Grim pulled back, our foreheads touching. The silence between us throbbed.
“I’m going to fuck you, Gemma,” he said. The authority choking his words slid into my veins, every atom of me zinging with the need to let him. But…
“You’re hurt.”
He dragged my hand to his bicep, pressing my fingers into the wound. “The pain lets me know you’restill here.” I had a second for that to settle like broken glass in my chest, when his lips found mine again.
He dragged my bottom lip out in a bite, and said against the flesh, “Get on your knees.” His hands gripped my shoulder, but he didn’t push me down.
He didn’t need to.
I dropped to my knees without thought.
Grim exhaled, deep and slow, a quiet rumble of approval vibrating through him. His thumbs circled my shoulders, unhurried. He turned and faced the ocean, ripped off his bloody shirt, throwing it to the sand.
I had a sudden, stark flashback to the very first time.
Grim spun around. “Lie down.”
“Wait—”
I broke off at the raw dominance in his features. Grim’s expression had settled into something calm and unyielding. He was done playing around. But…I wasn’t playing. I grabbed his hand, trying to tug him down.
He stilled.
“At least let me do the work,” I said.
Another split second passed, Grim’s grip firming just enough to remind me who was actually in charge. Then he let me pull him to his knees. On the sand, I pressed a palm into his chest. He wrapped his hand tight around mine, pulling me with him as he fell to his back.
Wordlessly, I climbed on top of Grim. I hiked my dress up past my hips, spreading my naked thighs on either side of him.
Grim slid his hands up my bare thighs, lids heavy.
“Now this is a fucking sight,” he said, voice raspy. He pressed his palm between my thighs, landing hot on my pussy. I inhaled a sharp breath as something between a groan and growl slipped out of him.
I craned my arm, reaching behind to unzip him. His cock sprang free, hot and throbbing on my inner thigh. We didn’t need to talk. A spell had been cast. It glittered between us, made the air heavy and hazy.
Silently, Grim took my hand to his bicep again.
The pain lets me know you’re still here.
I let him press my hand to the bullet wound, grabbing his cock with the other. He hissed at the combined contact. The oxygen between us ignited in his hungry eyes and set jaw.
The waves shattered at our back. The sand cushioned my knees. Memories collided with the present, crashing into one another like atoms unstable and incandescent, until something new caught fire between us. The blood dripping from his shoulder and pooling black into the sand merged with the first time he stole my life for safekeeping.
With the memory throbbing between us, I slid Grim inside me. Grim’s head fell back on a low groan, throat bared. His eyes never left mine, heavy lidded, catching me even from that impossible angle.
I started to move. Testing him inside me. He felt even fuller at this angle. I could barely breathe from it, but it was a good breathlessness. The kind that happened when you laughed too hard or ran too fast. Everything faded. There was no failed plan; there were no bodies to clean up. It all disappeared into the pull of being totally fucking consumed.
I felt his stare all the way in my throat as I dug my hands into his chest, rolling my hips.
The past crashed around us with each thrust. His dark eyes, our hot breaths, the groans, the strain in his body built a melody. Notes I’d heard before, rearranged but unchanged.
Could he feel it too? The way this moment shattered into five years ago. How it was always going to be this. Inevitable.
“It was always you,” he said, voice raspy and hoarse. “It could never be anyonebutyou.” He gripped my hips, and I was no longer riding him. I might be on top, but he was in control. Thrusting into me deep and frenzied.
“I will always find you,” he grunted. “I will follow you into the afterlife. I won’t drink from the river so I never forget you.”
