Afterwards
by Mallory
Now that she's seen his whole body, she decides that his hands still are her favorite part. He doesn't take very good care of them; his nails are chipped and there's usually dirt underneath them, but they are long and thin and she likes how they feel: his hands are rough, and even now, as she imagines them on her body, she shivers.
She remembers his fingers tracing the curves of her body, as if he were trying to memorize it; and she remembers him kissing her like he wanted to devour her.
*
"I should go," she whispers.
"No. No. Stay. Please."
he leans her head against his shoulder and his arm comes up to bring her closer to him.
"All right," she says, "I'll stay.
*
She thought she was going to break, not because it hurt, but because it was overwhelming. Because he was…he was within her and it was the wonderful and strange and lovely and beautiful.
She looked into his eyes and she thought it. She thought: I am going to break, because I love him too much.
But she didn't break.
He held her together and kissed the tears that fell out of her eyes.