“You’re mine now.” My voice was hoarse with the remains of my need.
She blinked, her lips curving into the faintest smile. “I know.”
My thumb brushed her cheek. “Say it.”
“I’m yours,” she whispered.
“Good.” I leaned in and kissed her. Slow, deep, and possessive, nothing like the brutal pace I’d just taken her with. “Remember it.”
I shifted slightly, finally sliding out of her, my body twitching with the aftershocks of what we’d just done. She whimpered, and I kissed her again, one hand smoothing down the outside of her thigh. My other hand grazed her ribs, gentle now, the heat still banked behind my touch but softened with reverence.
“Did I hurt you?” I asked quietly.
She shook her head. “No. It was…everything.”
My throat tightened. I kissed her again, slower this time, just a brush of our lips. Then I rolled us, keeping her in my arms and dragging her over my chest. Her body molded to mine, our legs tangling under the sheets as she settled with a soft sigh.
Within seconds, her breathing evened out, her head tucked beneath my chin, and one hand resting over my heart.
She was drifting.
But I wasn’t.
I was too wired, too aware of every place her skin met mine. Of each breath she took and every tiny twitch of her fingers as sleep pulled her deeper. My body was fucking thoroughly sated, but my mind was burning.
She was mine now.
And I was going to protect her with every breath in my lungs.
No matter what it took.
The nightmare hit hardand fast.
One second, I was sleeping with her curled against my chest—warm, soft, and mine. Next, I was bolting upright in the dark, my heart pounding and breath caught in my throat, drenched in sweat.
In the dream, she’d been gone.
Not walked away—taken. Torn from me by hands I couldn’t see, dragged into the dark while I fought like hell to get to her. My body moved, but it wasn’t fast enough. My fists landed, but they didn’t do damage. Every scream she made faded into silence, like she was already too far.
It had felt too fucking real.
I sat there in the pre-dawn light, my chest heaving and cock hard like steel. Panic clawed under my skin, but it didn’t last long. Not once did I turn to look at her.
She was still here. Naked and tangled in the sheets I’d fucked her into last night.
And she looked like fucking heaven.
Elena’s cheek was pressed to the pillow, her lips parted just slightly. Her hair spilled across the sheets in dark waves, her back bare and smooth, the blanket barely covering her hips.
My gut twisted—need and relief fusing, impossible to separate.
She was here.
But I needed more than that.
I needed her under me again. Her breath caught in her throat, her legs wrapped around me, and her pussy clenched around my cock so tight I’d forget everything else. I needed to be buried inside her to remind myself she was real. That she was mine.
Because if I didn’t fuck this need out of my system, I was going to lose my damn mind.
