After the Fall

something—anything—to hold onto as he inched deeper inside me. He took a few slow, careful strokes, but once he could move freely without fear of hurting me, he sped up. I spread my legs wider, allowing him deeper, and he felt so fucking good.
    Whimpering softly, Ryan leaned down and slid his hands under my back, and he ground against me, and I could feel him. All of him. Not only his cock deep inside me, but all of him . There was nothing between us at all, nothing to keep my inner thigh from brushing his hip or both my hands from running through his hair.
    I rocked my hips, and Ryan shuddered as his rhythm almost came apart. Then he recovered, and we moved together, and he forced himself so deep I was sure it should have hurt, but oh, God, this was amazing. I moaned again, and he must’ve thought I was on the verge of crying. I probably was. Hell if I knew. All I knew was how good he felt, how close I was to coming, how much I wanted this to go on and on and on and at the same time didn’t think I’d survive another second if I didn’t come.
    Of course, that was when my leg started to cramp.
    I winced and swore under my breath.
    “You okay?” he asked, slowing down a little.
    I nodded. “Just a . . . cramp.”
    Ryan hooked his elbow under my knee, drawing it up enough to relieve the muscle fatigue. “Better?”
    “Much.”
    “Good.” He grinned, and then he slammed into me, and he fucked me hard . With my leg up that way, the angle was spectacular, and he didn’t hold back, didn’t do anything except force himself into me again and again until there wasn’t a damned thing I could do to keep my climax at bay.
    I let go. Completely surrendered. Might have cried out, might have sworn and called his name and sworn again, but all I knew for sure were the intense waves rushing through me and the deep, powerful thrusts that kept my orgasm going and going and going.
    Eventually, I exhaled hard and relaxed.
    He slowed, but he didn’t stop. “This okay?”
    I nodded. “ Oh , yeah.” Fuck, it was more than okay. I was hypersensitive from my orgasm, and every stroke bordered on way too much, but Ryan was fucking me so I didn’t give a damn about anything else as long as he didn’t stop.
    He slid his arms under me and buried his face against my neck again. He thrust into me so hard it was painful, and shuddered violently. “Oh . . . fuck .”
    I held onto him, letting every tremor resonate through my body as well as his, and stroked his hair as he slowly came down.
    As soon as his arms would hold him up, Ryan got up and got rid of the condom. With his back turned, I saw that he still had the familiar Army tattoo.
    “You didn’t get your new ink?” I asked.
    He glanced back and shrugged. “I’m still thinking about it. I like Seth’s work, just not ready to commit yet.” He smiled. “But later on, I’ll show you some of the designs he sent me.”
    I returned the smile. “Looking forward to it. Maybe if you get yours, I’ll finally get mine.”
    “Oh, yeah? You settled on one?”
    “That line drawing of the dressage horse has some appeal.”
    “Fitting.” He slid back into bed beside me. “Any idea where you’ll get it?”
    I shrugged. “Don’t know. Not ready to commit to it yet.”
    Ryan chuckled and wrapped his arms around me. Though the dust seemed to have settled, and the easy banter had returned, some of the earlier tension lingered between Ryan’s eyebrows, as if there were still something he needed to say.
    I brushed a droplet of water from his temple. “What’s on your mind?”
    He tensed a little and broke eye contact. “There’s, um, something that took me a while to figure out. About myself, and about us.”
    “Oh?”
    Ryan moistened his lips. “I told you I move around a lot. Never stay in one place. And when that’s all you’ve ever known, you never really find any one place that’s home. You know?”
    I nodded. “Yeah, you mentioned that.”
    “Right.” He went on, “I’ve always envied people who have that. I never thought I could.” He paused again, eyes losing focus as if he were collecting his thoughts. “When we met, I was ready to leave Tucker Springs like I’ve been ready to leave any other place. But that changed after I met you. This place still wasn’t anything special, but I . . . I didn’t want to leave anymore.” He hesitated, chewing his lip and avoiding my eyes. “And it took me a while to figure out exactly why.”
    I gulped but