After the Fall

about riding lessons and atonement from the accident. Or that whatever we were doing this evening wasn’t a date.
    He was also leaving in a few months to take a job someplace else. Whatever happened between us wouldn’t have a chance to get off the ground before he was headed for the horizon. There was safety in that. Reassurance that I couldn’t get my heart broken because there wasn’t time to get my heart involved.
    My body, however, could get involved with this guy until the end of days if he kissed me again like he did last night. Which I hoped he would. Soon.
    “Nathan?”
    “Hmm?” I blinked, wondering how long I’d been lost in my own thoughts. “Sorry, what?”
    He cocked his head. “You okay? You zoned out a bit.”
    I nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine. But I was thinking, um, do you want to skip the lesson tonight?”
    He swallowed, looking equal parts intrigued and unnerved. “What else did you have in mind?”
    I held his gaze, hoping he’d make the connection and not make me say it out loud. “You tell me.”
    “I asked you first.” He leaned across the console. “Skipping the lesson was your idea.” But before I could speak, Ryan kissed me, and even the cast couldn’t stop my knees from shaking.
    Against his lips, I said, “I was thinking something along these lines.”
    “Hmm, me too.” His kiss was lighter this time. “Do you want to go back to my place?”
    My heart sped up. “Do you?”
    “I do. And I think you might like it.” He leaned in and whispered in my ear, “It’s on the ground floor.”
    A nervous but genuine laugh burst out of me. “Ooh, tell me more.”
    “Hmm.” He paused to kiss beneath my ear until I shivered. “How about I show you instead?”
    “Please do.”

    Making out hadn’t been foreplay last night, but it definitely was now.
    We’d barely said a word on the way to his apartment, and I hadn’t bothered to take in the scenery in his living room or the short hallway leading to his bedroom. There was one place we both wanted to be, and that place was here, on his bed, lost in a deep, breathless kiss.
    We weren’t just kissing for the sake of kissing tonight. This was hotter, hungrier, complementing the way we held onto each other and tried to get closer and closer to each other. His body was perfect on top of mine. If there hadn’t been this damned cast on my leg, we probably would have fit together like we were made for this, his hips settling between my legs and my hands sliding down the muscles and grooves of his back.
    Everything about Ryan, from the way he touched me to the way he kissed me, was both tentative and assertive. He was timid—hesitating every time he tried something new as if to make sure I wouldn’t protest—but he was aggressive at the same time, not only kissing and touching but claiming .
    I could be as toppy as the next guy, but with Ryan, I surrendered. I loved his subtle aggression, the way he took what he wanted, but everything he did still had an undercurrent of is this okay?
    Ryan shifted his weight onto one arm. My skin tingled as his other hand disappeared between us, and when his hand slid over the front of my shorts, I gasped, pressing against his palm. I mirrored him, cupping him through his jeans. Oh, lord, he’d been blessed. Just the right size.
    Please tell me you have condoms and lube, Ryan. We’re going to need them.
    I licked my lips. “Maybe now’s a good time to ask if you’re a top or a bottom.”
    He tensed a little. “No preference. You?”
    “Either.” I kissed him lightly. “I do prefer the bottom, though.” Especially if you’re as big as you feel through your clothes.
    Ryan relaxed. Sort of. “I guess that makes me a top tonight, doesn’t it?”
    “I guess it does. But don’t expect me to be a passive bottom.”
    He grinned. “I wouldn’t want you to be.”
    “Good.” I steadied him with a hand on his shoulder and raised my head off the pillow to kiss his neck. His masculine scent gave me goose bumps, and the warmth of his skin against my lips was beyond arousing. Ryan tilted his head back, then to the side, alternately exposing more hot flesh to my lips and rubbing against me like a cat.
    “Fuck, that’s amazing,” he breathed, the wonder and pure arousal in his voice making me shiver. The more I explored his throat, the more his hips ground against mine, the underside of his erection rubbing back and forth through our clothes. I nipped the side of his neck, and his