“Please… don’t stop.”
That was all it took.
She turned to face him, the unfastened gown slipping from her shoulders to pool softly at her feet. Her hands found his arms, gliding upward in a slow, reverent path until they reached the breadth of his shoulders.
It had been five years—how could her body still remember him so precisely?
Broader now. Harder. The lines changed, the hollows new—yet heartbreakingly familiar beneath her palms.
His strong hands closed around her waist, holding her to him with a fierce need that stole her breath.
There was nothing decorous left in their reunion—only need, the storm raging outside, and the frantic thrum of their hearts.
He swept her up with a strength that stole her breath, hands sliding beneath her thighs to lift and steady her as her back met the wall. Instinct guided her legs around his hips for balance, drawing him closer as his rain-soaked clothing clung cool against her. The dampness pressed through the layers between them, sending a sharp shiver spiraling through her. The sudden rise, the solid press of him, the rough scrape of his belt buckle—it all jolted through her at once. She gasped, arching instinctively, frantic to pull him closer, desperate to erase every mile and every year that had ever stretched between them.
Then came the soft, urgent clink of leather sliding free—his belt loosening beneath trembling hands. “Violet…” he breathed, voice wrecked.
He guided himself to her, their bodies fumbling, slick with rain and longing. She caught his face in her hands, meeting his gaze, storm-grey and wild, and in that ragged moment, she let everything fall away.
With a single, desperate thrust, he pushed into her, stealing her breath. Violet’s cry was muffled in his mouth, the feel of him exquisite, the relief absolute. He held her, forehead pressed to hers, and she felt the tremor in his arms and the shudder in his voice as he whispered her name like a broken prayer.
Their bodies moved together, slowly at first, as though relearning one another; she marveled that they still fit so well. Her skin burned wherever he touched her. She buried her hands in his hair, clinging to the strength of his back. She was swept away in the delirium of sensation, the world dissolving into heat and thunder.
Every thrust grew more driven, urgency building with every frantic heartbeat—the need that had lived inside them both for years refusing to wait a moment longer. Each movement turned more reckless, the pace quickening, hips grinding, his wantunmistakable in the way he moved against her. Violet felt the last of his restraint break, passion surging through every desperate touch.
“Violet,” he murmured against her ear, his voice raw with hope and apology. “My Violet.”
“I’m here,” she sobbed, and as her release built—higher and higher, then crashing through her—she let herself crumble, body and soul, into the only man she had ever loved.
His breath came in harsh, shuddering pants against her neck as his final thrusts became wild and erratic. Then, with a low, desperate sound, he stilled—deep inside of her—the tremor of his climax running through them both. He buried his face in the curve of her shoulder, whispering her name reverently, over and over again.
Afterward, they clung to each other, the years of absence written in the desperate press of their bodies.
But breath by breath, reality seeped back in.
Violet felt a cold, splintering shiver down her spine, cutting through the warmth he’d wrapped around her.
William still held her pinned gently against the wall, his forehead resting against hers as if afraid she might vanish if he moved.
And that—
that was what broke something wide open inside her.
She closed her eyes and whispered, “Put me down.”
William hesitated. “Violet—”
“Please,” she said, barely more than breath. “Let me down.”
He obeyed, hands steady as he lowered her to the floor.
But when she tried to step away, he reached for her—instinctively, tenderly, as if the last five years had never happened.
She drew back.
Confusion—and then a flash of hurt—crossed his face.
He took a step toward her again.
