“That waswhimpering.” His fingertip glides up and down on my inner thigh like a taunt. “Begging sounds different.”
“I will kill you. I will actually murder you this time, and no one will blame me, because you deserve it.”
“Mmm.” He presses a chaste kiss to my hip bone, and I nearly sob. “Tell me what you want, Eliana.”
“Youknowwhat I want.”
“I want to hear you say it. Out loud. With words. No dreams to hide behind, remember?”
My pride crumbles instantly. Any thoughts of resistance go right out the window. “I want your mouth on me,” I whisper. “I want you to make me come. Please, Bastian.Please.”
I can hear my own heartbeat thundering in my ears as a flush trickles down my neck and across my chest. I’ve never been good at asking for what I want—not in bed, not anywhere. Years of scarcity taught me to take what I could get and be grateful for it.
But Bastian doesn’t move.
“Again,” he commands. “Louder.”
“I want you to make me come,” I repeat, stronger this time. “I want your tongue inside me. I want to fall apart on your face. I want—I want tofeelyou, Bastian. All of you. I’ve spent so long thinking I’d never get to have this again, and now, you’rehere,and I need you to stop being such a smug, insufferable asshole and justmake me come.”
His mouth descends.
I scream.
This time, there’s no teasing. His tongue goes right to the spot I need him most, his fingers follow, and I’m gone.
My thighs clamp around his head and I shatter beneath his mouth with a cry that I’m sure the entire house can hear. I don’t care. Matter of fact, I want them hear. Let them know that Bastian Hale is alive and he’s mine and he’s making me come so hard I’m seeing stars behind my eyes.
“There she is,” he growls against my inner thigh as I float back to earth, pressing a kiss to the sensitive skin. “My good girl.”
Before I can catch my breath or formulate anything resembling a response, he’s climbing onto the bed.
He’s careful to keep pressure off my belly as he crawls over me. I can hear the strain in his breathing as he props himself up—the wound must be royally pissed at him—but when I try to tell him to be careful, his mouth finds mine and swallows the protest right up.
I reach for his belt buckle as he consumes me in a messy kiss. Somehow, as our tongues clash and war, I manage to get it undone. He helps me shove his pants down just far enough to free him. He springs into my hand, hard as a rock and soft as satin. I give him a few tentative strokes and he curses under his breath.
But he’s still hesitant. He must be worried about the baby, or my dignity, or apologies as yet unsaid. I don’t give a damn about anyof that, though, because the one and only thought on my mind is that I’ll die if he doesn’t get inside me right this fucking second.
“If you stop again,” I warn, “I really will kill you.”
He laughs into my open mouth. Then his forehead drops to mine as he positions himself at my entrance. I feel the pressure of him waiting there, asking one final question without words.
Can I?
My legs wrapping around his hips say,Yes.
He sinks into me slowly, inch by inch by thick, hard, devastating inch. I groan as my body adjusts around his girth. The stretch is different now—well, everything about my body is different now—but the fullness, thecompletenessof having him inside me again? That’s exactly as I remember it.
“Fuck,” he groans into the curve of my neck. “You feel—God, Eliana, you feel?—”
“I know,” I gasp, because I do. I feel it, too. Therightnessof this. We fit together like nothing in my life has ever fit me.
Tremors run up and down Bastian’s arms from the effort of restraint. He’s scared to cross some final line in the sand, though God knows why he thinks that matters anymore. Doesn’t he feel me falling to pieces? How can he not smell my desperation? I’ve never wanted anything more than I want him right now.
“Move,” I whisper. “Please move.”
Thank God, he does.
The first thrust begins tentatively. But when I dig my nails into his shoulders and arch up to meet him, something in him snaps.The last line gets crossed. His hips pop forward and he crashes into me.
