First You Fall

Chapter 33

Niall heard very little other than the tapping of his expensive shoes on Maisie's hardwoods as he walked down the hallway towards her bedroom. In his quest to keep from hurting her further, he'd done even more damage. It was just another in a long line of mistakes he'd made when it came to Maisie. Mistakes he wasn't sure how to apologize for.

Niall had just made it past the frame of her door when he stopped. His eyes had fallen on Maisie in her bathroom. Her dark hair piled atop her head in a messy bun. She'd peeled herself out of the dress she's been wearing and replaced it with her usual boxer shorts and ratty white t-shirt that she always wore to bed. She was drying her face after having removed every trace of the makeup she'd been wearing. She looked like Niall's Maisie.

He felt the breath get sucked out of his lungs. He felt the familiar tightening of his boxers. The appetite Niall had spent the last few weeks trying to keep command of came roaring back, thrusting his body into territory he knew well.

He walked towards her, pulling his hands out of his pockets slowly. His hands somehow felt emptier than they had just moments ago, both of them aching to be filled with Maisie's body. Niall came up behind her, stopping when his eyes met hers in the mirror.

Maisie finished patting her face dry with the towel in her hands. She looked down at the counter, reaching forward to grab her moisturizer,

"I don't wanna argue anymore." She whispered softly.

Niall swallowed, nodding his head,

"Either do I."

Maisie dabbed some of the lotion onto her cheeks, rubbing it in while she actively avoided his gaze. But the fascination with which he was looking at her was hard to ignore. Her eyes finally met his in the mirror as she finished.

"Niall?"

Niall stepped forward, his hands coming to land on her hips as he gently pulled her into his body. Maisie could feel how hard he was through the paper-thin fabric of her boxers. Her eyes drooped shut while the well-known feeling of wanting him rolled through her. She let her hands drop to her sides. This was going to be Niall's show, she wasn't about to hurry him along or direct his hands in any way.

Niall stepped back, ignoring the protest screaming through his body as he looked down. He studied the curve of Maisie's ass, how perfectly it rounded into her back where two dimples adorned the base of her spine. He reached forward, his hands pushing her shirt up. Niall's eyes followed the fabric as it lifted. Maisie's arms rose while he pulled it up and over her head. Niall fixed his eyes on the line in her back, following it up to where it ended between her shoulders.

Maisie tried to keep her breathing under control. She was quite near tears while she stood there. She wasn't sure exactly what was happening or what Niall had in mind. But he'd succeeded in making her feel more wanted than she ever had in her life. Her heart was pounding, her blood was coursing through her veins and the very noticeable pulse between her legs was so intense she wasn't entirely convinced she hadn't already come.

Niall lifted his eyes to the mirror where they fell on hers. He watched her throat move as her lips closed while she swallowed.

Niall was positive he had never felt this much deep desire for someone in his life. But the thought of walking away from her was inconceivable. Maisie watched through the mirror as he lifted his hand to clasp around her throat. He lifted his other hand to her hair, pulling the clip out and watching intently as her raven hair cascaded down her shoulders and back.

He blinked, his fingers squeezing her throat gently when she swallowed again. Maisie felt his fingers tuck into the waistband of her shorts. He kept his eyes on hers while he dragged his fingers around her hips and then gently pushed them down. They fell to the floor at her feet.