“You don’t have to decide right now,” he says, voice low. “But I needed to ask, and you deserve the choice.”
Choice. God, I can’t remember the last time anyone gave me one.
I swallow, lifting my eyes fully to his. “If I didn’t leave… if I stayed… what would that even look like?”
His jaw flexes, not with tension, but with certainty. He doesn’t even pause.
“It would look like whatever you want it to,” he says. “A home. Safety. Stability. A future. A family. Anything. Everything.” He lifts his hand to my cheek and brushes his thumb across my skin. “If you choose me, you’ll never have to be without again. Not love. Not protection. Not anything. Whatever you want, whenever you want it, I’ll put it in your hands before you finish asking.”
My heart stumbles so hard I have to close my eyes for a second just to breathe.
“And if I chose you?” I ask, voice barely above a whisper. “You really think we could have all that?”
“I don’t think,” he murmurs, leaning closer. “I know.”
The air snaps between us, thick with a different kind of tension now, soft, warm, intimate. The kind that curls around my heart and squeezes until I’m dizzy with wanting.
His forehead touches mine again, gentle and grounding, and my voice comes out in a shaky whisper. “You make it sound so easy.”
He huffs a quiet breath, not quite a laugh. “Itiseasy,kotyonok. For me it is. The moment I saw you, this path became the only one.”
My chest tightens in a way that’s almost painful. I look at him, and part of me still wants to argue that this is impossible, unrealistic, too fast, too crazy. But another part, the part that’s quieter, deeper, whispers that maybe this is what I’ve been waiting for without even knowing it.
I let my fingers trail over his collarbone, tracing the edge of his shirt. “I’m still thinking,” I murmur. “I’m not saying no. I’m just… trying to wrap my head around it.”
He nods like he understands every thought I’m not saying out loud. “Good,” he says softly. “Think. Question. Take your time.”
Then he leans in closer, lips brushing my temple as he adds, “Just don’t overthink everything. Not when the truth is so f—”
His sentence breaks off when his hand slides down my waist and I twitch instinctively, a little jolt running through me. His brows lift, amused. “What was that?”
“Nothing,” I say too quickly, because oh God.
His smirk is slow, dangerous, affectionate all at once. “Nothing,” he repeats, his tone much too innocent.
Before I can protest, he shifts, slides his hand deliberately back to the exact spot, fingers light, teasing.
I gasp and jerk away with a little laugh I don’t even recognise as mine. “Adrik—don’t.”
He chuckles under his breath, a low, warm sound that vibrates through his chest. “Don’t what?”
“You know exactly wh—” Another touch. Another involuntary squirm. My breath catches, and the tension in the room shifts again, this time darker, hotter.
His eyes drag over me slowly, heat rolling under his gaze. “Kotyonok,” he murmurs, voice dropping to that dangerous-soft register that melts through me every time, “I think I do.”
My pulse trips over itself as he leans in, inches from my mouth, that playfully wicked glint still in his eyes. It sends a shiver racing down my spine, pooling hot and insistent between my legs.
I don’t move at first, just let my eyes devour him, tracing the sharp lines of his jaw, the way his muscles flex as he moves accentuating every inch of power and control he carries so effortlessly.
Now I feel something shift inside me, a bold hunger that refuses to wait for him to take the lead. He protected me, ended the nightmare that haunted me, and now I want to claim him back, to show him I am not just the broken girl he saved, but a woman who craves him with a fire that matches his own.
My body aches for it, slick and ready, and as I roll over over him, my legs bracing either side of his hips, I let the sheet slip away to tease him.
I drop my mouth to his, my nipples brushing over his chest, my hands reaching for his hardening cock. I pull back and watch the heat flare in his eyes like a storm building.
He starts to speak, but I press a finger to his lips, silencing him, and the surprise in his expression only fuels my confidence. I move down the bed, keeping him between my legs until I’m low enough to part his and nestle between them. My fingers work the length of him.
His chest rises and falls faster now, and I lean in to kiss the tip of his thick cock, tasting the salt of him, feeling the heat of him as he thickens and throbs in my grasp. A low groan escapes him that makes my core clench with need.
