A Taste of Bliss {3}

The iron creaks under his weight as he sits on the edge of the bed. There’s a quiet intensity as he considers her from afar. The charge between them is causing the heat to curl from her centre up towards her neck, where blooms of pink are mottled against her porcelain skin.
‘Take off your shirt’, he says.
His eyes trail down as the dip in her right hip is exposed first, followed by a sliver of her waist. She pulls the cloth over her head and shakes out her long hair, letting it rest gently on the cusp of her shoulders. His eyes come to rest on the red lace skimming her breasts. She shifts from one foot to another, uncomfortable with being visually undressed and assessed.
‘Beautiful’, he mumbles with an exhalation.
Anna steps closer to Levi and reaches for his shirt. She releases one button at a time, placing her lips on the newly uncovered skin as she moves her way down to the band of his jeans.
He slides his hands from where they have been resting on his thighs, to her waist. Anna shakes her head. ‘Uh-uh’, she intones, ‘not yet’.
She pushes his shirt off his shoulders and steps between his legs, running her hands down his lean torso and leaning closer to his warm skin. He feels like smooth river pebbles and smells of lux soap. Levi takes the opportunity to capture her hips in his large hands and run his lips across the pale pillows draped in front of him. Anna’s arms drop to her sides and she angles her body closer to his mouth. Levi takes this opportunity to unbutton her jeans, gliding the zip down, and tugging at the sides to allow him a peek at the matching lace underwear underneath.
‘You’ve been holding out on me’, he says.
‘It’s not my fault it took you so long,’ she counters.
‘I like to think I’m a gentleman Anna. We don’t want to rush these things.’
‘Whoever said ‘good things come to those who wait’ had no idea what they were talking about,’ she says.
Her words are captured by his mouth, strong and full, his lips turned up in a smile. She can taste traces of mint from the gum he was lashing around his mouth and wishes she had the same forethought. Before she can worry about how she must taste, he skims his mouth down her undulating ribs and lands on the concave of her hip bone. His attempt to smoothly remove her jeans is unsuccessful, and Anna takes a step back, giggling, as she ungracefully tugs her jeans off one leg at a time.
‘That’s better,’ Levi says. ‘Come back here.’
She climbs onto his lap, her knees resting on the soft white linen on either side of him. Anna can feel him underneath her. Her nerve endings stand to attention as he passes his hands back over her body, running his fingers along the edge of her underwear.
‘I want you’, he says in a frenzy that matches hers. She’s certain that she has never wanted anyone more than in this moment.
He holds her head between his hands and takes pause to lock her eyes with his. She flicks her gaze to the left, desperate for a reprieve as she simmers in his grasp. Levi lifts her off him and lays her gently onto her back. The planes of his olive complexion are warmed by the lamp light as he removes his jeans and lays himself over her.
Anna’s eyes grow wide before fluttering to a close as his mouth finds hers again.
She is lost to him in that moment; unravelling, gasping, begging, shuddering.
‘I told you, don’t forget to breathe,’ Levi reminds, before expending himself and rolling onto his side. He cups his arm around her belly and tucks her back into his chest, nuzzling the nape of her neck. They sigh, and deeply sated, drift into a blissful reverie.
