Diving In (Open Door Love Story) by Stacey Wallace Benefiel Page A

cushions and the back of the couch, the other still standing. “Uh, like this?”
    “Yeah, except it would be better if you didn’t have any pants on. Or a shirt. Or underwear. I think the word I’m looking for is naked. It would all be better all of my days if you were naked, m’kay?”
    I tug my shirt off over my head and then grab the hem of his long sleeve t-shirt and push it up his chest. “Will you settle for topless?”
    “Topless is never a bad option with you.”
    “Will you do me the honors?” I look down at the front clasp on my bra.
    With a hint of mischief in his eyes, Gabe unhooks my bra and pulls the fabric cups to the sides, my breasts spilling free. They are unsupported for about a millisecond before Gabe’s hands are on them, kneading them liberally and scraping his thumbnails over my nipples. I lean over him, my hair grazing his bare chest.
    “That feels good,” I whisper and then lower my mouth to his.
    His tongue prods at mine and then draws back, licking my lower lip. “I want to make you feel great.”
    He raises his head to my chest and looks at me as he takes my right nipple into his mouth, sucking hard. I moan a little letting him know he’s on a good and very right track.
    Gabe circles my nipple with his tongue and then blows on it. The cool air makes it taut and I lower my hips to his, putting all the weight of my lower body on him.
    “Mmm, I like that,” he says. “I can feel the pressure of you against me.”
    “Where,” I ask, nudging my right breast to his mouth, getting it its due.
    Gabe clears his throat. “I can feel the pressure of YOU against ME.”
    “Ah ha.” I blush, even though the guy has half my boob in his mouth. I lean further over and brace myself by putting my hands on his shoulders, essentially holding him down. His eyes widen and he wiggles his eyebrows at me. I file that away under HE LIKES IT and start moving my pelvis against his, hoping this is also something he likes … and can sort of feel. The idea of getting him off turns me on so much. To be the person that can do that for him makes me feel powerful, like nothing else does.
    “That’s hot, the way you move like that,” he says, coming up for air. “Am I responding?”
    I slow down and widen my stance, searching to feel his hardness between my legs. “Not yet.”
    “It’s still really hot, believe me, I have such a mind boner right now.”
    I kiss him, because how can you not kiss the guy who has a mind boner for you?
    “I need your shirt all the way off,” I say. “I want you to feel me where I can feel you.”
    I sit up and he pulls his shirt off over his head, dropping it to the floor next to mine. I lay on top of him, pressing my breasts to his chest, reveling in the tightness with which he holds me to him.
    “I feel you all the way like this,” he whispers in my ear. “Can you deal if this is all of me that … works?”
    I think about a moment ago when I was getting off on the power of getting him hard and I know I want that, but I also really, really like this. This is a connection. This is about both of us and not my stupid ego and what it needs. Can I deal, though? If this is it? If this is all I’ll ever be able to give him, because I know he can make me come. Without a doubt he can satisfy me, but that’s not really what I’m hesitant about.
    “Can you deal if this is all of you that works?” I ask tenderly.
    “I want to.” He brushes my hair back from my face and touches my chin, lifting my face to look at him. “You’re the unknown, Brynn. You’re like standing on the high dive in a dream – you have to have had this dream, I think all swimmers have – where you’re up there and you’re looking down and you can’t see the bottom of the pool and instead of being afraid, you want it. You want to be in that water more than anything, to immerse yourself in it because it makes you feel alive.”
    “And so you dive in?” I ask. I’ve never had that dream, yet I