“I’d do anything to keep you safe, Iris,” I whisper against her hair as I stroke her back. “Anything.”
“Brax,” she whispers and pulls away from me to peer up, staring me right in the eyes. “I love you.”
“I love you too,” I say, the words sliding off my tongue far easier than I ever imagined.
I’ve never uttered those words to anyone except my closest friends and family. They are too sacred to me, something not to be said lightly. Any relationship I’d had before ended when the woman professed her love and I couldn’t bring myself to say it back…until now.
Iris takes my face in her warm hands, her eyes searching mine. “You do?”
I nod, pulling her closer to me. “I would move heaven and earth for you. I would choose you over me if it meant that you could experience another hour,another day. You are the most important thing in the world to me.”
It’s funny how fast life can change. Two months ago, I didn’t even know Iris existed. Now, she is the center of my world. It happened so quickly, I’m not sure I can wrap my head around the way it all went down.
“I can’t imagine my life without you now. How wild is that?”
She’s thinking exactly what I am. None of it makes sense, and somehow, I understand it completely.
I fall backward, taking Iris with me. I slide my hand up her spine until my palm finds the warm skin at the back of her neck. “I hope you never have to find out what it’s like,” I whisper, staring up into her dark-brown eyes.
I pull her head down, wanting and needing to taste her lips and remember she’s alive. She’s okay. Lucas didn’t hurt her before I had a chance to save her. If my brother hadn’t shown up and told me to go hang out with my girl, what the hell would’ve happened?
I push that thought away as her lips touch mine, making the entire world disappear except for us in this moment.
My other hand finds the hem of her nightgown and slips underneath, splaying against the warm and bare skin of her ass. I growl in appreciation as mycock grows so hard and stiff, the denim of my jeans becomes painful.
I want to be in her. I need to be in her.
I push us up, breaking the kiss to pull off my T-shirt as Iris watches me, her eyes skating across my bare chest.
“God, you’re so pretty,” she whispers as her hungry gaze lingers.
Climbing off the bed, I start on the button of my pants, making quick work of it and the zipper. My pants are off a few seconds later, and my cock waves around in appreciation of being set free.
“I’ll never get tired of seeing that,” she says, her eyes homing in on my dick.
“I’ll never get tired of showing it to you,” I tell her before I slide back into the bed.
Her nightgown is gone a second later before she tosses it to the end of the bed, wanting me as much as I want her.
This isn’t going to be a long, drawn-out lovemaking session. There is a burning need deep inside me that has been building since the moment I heard Lucas was in her apartment.
A need to know she is alive and well.
A need to know she is safe.
A need to know she is mine.
“Fuck me,” Iris says against my lips as I turn us over, pressing her into the mattress with my weight.
God. There is something so dirty about hearingthose words come from her lips. Something that draws the feral part of me out of hiding.
I nestle myself between her legs, my stiff cock pressing against her opening. “I’ll be gentle,” I promise her, knowing she hasn’t had any action besides me in the last handful of years.
“Don’t,” she begs, the message so clear in her eyes.
She wants rough.
She needs rough.
