But Too Well

XLIX : Morning

AT SOME POINT in the middle of the night, I've tangled myself around him. My eyes float open, and my movement as I slide off his warm chest makes him stir, roll over to face me. He tugs me softly back towards him and now he's awake too.

And God knows what time it is but just his skin on mine makes heat rush everywhere, and, taken over by a flood of energy and desire I press myself into him and he rests me onto my back and we have each other once more, moans and whimpers escaping into the darkness of the night that surrounds us.

We finish together and, in seconds after he lies back beside me, we fall asleep in a pile of sweaty limbs, blankets a messy heap and the earth still spinning, impossibly.

•§•

I FEEL MORNING light streaming through his windows behind my closed eyelids, which flutter open to brightness. The first thing I feel after a strange sense of ease is the ache between my legs. Mhhm. Images of yesterday flash through my mind—Nero on top of me, in me, me on top of him, his face between my legs, his fingers.

I flush when I remember us waking up to each other in the middle of the night, still wanting.

I nestle closer to him, watching the rise and fall of his golden chest. His face is so peaceful, so calm, slack with sleep.

Our bodies fill the space under the duvet with heat, and at the back of my mind I tell myself to go get some plan B today. A slight panic rises in my chest. I've never had unprotected sex, without the pill or condoms. Certainly not... I try to count the number of orgasms, the number of times we came together with him inside me. Ohh. 5? 7?

As my eyes drift over the tanned, perfect god that lies next to me, I don't regret a single thing.

What next?

Part of me is waiting for our bubble to burst.

My fingers rest against his hot skin, my lips pressing softly against his shoulder. In his sleep, he leans into me, rough hands drifting to my hips, holding me close. The flutter in my chest, the lightness, the affection, should worry me but doesn't.

Oh shit. I let out a sigh, remembering something that will no doubt make everything a lot more complicated.

Before I can dwell on it, his eyes float open, and the warmness in them as he looks at me makes my heart ache just a little.

"Hey, you." My voice is still heavy with sleep.

He brings a hand to my face, brushes the hair back from my eyes tenderly. "Hey, you."

I relax into him and he tugs me closer, kisses my forehead and holds me against him. "So, bad news," I mumble into his neck.

"Mm." The sound of it vibrates through my skin, makes me shiver. "We probably should've used a condom," he says, and I giggle a little into his shoulder. "Or ten."

Nero isn't usually the kind to make jokes. My laughter travels across his collarbone.

"That too." A sigh. "Natalia is coming over to my place for coffee this afternoon."

His hands tighten around my hips, and he trails a rough finger down my arm, along my side, leaving behind sparks. "Will you tell her?"

I press my lips to the hollow of his neck, leaning my naked body against his, a desire for him stirring in my stomach. "I think she'll take one look at me and figure it out."

In a second, he flips me over, my back to the mattress, his mouth pressing into a dark mark on my neck, red from yesterday, from him. His fingers linger over another spot on my breast, the light redness of my skin evidence of the times he took me yesterday, over and over... "She'll kill me," he mumbles, sucking hard enough to leave another mark. Oooh.