She pulls back slightly, just enough to look at me, and her eyes are bright with unshed tears of gratitude.
Her face is still pale, still showing the strain of the past ten days, but there’s something lighter in her expression now.
Something hopeful.
I cup her face in my hands, my thumbs brushing across her cheekbones with infinite gentleness. “I love you,” I tell her. “All of you. Including the parts that talk to voices no one else can hear.”
A soft laugh escapes her, and she leans into my touch. “Even if I’m technically insane?”
“Especially then.” I stroke her face tenderly. “Besides, the most interesting people usually are a little crazy.”
Her laughter grows stronger, more genuine, and I grin.
This is the first time in days she’s sounded like herself rather than someone being pulled in three different directions.
Which…I guess she has been.
“Can I ask you something?” I venture, my voice taking on a teasing quality as an idea occurs to me.
She nods, still leaning into my hands.
“The voices,” I begin, trying to keep my expression innocent while my mind travels to distinctly non-innocent places. “Are they…there all the time? Even when we’re, you know…” I let my voice trail off suggestively.
Understanding dawns in her eyes, and her cheeks flush a delicate pink. “When we’re having sex?” she finishes, her voice carrying a note of amusement. “Bumping uglies?”
“That’s what I’m asking—although I’ve never heard the term ‘bumping uglies’ before and I’m not sure I like it,” I remark, my thumbs still tracing gentle patterns across her skin. “There’s nothing ugly about you.”
She bites her lower lip, a gesture that’s both thoughtful and incredibly fucking distracting. “Actually, no. They shut off completely when we’re…occupied like that. It’s the only time my head is completely quiet.”
My eyes darken at her admission, heat pooling low in my stomach.
The only time she finds peace from the chaos in her mind is when I have her pinned beneath me.
Or when she’s above me.
“That’sexactlywhat I was hoping to hear,” I growl, my voice roughening with desire.
Before she can respond, I capture her lips with mine, kissing her with all the passion and relief and love that’s been building inside me.
She melts against me immediately, her arms tightening around my neck as she kisses me back with equal fervor.
When we finally break apart, we’re both breathing hard, and her eyes have taken on that dark, sultry look that never fails to make my pulse race.
“Maybe we should test that theory,” she murmurs against my lips, her voice husky with want.
“I think that’s an excellent idea,” I agree, already planningexactlyhow I’m going to make her mind go completely, blissfully blank.
I grab her jaw and force her mouth under mine, claiming her with a bruising kiss.
My other hand snakes down her back and grabs her ass, pulling her hips close to mine. Bianca groans.
We break apart, panting heavily.
My ribs hurt with every breath I take but I don’t care.
If the voices go away when Bianca and I are intimate, then I’m going to give her the gift of peace.
And an orgasm, too.
