“Amy,” he choked out in response. His movements had taken on a new urgency, propelled by the change he must sense in her. He sped up his thrusting and kept giving her clumsy, loving kisses. “Love.”
She arched beneath him again as she felt the delicious pressure coiling tightly inside her. She was sore, but it didn’t matter. All that mattered was Owen inside her. All the way inside her. All the way to her heart.
And the unimaginable truth that maybe she was in his heart too. She couldn’t believe it was real, but he was silently communicating his feelings to her. Finally, she couldn’t help but hear them.
“Amy.” The gentle rhythm of his motion disappeared as desire and need took over. “Amy, Amy.”
She was crying again. Tears falling down her face and sliding into her hair. Little sobs breaking out of her throat as she felt her final orgasm tighten, on the edge of releasing. “Owen,” she whispered, just before she came.
Her body froze, as if shocked by the shattering rush of pleasure. And then her whole body rocked with the sensations.
She clawed lines down his back as she came. Felt Owen come too.
He grunted out her name one final time as his hips jerked against her, as he tightened and released with his climax.
They lay together breathlessly afterwards, making funny, helpless sounds as they tried to deal with the culmination of the entire afternoon.
Unthinkingly, Amy glanced at the clock. “4:10,” she said hoarsely. “You win.”
He kissed her again, leaving Amy a limp heap of mush and satisfaction. Her tingling legs had finally unwound themselves, and her exhausted body was sprawled beneath him.
When he didn’t reply in words, she added, “Seven orgasms. Who knew?” She briefly wondered if any sexual encounter she had in the future could possibly live up to this afternoon.
Then she looked up at Owen’s tired, tender face. Thought about what both of them seemed to feel.
Decided the future might be even better than today.
“That means we get to live out one of my fantasies,” Owen said in a textured voice. He couldn’t seem to stop stroking her face, and his body was heavy on top of her.
“Right,” Amy agreed, almost glad she hadn’t won because she was dying to know what he fantasized about. “But, just so you know, we’re not going to be having sex again for a day or two.”
He pulled his limp cock out of her with a wet sound. “Are you really sore? I tried to be careful.” Then he looked a little guilty. “At least, until the end. Then I got a bit carried away.” He pressed a little kiss on the side of her mouth. “You do that to me, you know.”
“I know,” she said, smiling at him fondly, tearing up again at the joy of knowing this was true. “It’s not too bad. But no matter how careful you are, seven times is seven times.”
He nodded. “Well, not to worry. This hasn’t been entirely painless for me. And I’m not sure I’m going to be particularly eager for a while myself.” He smiled, something deep and intoxicating entering his eyes. “We can wait for my fantasy.”
She sighed happily and nestled against him. “Okay. Hopefully I’ll be recovered enough by whenever that is.” They both really needed a shower, and she thought it must be a sign of how completely besotted she was that she didn’t even care how sweaty and messy he was as she snuggled against him. Of course, she was a little sweaty and messy herself, and he didn’t seem to mind either. “Owen, I—”
A sudden scratch in her throat made her cut off her words abruptly, her head twitching to the side and her body jerking with each cough.
Owen loosened his hold on her and waited until she recovered herself. But when she stopped coughing, he grabbed her and scrutinized her face with a surprisingly hungry gaze.
She blinked up at him, still a little befuddled from all the sex, the exhaustion, the coughing, and the joy over the revelation of Owen’s unspoken feelings.
“Yes?” he prompted impatiently. His gaze was so urgent and frustrated that Amy had to think back to what she’d been saying.
Then—in a hot rush—she understood. He thought she’d been about to say something important. Something that started with “I.”
She was momentary flooded with mushy feelings over this evidence of how much he wanted to hear her say it, and she almost babbled out the truth in a sappy haze.
But she bit the words back, her nature making itself known with a sudden clench. The selfish coward wouldn’t say it himself. Wanted her to say it first. Actually expected her to cave before he did.
“You what?” Owen demanded, his arms like a vice around her.