into her bare shoulder before sinking my teeth into her. It was the only thing I could think of to ground myself.

Her arms wrapped around the back of my head, holding me to her, as she whispered words I'd only heard from Ethan. She was reaching a part of me reserved for him. I could feel it, not just physically, but on a visceral level. The idea of me potentially feeling for her as deeply as I did Ethan frightened me. It was hard enough to let Ethan in.

A whimper escaped, vibrating my throat to the point of tickling when she shifted over me. The snap of her hips letting me know she'd become impatient with my restraining hold on her. The movement caused all serious thoughts to be drowned out by the tinkling sound of bells and rushing water.

Bells.

Bells.

Bells that wouldn't stop ringing in my ears, making me light-headed like I'd just taken a shot of strong alcohol. I felt like I was poised over a cliff about to fall into the crashing waves smacking into the jagged rocks below.

"I love the way you feel inside me," she whispered. "I could live like this."

My teeth tore from her shoulder to breathe and my mouth fell open. I wanted to say something, was trying to say something, but I wasn't sure if what stopped me was due to lack of air or loss of words—Cassie seemed to be an expert in making both me and Ethan speechless as of late.

"Hold me tighter."

Her demand barely registered, but when it did my arms tightened an instant later. I think at that moment if she asked me to hold her forever I would have.

It wasn't earth-shattering when my orgasm came, but it took me by surprise and maybe when I was calm and could think, I might question my stamina. I blinked rapidly and my thighs tensed as I pumped into her one last time. While not world exploding, it was powerful enough to tear a deep guttural groan from me that I tried to muffle as I buried my face into her hair.

Something else I hadn't expected was the prolonged aftershocks that didn't seem to stop. All I could do was let them consume me and I bowed her back so that her back almost fell against the bed.

When another series of grunts and groans escaped me, my eyes widened and I swore in disbelief, "Fuck me."

Cassie tried to pull away, but I frantically held her still, clutching her to my sweaty chest as my hips continued pulsing up. The rapid beat of my heart let me know this could substitute as my work out for the day.

This time, instead of pulling her body from me, she pulled her head away enough to look at me. Her doe, heavy-lidded, passion-filled eyes made me groan deep and long. My eyes slammed shut as I coaxed our lower bodies into circular motions, almost desperate to keep the random firework explosions of pleasure shooting through my body going.

In the distance, filled with a pleasured haze I could hear the alarm clock beep, morphing onto the radio and the lyrics of the song had me shaking my head in shock at the accuracy of our current situation. What the fuck are the odds?

I need you! Boy, I want to drink you in like oxygen, like oxygen. Baby, I'm a house on fire and I wanna get burnin'.

The chuckle that lodged in my throat was just one more thing to relish this morning. When my eyes opened I watched Cassie tilt her head in curiosity. My shoulders shook as the chuckle morphed into a full-blown laugh that was uncontrollable. The eyes-wide-surprised look she gave me had me laughing even harder.

Love me, what a beautiful drug, what a beautiful drug.

"What is the name of this song?" I gasped out.

Cassie frowned and turned towards the alarm clock radio. "It's Sia."

"What a beautiful drug?" I asked, settling into the headboard as my boisterous laughing calmed.

Cassie chuckled and patted my cheek. "It's not 'beautiful drug' it's 'to the beat of the drum.'" She paused and bit her bottom lip, her eyes watching my face, contemplating something.

"It would have been better suited if it had been 'beautiful drug'. It describes yo—" I stopped before finishing the sentence and cleared my throat, averting my gaze as I rested my head against the wall.

"A-am I your 'beautiful drug'?" she asked softly.

No point in denying what I'd been about to say.

I shifted and eyed her, "Babe, who needs Coke when I have you?"

My gaze dropped to her jiggling breasts as an amused giggle tore through her midriff. The beautiful sight didn't last long as she happily launched herself against me, almost popping my deflating erection out of her.

"Oh, I love you, Seth!"

My eyes widened and the renewed thumping of my heart amplified as silence followed her admission. I tried to keep my body from tensing up, but it was too late. She felt it. And that was fine with me... I wasn't ready for this.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. "I get that it's too fast. I'm not expecting anything."

"Good," I mumbled, trying to lift her from my lap, but—I don't know how it happened—her legs snaked around my waist, lodged between me and the wall. Her forearms held my head still as her wrists locked behind the back of my neck and the determined, slightly miffed look on her face told me I couldn't get away so easily.

"I said I'm not expecting anything," she spat. "Don't close off now," she added more gently.

Her glued wrists unlatched and she let one hand slide forward to cup my face. The idea of pulling away from her soft seeking hand sparked but left even faster. I may not have been ready for her admission, but I didn't want a fight either.

"I love you, Seth. Get used to me saying it," she said with a gentle warning before she leaned forward and kissed my lips.

She said it again. My jaw clenched. She said it a third time. I said 'whatever.' When she said it a fourth time the tension slowly started to release from my shoulders. The fifth time she followed each word with open-mouthed kisses. The sixth time my heart clenched with realization.

She loved me.

I swallowed back the lump forming in my throat as I felt my body responding to her. The happy, breathless gasp she let out as she felt me had me fully hard again. I flipped her onto her back so that are feet knocked into the headboard.

This wasn't going to be slow or sweet, but fast, hard... punishing. How could she love me? How could Ethan love me? How could they?

My hips snapped hard and the startled scream from Cassie could've gotten me to stop if her seeking hands hadn't clamped down on my ass cheeks, pulling me harder into her. Gripping. Clutching. Desperate. The tears in her eyes weren't from pain, but a desperate, soul aching need for me to fuck her as hard as I could.

The seventh time she said it I bit the plump curve of her cheek with a warning growl. The eighth and ninth time caused a pounding so hard the bed shook and for a brief moment, I wondered if Ethan's neighbors could hear it even though the walls were soundproof.

The tenth time caused my first ever earth-shattering orgasm and the untamed, hoarse shout that tore through my throat was swallowed by Cassie's as her delightfully sensitive body finally reached her orgasm.

My body crashed into her wildly wiggling one and I captured the rest of her scream with an all-teeth-and-tongue kiss that took breath neither of us had away. Her unhampered whimpering continued past the kiss and her violent shivers made me smooth her rumpled hair. I caressed her sides, her chest, her damp cheeks—damp from frustrated tears of the never-ending orgasm I'd come to love about her.

"Fuck. Fuck," she whimpered the word over and over.

I pulled away from her, knowing eventually my calming touches would become too much for her, and settled beside her. Holding my head up with the palm of my hand, I watched her, helpless to stop the deep-seated feeling settling into my gut.

She loved me.

Fine.

I could accept that.

Maybe I could even let her love me. It felt good at least. And, while initially, it had frightened me, even angered me at her admission it wasn't what was worrying me now.

No, it wasn't that.

When her body finally calmed down she turned into me, snuggling her head into my shoulder. I held her loosely to me, aware that she still might be too sensitive for full-on touching.

No. It wasn't her loving me. It was me falling in love with her.