The Hardest Fall

Dylan sighed, a heavy sound in all that loud silence that warmed my skin where my neck met my shoulder and made my eyes go all wonky. Then the arm under my head moved and he tugged me back, curling his elbow as he reached for my shoulder with his hand, trapping me in his embrace. His right forearm moved over my stomach, fingers gently diving under the t-shirt I had haphazardly put on after our shower, sending goose bumps all over my body. He stopped when half of his hand rested under the waistband of my PJs, his skin warming me from inside out.

“You’re going to fall off,” he whispered.

I was officially in a Dylan cocoon, and I couldn’t have felt cozier—hadn’t ever felt cozier, or happier.

I turned my head a few inches, and he nuzzled my neck with his nose.

“You’re okay?” he asked, his voice still gruff. It was perfect, so perfect.

Instead of a verbal answer, I angled my head, moved it up and down, and felt his smiling lips against my skin. If I attempted to speak, I was afraid I’d say more than I was ready to say.

Neither one of us spoke for several minutes. I had no idea what he was thinking, but my mind was working overtime.

Kayla, Mark, Chris—everything and nothing was coming at me at once, and there were two words I repeatedly heard over everything else.

Tell him. Tell him. Tell him.

“Shhh,” Dylan murmured, pressing his lips against my neck and lingering. “I can almost hear you thinking. Just go to sleep, baby. I’ll watch over you until morning.”

And he will, won’t he? I thought.

He’d help me breathe after scaring me to death. He’d save me from earthquakes, hold my hand after watching a scary movie, buy me pizza because he knew it’d make me happy, protect me from anything and everything by putting himself in front of the danger. He’d watch over me until morning.

When the lights came on, he’d still be there. After he learned all my secrets, he’d still be there, holding my hand—at least I hoped so.

“He forced her in front of his friends,” I said into the darkness. “How do you come back from that?”

“She has her friends. You’ll bring her back.”

“I don’t think I could’ve been as strong as she was today if it had happened to me. She’s loved him since she was sixteen, and he…”

His arms tightened around me, so I reached up to curl my hand around his forearm, holding on.

“You don’t have to think about that, not tonight. Go to sleep so you can be there for her tomorrow.”

A few minutes passed in silence and I wondered if he’d fallen asleep. “Dylan…”

“Shhh.”

“I like your voice,” I blurted out quietly.

His voice was so low when he hummed next to my ear. “Mmmm, you do?”

“Yes,” I murmured back as I closed my eyes to process that hum. “How was work?”

A short laugh as his chest shook behind me then a warm huff against my skin, making more goose bumps dance on my arms. “Same as always.”

That didn’t give me a chance to hear his voice all that much, did it?

“You must be so tired.”

He grunted, but even though I knew I was being selfish, I wasn’t ready to let him go. I guess it hadn’t been much of a lie when I’d told him I couldn’t sleep.

“When do you have to get up tomorrow?”

“You don’t have to worry about that. I won’t leave before you wake up again.”

“It’s not that…” Unconsciously, I started to move my thumb up and down through his arm hair. “Are you going to work out in the living room? Or are you meeting with Chris? Would it be okay if we skipped classes and hung out here after I spend some time with Kayla? But, it’s Monday, so you’ll have practice. I was just wonde—”

“Zoe,” he groaned and tilted his hips up, quieting me pretty efficiently with just one move. My finger stopped moving on his arm. As you can imagine, I could feel the thick, round head of his cock against my ass. “I’m already having a hard time as it is, Flash. If you keep moving your finger like that and talking in that husky voice, I’m not gonna be able to… Just let me hold you like this and go to sleep.”

I swallowed and nodded, but a few seconds later, I couldn’t help myself. I shimmied my butt then stilled when he groaned and his teeth grazed my neck.

Shifting in the small bed, his hand dragged lower on my stomach, causing me to hold my breath. Lower and lower he went until his palm lay flat over my underwear, just a few inches higher than the center of my body. A second later he pressed his palm against me and shifted higher in the bed at the same time, safely nestling not just the mushroom head but also the thick length of his erection right against me.

“Dylan,” I moaned, feeling a little dizzy and maybe a bit drunk on him as I restlessly tried to move my hips. I buried my face against his arm and, still holding his forearm with my left hand, put my right one over his hand on my lower stomach. Flipping his hand, he linked our fingers together and lay still.

I wasn’t ready to lay still. I was ready for anything but lying still.

His mouth gently sucked on my neck as his hips moved behind me, once…twice…thrice, just a slow roll of his hips, a barely there movement I might not have been able to feel if my entire body wasn’t screaming for him. I whimpered, my whole being electrified by his touch, down to my soul. Never in my life had I felt anything like it.

“I’m so tired, baby.” A kiss on my neck and then everything stopped. “And you just went through hell. You need your sleep—I’m not gonna do anything.”

“But—” I sputtered, earning myself another soft kiss that caused all kinds of tingles and shivers to go through my body.

“Sleep, baby.”

Are you kidding me?

He’d just played Tetris with our bodies and then what? I was supposed to just drift off to sleep?

I wouldn’t have thought so, but to my utter shock, I did just that. With his breathing steady and reassuring against my back, I did just that.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Dylan

Before I even opened my eyes, before I was even fully awake, I could feel her next to me, not because I’d have known her smell anywhere or because we were still pretty much wrapped around each other in the exact same position we’d fallen asleep in, but because it was her that was in my arms.

Not knowing what time it was, I opened my eyes to darkness. Frowning, I moved just an inch or two and tried to reach under the pillow to get my phone without waking Zoe up.

“Dylan?”

Her voice was still husky, still groggy.

“Ssshhh, I’m here. Go back to sleep,” I whispered into her neck then finally managed to grab my phone under her head.

The light coming from the phone illuminated us, and I had to blink to see the time on the screen.

“What time is it?” Zoe asked as she shielded her half-closed eyes with the back of her hand.

I turned the phone off and pushed it back under the pillow.

Zoe shifted and turned her head to look at me. I could barely make out her features in the dark, but I could see that her eyes were open and staring into mine.

I ran the backs of my fingers against her cheek. “It’s only four thirty.”

“So we slept, what, just a little over two hours?”

“Something like that.” I let my fingers trail down to her neck and tried to be gentle as I did a quick sweep.