“Alaric—” she started, breathless.
“Trust me,” he said, running his palm down the elegant curve of her spine. She was stunning like this—back arched,ass in the air, completely open to him. He positioned himself and thrust back inside in one smooth motion.
The new angle was devastating. He could go deeper, hit that spot inside her that made her gasp and tremble. His hands gripped her hips hard enough to bruise as he set a punishing rhythm, and she pushed back against him, taking everything hegave.
“Oh God,” she moaned into the pillow, fists clenching in the sheets. “Right there, right there, don’t stop—”
He reached around to find her clit, circling it with firm pressure while he drove into her. Her entire body tensed, muscles locking, and he knew she was close.
“Come for me,” he commanded. “Come on my cock, Sera.”
She shattered with a scream that was half his name, half incoherent pleasure. Her muscles clamped down on him like a vise, pulsing, milking him, and the sensation was so intense it bordered onpain.
“Fuck, fuck—” He thrust twice more, hard and deep, and followed her over the edge. His orgasm ripped through him with devastating force, pleasure so acute it whited out his vision. He came hard, spilling into her, his entire body locking as wave after wave crashedthroughhim.
When he could think again, when his muscles would obey, he pulled out carefully and collapsed beside her. She immediately turned into him, boneless and sated, and he pulled her against his chest.
“That was,” she started, then laughed softly. “I don’t even have words.”
“Unprecedented,” he supplied, pressing a kiss to her temple. His analytical mind was already cataloging the data—her taste, her sounds, the exact pressure that made her gasp. But underneath the analysis ran something else, something he wasn’t ready to nameyet.
She tilted her head up to look at him, brown eyes soft and satisfied. “Is it always like that for you?”
“No,” he said honestly. “Never.”
Her smile turned brilliant. She kissed him then, slow and sweet, and he tasted promise in it. Tasted the future shifting around them, rearranging itself into somethingnew.
When she pulled back, she traced her fingers over his chest, mapping the planes of muscle, the pattern of his breathing. “So what happens now?”
Alaric caught her hand, brought it to his lips. “Now,” he said, desire already stirring again, “I take you again. Andagain. Until you understand exactly how long I’ve wanted this. How long I’ve wanted you.”
Her eyes flashed with heat. “Then show me.”
He rolled her beneath him, already hard again, already aching for her. This time would be slower. This time he would worship every inch of her, would make her understand that this wasn’t just adrenaline, wasn’t just release.
This was everything.
And as he kissed her again, as she opened for him with trust and desire and something fierce and unnamable, Alaric Severin—who believed in systems and data and cold, hard logic—discovered that some equations couldn’t be solved.
They could only be surrenderedto.
Chapter 3
SERA WOKE SLOWLY,the way you did when your body was content and your mind wasnot.
Warmth wrapped around her first. Not just the heat trapped beneath the blankets, but the deeper, lingering warmth of being held, of being thoroughly and undeniably undone. Her muscles were loose, heavy in the best possible way, every nerve ending still faintly alive, as if her body hadn’t yet accepted that the night wasover.
For one dangerous heartbeat, she stayed exactly where shewas.
Then memory slammed into place.
Alaric.
Her eyes flew open.
The tray ceiling above her was unfamiliar. Smooth. Pale. Minimalist in a way that spoke of constraint rather than comfort. No clutter. Nosoftness. Nothing unnecessary. Even half-asleep, she recognized the space as an extension of the man who ownedit.
She turned her head.
