12. Love

CHAPTER 12

love

We made our way back to my room, neither of us hesitating to remove our towels as we fell into bed together. Leo focused on me as though I was the only thing in his world.

Our kisses were not as urgent now, but no less sweet, and the smell of my soap on his skin was doing things to my head and heart.

I was used to feeling like a bit of a freak show, even among people who ostensibly liked me. This gentle make-out session with Leo, however, felt like a perfect bubble where the outside world's opinions didn't matter a damn. It felt fragile, though, like it could burst at any moment—and that only made me more determined.

"I was so pissed off when you showed up yesterday," I said between lazy kisses.

"I could tell. I shouldn't have come like that, without any warning or invitation."

"Eh. I'm kind of okay with the result," I said, nipping at his lower lip.

"Yeah, you got to poke me with a very large needle," he joked.

I shook my head. "I didn't like that you were hurt, even when I was mad."

"Okay," he said, kissing my temple. "Uh. So, not to ruin the moment or anything, but…"

"But…" I was desperately curious about what he had to say next, if only because you never could predict what was going to fall out of his mouth.

"But you said that you loved me."

I chuckled. "And you said that you loved me."

"I'm not the smartest guy when it comes to relationships, but I know that's a little… intense. Especially since you hated me yesterday."

"I didn't hate you, Leo. I've never hated you. In fact, I was pretty mad that, even when I was with someone else—" I looked at his scrunched-up face and tried not to laugh. "Even when I was with someone else, I still loved you and missed you, and you couldn't see how conflicted I was."

"Really?" The dogged hope in his eyes had returned, and I was happy to see it.

"Really. I was so mad when I saw you because all those feelings returned in a rush, and I had no control over them. There you were, out of the blue, making me feel things I thought I'd put away."

"I still can't tell you why I did it. Only that I had to see you."

We kissed, and Leo's expression shifted from confused to happy to confused again.

"Leo?"

"I have another question."

"Why would having another question make you look like that?"

He snorted, and it cracked me up. "Because I want to ask what we are to each other, but that feels a little needy."

"It's not needy to want clarification." I thought for a moment. "I don't have a full answer, but I can tell you that the idea of you going home tonight makes me anxious and sad."

He grimaced again.

"Leo…"

"I was about to text Major and tell him I won't be in tomorrow. And maybe Tuesday."

I couldn't help the laughter that sprang from my lips. "Oh really? You do know that I have a bunch of responsibilities, don't you? Including a number of mares that are ready to pop?"

"I know. I thought maybe I could help. And… maybe suck on your collarbone right here," he said, then did exactly that.

I sank my fingers into his hair, still spent from our shower activities but loving the contact regardless. "I think," I said, "I'm comfortable calling you my boyfriend."

He pulled back, dazed and happy. "Really?"

"Why do you keep sounding surprised?"

"I'm just having a hard time catching up."

"Keep kissing me like that. I'm sure you'll get there quick enough."

Leo laughed and pressed soft kisses up my neck, nibbled on my ear, then kissed a line across my cheeks and nose to the other ear.

He laid kisses along every inch of skin, kissing over my shoulder, then down my arm to the tips of my fingers and back up again, nuzzling my armpit before trailing more kisses across my chest and down the other arm. By the time he reached my belly, my cock twitched, wanting to revive, even though his touches weren't necessarily sexual.

He kissed a line down my leg, past my knee, my shin, the top of my foot, the tips of my toes. Then back up again: the arch of my foot, my heel, my Achilles, my calf, my inner thigh. He kissed my soft semi, my nuts, then down and up my other leg. When he'd kissed every inch of skin on the front of my body, he flipped me like a pancake and started again at the top of my head.

"I want to try something," he said as he approached my ass.

"What's that?" I asked, looking back over my shoulder at him.

"I want to taste you right here," he said, pressing his thumb to my hole.

"You want to rim me?" I asked, trying to keep the shock out of my voice.

His broad chest expanded and relaxed. "I don't know why. It doesn't make any sense. I never want you to touch me back there, but I love that it's so positive for you. It turns me on."

"If you put your mouth on me, I'm going to want you to fuck me next. You don't have to," I was quick to add. "Just know that I'd want it."

"Lupe made sure I got testing for STIs when I first came to them, and I know it's been years, but I swear I haven't been with anyone."

"I believe you." I flipped over and pulled him on top of me. "I had tests at my recent annual, and they're clear across the board. Are you saying that you would want to go without a condom?"

He froze, his eyes wide. "I—I wasn't saying that. I just wanted you to know that I was safe."

"So, do you want to use a condom?"

"I don't know."

"Then why don't I tell you what I'd like, and you tell me if that feels comfortable to you?"

"Okay…"

"I've never had sex without a condom. I was saving that for somebody I really loved." He hugged me, and it gave me goose bumps all over. "I can think of nothing more special than sharing that with you. We'll have plenty of time to explore what we like, though, and we don't have to do that tonight."

"But you want me to come inside you because you love me?" he asked, his words rich with that hopefulness I couldn't get enough of.

I laughed. "Yes. But I'll love you in any case."

He laughed and started bouncing us on the bed. "Let's. Do. It," he said between boisterous kisses.

I grabbed his shoulders. "Just… go slow, okay? I haven't been with anyone as big as you."

His Cheshire cat grin made me lose it.

"You like that."

"Hell yes, I do." He sent me a sheepish look. "It makes me feel possessive. Is that wrong?"

I shook my head. "Whatever two adults enjoy together in bed is completely up to them. And… I kind of like you possessive."

He answered with a deep, plundering kiss, then flipped me back onto my belly. I shouted, then grunted as he threw his body atop mine. After hugging me aggressively, he kissed down my spine, all the way to the cleft of my ass.

I buried my face in the pillow as he carefully parted my cheeks. He continued making his way down, stopping just before he reached the sensitive skin around my hole.

"So beautiful," he whispered, then kissed me there, setting off all of those delicious nerves.

He went back over the area with his tongue: soft, circling, exploring. My previously half-interested cock quickly became fully invested, and I adjusted it flat against my belly.

Intensifying the licking, he pushed the stiff point of his tongue through the tight ring of muscle, a brief, intense intrusion. He moved down, sucking on my taint, then my balls, then my inner thighs, then back to tongue-fucking my hole.

With his face buried between my cheeks, he reached under my torso to twist and pull my sensitive nipples. Enough to turn me on, but not enough to get me over the edge.

"Leo, please ." I pushed back against his tongue, forcing him to impale me again. " Please ."

I groped for my bedside table, yanking open the drawer and rummaging about for the lube. Just as I found the bottle, he thrust his tongue in deeper, spearing me with it. My hand clenched, popping the lid off the lube and spilling it onto my hand.

"Please, Leo. Please fuck me," I begged, reaching back to give him the bottle.

He pulled away, looking drugged, his eyes aflame. He grabbed the bottle from me and scooped the drips of lube off the back of my hand, applying them to the hole he'd just worshipped. "It's so pink and pretty," he murmured, petting me with slick fingers.

Settling back onto his knees, he spread lube up and down his shaft, biting his lip. I pressed my face back into the pillow when he started circling my rim with his thumbs. Carefully, he pushed in one thumb, then the other.

Once the muscle relaxed, he pulled his fingers apart, gently stretching me. "Is this okay?" he asked more than once.

"I promise, I'll let you know if it isn't."

"Thank you." He then plunged his thumbs in as deep as they would go, and I groaned, loving the sensation and his urgency. After a few moments, his hands left my body and his cock pressed against my hole.

I rocked back, swallowing his head.

"Stop, stop, stop," he choked out, and I jerked away.

When I looked over my shoulder, he was fisting the base of his shaft, trying to stave off orgasm.

After a few deep breaths, he sent me a look I'd never seen. His eyes had gone dark, and the snarl on his lips meant business. I nodded, and he thrust forward, sinking his entire length inside me. My mouth went open on a silent scream.

"Too much?"

I shook my head. "Love it. Need it."

He started rocking into me with a punishing rhythm, and I didn't know whether to laugh or cry or come all over my bedsheets.

Once he was confident that I was enjoying myself, he put his full weight and strength into making love to me, and I knew no one would ever come close to him.

"I love you so much," I choked out, thrusting back, needing every inch of him.

His muscular arms pulled me up to my knees, and he yanked me to his powerful chest, speeding up his thrusts as he wrapped his large, heavy hand around my length and began stroking it. He was all over me, inside me, and around me, and I knew he was my forever. And on that thought, I lost all self-control.

"Coming," I gasped, completely overwhelmed by him.

The headboard started banging against the wall as he found another gear. I didn't care if anyone else was home and could hear it. No, more than that: I wanted people to know that Leo was taking me apart.

He let out a broken grunt, and we shattered together. I came under his rough touch, and he pumped me full of his heat. The orgasm hit me from outside and in, like a darker kind of pleasure, and I was done for.

He shivered, thrusting a few more times before slumping atop me, still inside me, as he whispered how beautiful and loved I was.