There was a rhythm between them now, a synchrony that needed no words to define. Maddie felt herself sink further into it, surrendering pieces of herself she hadn’t been able to imagine giving before. She wasn’t sure when it had happened, when she had decided to open the locked doors of her heart, but with his hands on her, gentle and steady, it didn’t feel like a decision. It felt inevitable.
Her world narrowed to just him, each breath, each soft caress tethering her more tightly to the moment. There was something freeing in it, her mind finally letting go as she felt confident in each choice he made, in each place his hands guided her. She didn’t need to think, only feel—to trust that somehow he already knew how to catch her if she fell.
Her heart swelled as the words he’d said earlier lingered in the back of her mind.I love you. He’d told her, and she realized now, with a startling clarity, that all the pieces of herself she felt might shatter were held together now—with him beside her, filling the quiet spaces she hadn’t even knownwere falling into place.
*
If Sebastian hadknown an avalanche might lead to this moment, he would have prayed for one sooner. He lay on his side, one arm curled under Maddie’s shoulders, the other resting across the slope of her waist. Her breath warmed the space beneath his collarbone. Proof that this moment, this impossible, beautiful moment, was real.
And he was in it.
Still inside it.
Still inside her.
How many times had he imagined her like this? Tangled in his arms, flushed with trust, her limbs boneless and satisfied and draped over his like a sleepy cat who’d decided he made a fine piece of furniture?
But this was no idle fantasy. This was her. Maddie. Glorious, clever, maddening Maddie. In all her bold laughter and open expressions. The woman who challenged him without effort, who’d once called him insufferable and sneezed in his direction like it was a perfectly acceptable punctuation to conversation.
He adored her.
Helovedher.
He wanted to tell her. Say the words again, louder, clearer, with the sort of recklessness bellow that belonged to men who didn’t care if their world burned so long as they got to go down smiling. But they had tons of time in the future.
She stirred.
A shift in breath. A twitch of her fingers against his chest. Then a quiet sigh, muffled against his skin.
He tilted his head, just enough to glance down at her face. Her hair was rumpled, her expression soft and flushed, her eyelids sleepy.
He couldn’t stop the smile that tugged at his lips.
“How’s your body feeling?” he asked gently, brushing a curl from her cheek with the back of his knuckle.
Her eyes cracked open, lashes fluttering.
Then she blinked up at him.
“My body,” she said, voice thick with the aftermath of pleasure, “is considering writing you a thank-you note.”
Sebastian chuckled. “Should I be flattered or concerned?”
“Both.” She nudged him with her knee beneath the blankets. “There may be footnotes.”
He grinned and leaned down, pressing a kiss to her bare shoulder. “Footnotes? You wound me. I prefer glowing declarations, possibly carved in stone.”
“This will have to do.” She shifted closer and tucked herself under his chin like it was the most natural thing in the world.
He chuckled.
“I’ve rather lost feeling in my thighs.”
His brow shot up. “Should we get up? Or was that just a compliment?”
She groaned and buried her face against his chest. “You’re impossible.”
“And yet, here you are. In my arms. Debauched beyond repair.”
