I nodded again, words completely lost at that point. I felt him holding back just like I had every night before then. He entered me slowly, carefully, but each thrust hit deeper, and when he picked up the pace, I couldn’t control my moans anymore. They echoed through my room and down the hall, and it was like hearing them obliterated his self-control. Rhodes fisted his hands in my hair and yanked my head back, sucking my left nipple into his mouth and flexing into me harder, hitting a space inside me I’d never known existed.

Rhodes slid into me over and over until I fit his length more comfortably, then he rolled me over onto my hands and knees. Grasping the back of my neck, he pressed my face into the hot comforter and splayed his hand on my upper back before slamming into me from behind. I cried out, but not from pain. Rhodes inside me gave me nothing but pure, unimaginable pleasure.

“Yes,” I breathed, but I was still so unsure of my own voice when I was in bed with him. Rhodes gripped my hips firmly and pounded into me again. “Yes,” I cried louder. He filled every inch of me in this position. I could feel my orgasm mounting, and I prayed for the release.

But Rhodes waited.

He pulled me to straddle him once more, only this time he remained sitting up. Every part of our bodies were pressed together. My legs were wrapped around his waist, his mouth was hard on mine, and he rocked into me with such calculated pressure I whimpered at the sensation.

“I love the way you feel,” he growled, moving his hands from my waist to grip the top of my shoulders. It was as if he was doing a pull up, but instead, he was pulling me down onto him, burying himself deeper. “Tight. Wet.” He flexed his hips. “Fucking incredible.”

His words lit me on fire — from the deepest part of my core to the hairs standing on edge at his touch. I felt like I was drowning in a wildfire, burning and gasping for a clean breath of air. Yet still, I wanted to inhale his smoke, I wanted him to consume me completely. It was the most terrifying and arousing contradiction.

“Harder,” I whispered, and then my cheeks immediately flushed. Rhodes smiled, biting his lower lip and letting his teeth rake the tender flesh.

He stood, my legs still wrapped around his waist, then he dropped me down to the bed and grabbed my ankles, lifting them to rest on his shoulders. I was completely exposed as Rhodes delivered on my request, and each time he pounded into me, my breasts bounce with the force. I should have been embarrassed, but he gazed down at me with such desire that I only felt sexy.

And I’d never felt that way before.

“Oh,” I moaned, gripping the sheets and the edge of the bed. “Yes, Rhodes. Yes.”

He slid his hand around my thigh and applied just the faintest bit of pressure to my clit, but it was all it took to send me spiraling. The combination of him inside me and the friction from his touch crashed into my senses from every side, swallowing the world around me until I was in a sensational frenzy. I felt everything. I felt nothing. I was numb. I was burning.

He came with me, and watching his face as I brought him to ecstasy only fueled my release more. I felt powerful, desired, and beautiful.

For once, I actually felt what he had been saying for so long.

Rhodes groaned and pulled me down onto the floor. He was still inside me, both of us pulsing. He kissed me long and soft, his fingers brushing through my hair. We stayed tangled together on the floor, breathing each other in, lightly touching and kissing. But before long, Rhodes was hard again, and I was aching for more.

We didn’t speak another word that night.

Rhodes took his time exploring my body until well after the sun had peeked through the white curtains in my window. We stopped only because there were no other condoms, and Rhodes refused to take the chance without me being on birth control. How he was able to think straight in that moment, I’d never know.

I was completely sated when Rhodes finally wrapped me in his arms, cradling my body with his own. His breaths evened out before mine, but soon they lulled me to sleep, too. And for the first time since I’d met him, I didn’t wish for a dream of Rhodes. In that moment, reality was better.

I woke later that evening. The sunlight was still shining through my window, basking the room in an orange glow. Quietly, I carefully peeled myself out of bed and grabbed my camera. After finding the right setting, I snapped one simple photo of Rhodes sleeping. I knew the photograph wouldn’t ever compare to the actual view, but I had to try to capture it somehow.

After Rhodes had pointed out that I didn’t have a mirror in my room, I’d asked Dale to buy me one. It was a free-standing full-length mirror with a light blue, wooden frame. Hesitantly, I moved to stand in front of it.

My curls were still intact, though they were messy and wilder from the night. My cheeks were rosy, my lips dark and plump, eyes wide. Slowly, I positioned my camera at my chest and tilted the lens upward to focus on my face in the mirror. Then, for the first time ever, I took a photo of myself.

Click.

It was such a simple noise — too simple for what I felt in that moment. It was soft and almost nonexistent, which was the exact opposite of what I felt.

Rhodes’ hands touched my elbows first and I jumped, but then leaned back against him as he traced my skin down to my hands. He grabbed the camera, and I dropped my grip, letting him take control. I turned to face him just as he looked through the viewfinder and it clicked again. I smiled.

“What are you doing?” I asked, my voice raspy.

He smiled, too. “Finding something beautiful in the chaos.”

Rhodes photographed me from every angle imaginable. He focused on my lips, my hands, my eyes. Sometimes he captured everything, sometimes he zeroed in. I let him shoot until he decided he'd had enough, then I turned the camera in his hands and leaned in close, tucking my head into his chest and snapping a picture of the two of us, careful to crop it to just our faces. It was our first picture, and we both looked calm, sated - happy.

Rhodes kissed my cheek as he dropped my camera back on the nightstand and I wrapped my arms around his neck.

“What’s your first name?”

He kissed me back, his hands resting on my waist. “Rhodes”

“Your name is Rhodes Rhodes?” I smirked, nudging him.

Rhodes’ jaw flexed and he swallowed. It never occurred to me that maybe he hadn’t told anyone before. Why would anyone want to hide their name?

“It’s William.”

I smiled. “William.” He shivered when the syllables left my lips. “I like that name.”