Just Remember to Breathe (Thompson Sisters)

warm.
    “Dylan,” I said, screwing up my courage. “Listen to me. And listen closely. I love you. With all my heart. I’m willing to spend my life with you.”
    I could feel his heart beating as my hand rested on his chest, right next to his hand. Then he said, his voice a low growl, “I’d rather die than lose you again.”
    I closed my eyes, and tried to focus. “Then you have to talk to me. You have to tell me what you’re thinking and feeling. You don’t decide for me what the best way to protect me is, Dylan. Don’t you dare. You ask me, you don’t decide for me. Am I clear?”
    He looked at me, and I could see I was getting through. He smiled, actually.
    “I’m serious, Dylan. I’m a big girl. I can take whatever you throw my way. But I damned well better be informed.”
    “You have no idea how much you’re turning me on right now.”
    I burst into laughter and slapped him lightly on the shoulder.
    “What? I told you how I felt!”
    “Will you promise me?”
    He nodded.
    “Not good enough. I want to hear it.”
    He took a deep breath, then looked into my eyes, and said, “Alex, I promise. I’ll tell you what I’m thinking, and feeling, no matter how fucked up it is. I won’t… I won’t try to protect you from me. Not without talking about it.”
    His voice caught, and we looked in each other’s eyes. Those beautiful blue eyes that caught me from across the room three years ago and never let me go.
    “Please forgive me,” he whispered.
    “I do,” I replied. Then I leaned forward and kissed him, very softly, on the lips.
    He closed his eyes, and I could feel his body tensing, hungrily, and I found myself biting his lower lip. He moaned softly, and for me, that led the floodgates loose. I pushed myself closer, pressing my body against his, and lowered my lips to his neck. He was clean-shaven after his shower, and I could taste the faint tang of his aftershave.
    I was breathing heavily, suddenly so wound up with desire I wanted to rip his clothes off on the spot. I looked up at him, met his eyes, and whispered, “Something very important was interrupted Saturday night a few weeks ago.”
    He smiled, and our eyes met, and he sat up, then leaned close to me and very slowly kissed my neck, my chin, below my ear. Each kiss sent a small shudder through my body. As his tongue and lips worked their way down to the top button of my shirt, my hands moved of their own accord, underneath his T-shirt, running up his strongly muscled ribs and around his back.
    He began to unbutton my shirt. As he stopped at each button he kissed the skin he revealed. I lay back, arching my back as his lips slowly worked their way down my chest, then my stomach. Each pause was excruciating, and I let out a loud moan as he lightly breathed against the underside of my ribcage.
    “You have no idea how beautiful you are,” he murmured.
    “Tell me,” I whispered.
    He slid his hands up to my shoulders, and I slightly lifted myself off the mattress as he slid my shirt off. He kissed my shoulder and said, “You’re like looking at a sunset on the beach,” then began working his way across to my other shoulder, stopping at the base of my neck.
    “Hmmm…” I said.
    “Sometimes you’re so beautiful I have to shade my eyes just to look at you,” he murmured.
    At that, he slid his left hand behind my back and awkwardly undid the hooks in my bra. I slid the bra down my arms, and he brought his mouth to my right breast and kissed first the underside, then slowly worked his way to the nipple. I almost screamed at the sensation, as he quietly said, “You were so beautiful when we met I was terrified to talk with you.”
    I closed my eyes and shuddered as his lips worked their magic, now moving toward the button on my jeans. He paused there, and said, suddenly and soberly, “Alex, stop, I have to tell you how I feel right now.”
    My eyes popped open.
    “ What?” I said.
    “Just kidding.”
    I growled at him, and he carefully undid the zipper and I slid my jeans down my hips and kicked them off onto the floor.
    I heard him gasp. Meeting his eyes, he whispered, “I’ve been waiting three years to see you like this. I just want to look at you, drink the sight of you in.”
    I stretched, then said, “You’re not finished yet.”
    He chuckled in a low voice, and said, “No. Not yet.”
    Then he brought his lips to my navel and began kissing again, working his way down. He slid my panties down around my hips,