Chapter 175: Touch You Like This

Whatever restraint Maverick possessed snapped at that.

He pulled back just far enough to grip the hem of Aria’s top, and she lifted her arms without hesitation, letting him strip it free and toss it somewhere over his shoulder.

His breath caught audibly at the sight beneath him. Her breasts were full and round, nipples already tight and dusky pink, rising and falling with the unsteady breath she took, while her skin flushed from her collarbone down.

"Beautiful," Maverick murmured, almost reverent, before lowering his head and dragging his open mouth slowly down her sternum, pressing a hot, wet kiss right in the valley between her breasts.

Aria’s fingers tangled in his hair, gripping and guiding him lower without shame, and Maverick let himself be pulled, closing his lips around one tight peak and drawing it fully into his mouth. His tongue flattened against it first, broad and slow, before he began circling the tip in deliberate, unhurried patterns, sucking with just enough pressure to make her hips buck up hard against him.

"Maverick," she gasped, the sound cracking halfway between his name and a moan, her hips grinding shamelessly against the thick, rigid line of him trapped between her thighs.

He growled against her skin, the low vibration of it traveling straight from her nipple down to her core, and released her with a wet pop before moving to the other side, giving it the same treatment. His tongue flicked and lapped while his fingers pinched and rolled the peak he’d just abandoned. Beneath him, Aria writhed, her nails scraping lightly down his scalp, breathing faster, and open-mouthed.

His free hand slid lower, tracing down the curve of her ribs, over the soft plane of her stomach, until his fingers hooked firmly into the waistband of her shorts, thumb brushing against bare skin just above the seam.

Maverick lifted his head then, dragging his mouth off her nipple with obvious reluctance, and held her gaze steadily, silently asking for permission even with the bond roaring at both of them to keep going. 𝘧𝓇ℯℴ𝓂

Aria lifted her hips off the mattress, arching them toward his hand, an unmistakable invitation carved into every line of her body.

A dark and deeply satisfied glint flickered across Maverick’s face at that, his jaw tightening as he finally began dragging the fabric down her legs, slow enough to savor every inch of newly bared skin beneath his fingertips.

Maverick drew her shorts down slowly, dragging his palms along her legs as he went, savoring every inch of newly exposed skin before tossing the fabric aside entirely. His breath caught the moment she was finally bare before him, the sight of her already flushed pink and glistening, slick arousal coating her inner thighs, evidence of exactly how much that kiss and the grinding of their hips had affected her.

Aria’s chest rose and fell in quick, shallow breaths, her cheeks burning as his gaze lingered there openly, unashamed. She should have felt embarrassed, exposed like this, but the way Maverick looked at her, dark-eyed and hungry, like he’d found something he intended to devour slowly, only made heat pool tighter low in her belly.

Her mate settled back over her, propped on one forearm, his other hand trailing back up her thigh with slowly.

"I never thought I’d get to experience this." His voice dropped, the roughness giving way to something more vulnerable. "You have no idea how many times I’ve imagined touching you like this."

Aria might have been sympathetic to that confession under any other circumstances, but right now, with her body still aching for him, she had very little interest in talking about all the times he’d imagined touching her.

"Then stop imagining," Aria said, hooking a hand around the back of his neck and pulling him down until their mouths met again.

They kissed slowly, his tongue moving against hers in an unhurried rhythm even as his fingers finally found her, easing through her slick, swollen folds already soaked for him. His sensitive hearing caught the obscene wetness of every stroke, the sound only feeding the desire already burning through him. Aria’s whole body jerked at the first pass, a sharp gasp escaping her only for Maverick to swallow it with another kiss.

He slowly circled her clit first, testing her, watching the way her hips twitched up into the touch before he finally slid two fingers lower, easing them inside her with agonizing patience. Aria’s back bowed off the mattress at the intrusion, her inner walls clenching hot and tight around him instantly, and Maverick groaned against her mouth at the feel of it.

"Fuck, you’re tight," he rasped, curling his fingers slightly, testing the angle until her thighs trembled.

He found a rhythm then, deep, measured strokes that dragged against a spot inside her until her vision blurred, pulling back until only his fingertips remained before sinking deep again, over and over, maddeningly patient despite the desperate roll of her hips begging him to move faster.

Aria bit down hard on her bottom lip, muffling the moan building in her throat, painfully aware of the thin walls and her roommates, though every drag of his fingers made it harder to stay quiet.

"Let me hear you," Maverick murmured against her ear, nipping the lobe. "Just a little."

"I can’t," she gasped, shaking her head, though her hips betrayed her, rocking harder into his hand, chasing the pace he refused to speed up.

Maverick smirked against her throat and finally picked up his pace, his fingers moving faster now, curling against the spot he had already discovered drove her wild. Her thighs began to shake, her free hand flying up to clamp over her own mouth as pleasure coiled tighter and tighter, unbearably close.

"That’s it," he growled, watching her fall apart beneath his hand with satisfaction. "Let go for me, Aria."

Aria’s whole body went rigid as the coil finally snapped, pleasure crashing through her in violent, uncontrollable waves. Her back arched off the mattress, thighs clamping tight around Maverick’s hand, trapping his fingers deep inside her as her walls pulsed and clenched around them in rapid, involuntary spasms.

A muffled scream tore into her palm, barely contained, her whole body shaking as the release ripped through her harder than anything she’d ever felt on her own.

Maverick didn’t pull his fingers free, not right away. He kept them buried inside her, curling them slowly, drawing out every last aftershock while he watched her come apart beneath him, utterly captivated by the sight. Her chest heaved, slick with a light sheen of sweat, her eyes fluttering as her hips continued twitching against his hand in small, helpless motions she couldn’t seem to control.

"Fuck," he breathed, awe bleeding into the word, watching her ride out the last of it. "You have no idea how good you look right now."

Aria could barely form words, her mind still hazy, her body trembling with the kind of satisfaction that left her limbs feeling weightless. When Maverick finally withdrew his fingers, she felt the sudden emptiness keenly, her inner walls still fluttering, still sensitive from the intensity of it.

He lifted his glistening fingers between them, holding her gaze on purpose as he brought them to his mouth and sucked them clean, groaning low at the taste of her.

"Better than I imagined," he murmured, dropping a slow, lingering kiss to her parted lips, letting her taste herself there too.