Free Preservation by Rachael Wade Page A

waves, moving and breathing like a living thing, the music entrancing. Everything unspoken between us melted away and all that was left was an organic, lucid energy, slithering and weaving its way around us in an intoxicating spell.
    We continued to dance until the show was over, him twirling me around, both of us occasionally knocking into people. We fed each other our favorite movie lines and joked about all of the campus cafeteria food in between songs, eventually making our rounds around the store for some album browsing at the end of the night. He followed through on his promise and bought me a signed copy of the band’s album.
    The next thing I knew, we were back at my apartment and flying through the front door. Ryan was hauling me up, wrapping my legs around his waist as he fumbled with the doorknob to slam the door shut behind him.
    “You’re fucking gorgeous,” he murmured against my lips, letting out a mischievous chuckle when we knocked into my bedside lamp.
    This isn’t happening, this isn’t happening.
    He pulled his shirt over his head with one hand, keeping me tight in his arm with the other, and there they were. Oh dear God. Those black tattoos I’d worked so hard to stay away from.
    Okay, it’s happening.
    I ran my fingers over the ink, grinning as he dipped his tongue deep into my mouth, moving to slide my shirt off. I mentally ran through all of the hows, what-ifs, and whys, and I couldn’t come up with a damn thing.
    We weren’t drunk. We only had two beers. There was no strange chemical in the air that was making people do stupid things like the apocalypse had descended on the city and the term ‘crazy’ was going out of style. And there definitely wasn’t an explanation for how familiar his hands felt or why I fell into a beautiful state of euphoria when our laughter filled the room. The chemistry forced us together and there was no use fighting the catalyst. Everything else would just have to work itself out.
    He laid me down on the bed and tugged off my jeans, stripping off my panties before moving to his belt. I couldn’t get enough of him. Each time he had to reposition himself above me, I pulled him by the neck to keep his lips against mine. Collecting my wrists in his hands, he slid them to the side of my head, then moved in to work his mouth over my neck and chest, slipping off my bra to fill his hands with my breasts.
    He reached for his wallet and grabbed a condom, and I slipped it on him achingly slowly. “Damn it, Kate,” he growled, biting my neck hard, drawing a slow, desperate moan from my lips. He tightened his grip around my waist, dragging his arousal along the inside of my thigh, right next to where I wanted him.
    “You. In me. Now.” I begged, lifting my hips to find him.
    “Wait, wait, wait, wait...” He held me still and kissed my forehead, taking his fingertips and gliding them over my swollen lips and down the core of my body, stopping in between my legs. I squirmed underneath him, the feel of his hot skin unbearable. He hovered, waiting.
    “Ryan...”
    “Ssshhhh. Steady, baby.”
    When my breathing began to even out, he sank two wet fingers inside of me and pushed in then out, craning his head back to watch me as I cried out, orgasming more intensely than ever before. The sensation washed over my body and anchored me to the bed, and all I could see was the flicker in his eyes; the stripped, bare desire looming in them.
    “ Mmm that’s what I wanted.” His ragged breath danced across my mouth, his nails digging into my ribs. He shifted and began to thrust inside of me, full and deep. “Come on baby, come on.” I cried out harder and he rocked into me, kneading his fingers into my hair, pulling me tighter and tighter against his chest. His panting synced with mine, meeting my sighs with strangled gasps and guttural groans, our bodies moving in unison against the cool sheets.
    My back arched off the bed and his breath quickened, driving harder into me until