“There was never a blueprint for that,” she says softly. “Not for me.”
I blink. Her thumb strokes across my cheek like she’s memorizing my face. Her voice drops lower. “For a long time, I thought love had to look a certain way. Tidy. Predictable.” She shakes her head. “But that wasn’tlove. That was survival. And I’m done just surviving. I realize I need a different kind of safe. And that the safe I used to look for wasn’t the same asgood.And it sure as hell wasn’tenough.”
She leans in to brush her warm mouth on mine.
“I want you. All of you. Not just the protector. Not just the man who shows up for me when things are messy. I want the man who thinks he’s too fucked up to be loved. The one who,” her eyes hold mine, “may not know how to sit still and be cared for.”
Her words hit me straight in the chest. I open my mouth to say something, but she’s already moving.
She shifts to straddle my thighs. My breath catches as her fingers find the hem of my shirt, slipping beneath it, palms grazing my stomach like she’s trying to touch every inch I’ve ever tried to hide.
“You don’t have to prove anything,” she whispers. “Not with me.”
Her hands move to my belt.
I still. Every nerve in my body goes tight.
“Sable…”
But she’s already unfastening the buckle, already lowering her mouth to my neck with a kiss that’s equal parts adoration and hunger.
I reach for her, but she catches my wrist midair and presses it gently back to the couch cushion.
“Let me,” she says.
Two words, and I swear something inside me fractures.
Because no one’s ever said that to me. Not like this. Not without expectation. Not without the edge of control.
She slides down to the floor, kneels between my knees, and unzips me. Her hands caress me like I’m not something to be handled but something to be praised. Her fingers are sure, freeing me from its fabric constraints.
My heart hammers. Nerves and anticipation mixing. Like I’ve never had this done before. Like I’ve never been the one given to.
Her mouth swallows my hard cock. Hot. Wet. Uninhibited.
She doesn’t look away. Not once. Her hands brace my thighs as she takes me deeper, tongue dragging with purpose, lips soft but firm. Her tongue swirls where my head dips and meets my shaft. I pant out a groan. My eyes roll back at the rhythm she sets. It feels like worship and undoing all at once, and I feel it deep within me.
I clutch the couch, breath ragged, every part of me on fire.
“Sable…” Her name falls from my mouth like a sin I was born to repeat.
She hums low in her throat—fuck—and I feel it all the way down into my balls.
My vision blurs. I close my eyes and lean my head back. I clench my jaw. She pumps her mouth faster, taking me in, thenadding in her hand like she’s trying to drown out every ugly voice I’ve ever carried inside with the pure pleasure she’s creating.
And I let her.
I let her.
My balls tighten. And I come undone with her name on my tongue, my hand tangled in her hair, and my claim in her, coating her mouth.
She pulls back slowly, wipes the corner of her lips with the pad of her thumb, and looks at me like she sees me.
Not the fighter. Not the protector.
Just me.
I’m still trying to breathe when she climbs back into my lap, straddles me like the world hasn’t just shifted beneath our feet. Her forehead rests against mine, our breath mingling.
