The walk back to the trailer passes in fragments of sensation—his warm hands against my body as he carried me in his arms, my legs hooked around his waist as I buried my face in his neck while hugging it.
He opens the door and the moment it clicks shut behind us, his mouth finds mine again.
My spine meets the thin aluminum wall, and the trailer shudders with the impact. His hands bracket my face, tilting my head back.
My fingers rake down his spine, nails digging into the warm flesh of his back the way I fantasized about doing when he stood shirtless at the sink. The groan that tears from his throat tells me the reality is better than any dream.
"Finn…" I breathe against his lips, and the sound of his name makes him groan again, low in his throat.
His fingers slide into my hair, tugging gently, and I feel his mouth drifting toward my throat. Toward the bruises still hidden beneath layers of foundation I never washed off so that my mother doesn't see.
I catch his jaw and redirect him, pressing my lips to the column of his neck instead. His head falls back with a groan, and the taste of his skin against my tongue sends lightning down my spine, pooling hot and liquid in my belly.
"I have dreamed about this mouth," he breathes against my lips, pulling back just enough to trace my lower lip with his thumb. "Every time you bit your lip while studying… I wanted to be the one doing the biting instead."
I pull his face back to mine and kiss him hard. His palms skate down my spine and grip my thighs, fingers digging into the soft flesh. My legs lock around his hips harder, and the new angle presses us together in a way that makes us both groan.
"I need you horizontal," I whisper against the corner of his mouth, my hips rolling against his experimentally.
But he is already moving.
He carries me across the narrow space without breaking the kiss. Then the mattress rises to meet my back as his weight settles over me, and the solid pressure of him drives every rational thought from my skull.
He pulls back just enough to tug my pajama top higher, and then his mouth is on my stomach. Trailing fire upward across my ribs, between my breasts, his lips learning every inch of skin that does not carry someone else's fingerprints.
I arch into him, my fingers raking through his hair, and the careful reverence of his exploration makes my chest ache as much as it burns.
"I used to convince myself I had imagined you. That no one could actually be this perfect," he breathes against my sternum, his lips brushing my skin between words. "But I was wrong, Aubrey. I was so fucking wrong."
I pull his face back up to mine because I need his mouth more than I need air. His hands find the hem of my top and pause, a question in the tension of his fingers. I answer by sitting up just enough to pull the fabric over my head myself.
The cool air hits my skin for half a second before his warmth replaces it.
He stares at me and the hunger in his expression makes me feel powerful in a way I have never felt with Daniel.
"Come here," I whisper, and he obeys.
His mouth descends on my breast, and the first pull of his lips makes me arch off the mattress with a cry. My fingers find his belt, fumbling with the buckle until the leather slides free, and he moans into my mouth as I work the button of his pants.
Finn makes his way down my stomach, and I feel his fingers hook into the waistband of my pajama shorts. He drags them down my thighs along with my underwear, and the cool air hits my heated skin for only a second before his breath replaces it.
The heat of him is everywhere, and I cannot tell where I end and he begins.
His hands map the geography of my body—the curve of my hip, the dip of my waist, the soft skin of my inner thigh—while mine trace the planes of his back, nails dragging across muscle.
"Christ, Aubrey." His voice is rough with hunger as he settles between my legs. "You are so beautiful."
The first stroke of his tongue makes me cry out. My hips buck involuntarily, but his hands grip my thighs, holding me open for him as he devours me with a single-minded intensity that steals my breath.
"Finn… Oh God…" I fist the sheets, my head thrashing against the pillow as he works me with his mouth, his tongue finding every spot that makes me shake.
"I dreamed about this," he growls against my slick flesh, the vibration sending shockwaves through me. "Every night you were gone, I dreamed about the taste of you on my tongue."
The confession mixed with the relentless pressure of his mouth pushes me higher. My thighs start to tremble, and he feels it, doubling his efforts until I shatter with a broken cry of his name.
Before I can catch my breath, he is crawling back up my body, his mouth finding mine and I can taste myself on his lips. He kicks off his pants while I work his boxer briefs down his hips, needing him naked, needing him inside me, and then he is gloriously bare above me.
I wrap my hand around him, stroking once, twice, and he drops his forehead to mine with a shuddering groan. "I need—"
"Yes," I interrupt, guiding him to my entrance. "God, yes."
When he enters me in one deep thrust, the stretch of him is so perfect, so exactly what I needed, that I sob his name. He stills, buried to the hilt, his arms trembling as he hovers above me.
"Every time Daniel touched me," I gasp, my legs locking around his hips, "I closed my eyes and pretended it was you. I hated myself for it, but… I couldn't stop."
"Look at me now," he commands, his voice rough as gravel. "I want you to know exactly who is with you."
I open my eyes to find his hazel gaze burning into mine, and he starts to move. Deep, devastating thrusts that hit something inside me I did not know existed with Daniel.
"That's it," he groans as I meet him thrust for thrust, my nails scoring down his back. "Take what you need from me. Take everything."
"Harder," I beg, and he obliges, his hips snapping against mine with a force that makes the bed frame creak and a sound escaping me that is part gasp, part moan, part sob. "Finn, please…"
"I love you," he breathes against my mouth, never breaking rhythm. "I have always loved you. Even when you were gone, even when I convinced myself you were just a dream."
"I love you too," I sob, the words mixing with moans as he shifts angles and hits that perfect spot. "I never stopped— Oh God, right there."
He pounds into that spot relentlessly, and I feel the orgasm building, coiling tighter and tighter in my core.
"Come for me," he commands, his hand sliding between our bodies to circle the most sensitive spot. "I want to feel you come apart on me."
The dual stimulation is too much and I shatter around him with a scream, my body clenching in rhythmic pulses that drag him over the edge with me.
"Aubrey… fuck!" He buries himself deep one final time, and I feel the hot pulse of him as he empties inside me, my name breaking apart on his lips.
He collapses onto me, and I hold him close, both of us trembling, hearts pounding in syncopated rhythm. After a moment, he rolls to his side and pulls me against his chest, but his hand stays possessive on my hip.
"I never stopped thinking about you." He brushes a strand of hair from my face, tucking it behind my ear. "Every decision I made, some part of me was still trying to prove I was worthy of you, even though you were already gone."
I kiss him softly, tasting the salt of my own tears on his lips. "And I am terrified that I am going to wake up and discover this was just another dream about you that ends with me alone in a bed I never really wanted to be in."
"You are never waking up alone again," he murmurs into my hair, his voice still rough. "I am done wasting time."
I press my palm flat against his chest, feeling the steady thump beneath my hand. "We wasted so many years."
"Then we make up for them now." He tilts my chin up, his eyes fierce. "Every single one."
I settle back against his chest, listening to the steady rhythm of his heart beneath my ear. The trailer is quiet around us, and for the first time in years I feel safe enough to let my guard down completely.
"Is this real?" I whisper against his skin. "Or am I going to wake up tomorrow and find out I dreamed the whole thing?"
His arm tightens around me. "You are not dreaming. And I am going to prove it to you every single day until you believe it."