The moment the latch clicked, everything inside me cracked.
“I can’t keep doing this,” I said in a voice that shook. “I can’t keep pretending I’m not terrified.”
Eric moved toward me slowly, as if approaching a skittish animal. “You don’t have to pretend with me.”
“I’m ruining your family’s life,” I cried.
“You’re becoming part of it,” he said. “That’s not the same thing.”
That undid me. Completely.
My vision blurred and the first sob slipped out without warning. I pressed a hand to my mouth, ashamed of how fast I was falling apart. Eric reached me in two strides and wrapped his arms around me. I sank into him, shaking.
He whispered against my hair. “Let go. I have you, Harmony. You’ve had to deal with so much trauma over the years. Living with a man like Marcel has always been dangerous. You deserve to feel everything he’s put you through.”
The dam broke. Every fear. Every memory. Every cold breath in the community center hallway. Every moment of feeling watched. Every shadow from my past. I buried my face in his chest and let the tears come. He didn’t rush me. He didn’t tell me to breathe. He just held me with steady strength until the trembling slowed.
When I finally lifted my head, his eyes were warm and focused on mine. “You’re not alone.”
I swallowed. “I don’t know what I did to deserve this,” I whispered.
“You deserve safety,” he said. “And you deserve someone who’ll fight for you.”
His thumb brushed my cheek. The gentleness in that touch made heat bloom in my chest.
“Eric,” I breathed, the word like a confession.
He cupped my face in both hands and kissed me. The kiss started slow, a soft press of reassurance, but the moment I responded, something deeper pulled us closer. I tangled my fingers in his shirt and felt the world fall away piece by piece.
He lifted me and carried me toward the bed, still kissing me like he needed to feel every part of me to believe I was here. I felt the mattress beneath my back, his weight warm and certain as he settled over me. His hands traced my ribs, my waist, the curve of my hip. Every touch was steady and patient, but full of heat that made my breath catch. I kissed him back with the same urgency, sliding my hands under his shirt to feel the warm strength of his body. When our clothes fell away, he paused to look at me, chest rising and falling with slow control.
“You’re safe with me. Always,” he said softly.
I shifted up the bed toward the headboard and pulled him down to me with a sense of urgency. The rest unfolded in slow waves and breathless heat, his body moving with mine, his hands gripping my hips, my shoulders, my face, grounding me through every moment. He kissed down my neck. I arched into him, whispering his name. The world narrowed into the press of our skin and the soft sound of our breaths tangling together. Nothing about it felt rushed. Nothing felt uncertain. It felt like choosing each other in the middle of chaos. It felt like reclaiming something stolen.
He kissed me like he cared, paying close attention to all the spots on my body that drove me wild. It was like he owned thekey to my ecstasy. First, he made me come on his fingers while he sucked my nipples into his mouth. My mind blanked and I fell into the heat he was delivering. I only had a few moments to come down from my high and he was spreading kisses down my stomach.
“You’re going to be the end of me, Eric,” I warned. I looked down at him to see him smiling mischievously, his eyes filled with heat.
At the first lick of his tongue on my clit, I bucked off the bed. What I needed was his cock in my mouth or his whole family would know exactly what we were up to. I shifted on the bed and took him into my mouth.
The groan he gave was all the reward I needed, knowing I could affect him with a swipe of my tongue across his crown. I took him deep as his tongue plunged inside me, but when we both got close, he said, “I want to come inside you.”
“I want to feel all of you,” was my response.
Then he took me as he slid inside me slowly, I was so wet for him that I accommodated him easily. We found our rhythm as he buried himself inside me. We groaned together quietly. I felt my fingernails digging into his back as his cock rubbed me right in all the places I needed him. I was building fast and clamping around him.
“Eric. . .”
“Let go, Harmony. You feel so good. So tight,” he said, his voice gruff and raspy.
“Yes,” I cried out but then I bit down on my lip as he picked up speed and sent me over the edge. He followed right after me and that bare feeling of skin to skin, the feeling of him coming inside me with no barriers, felt like it was my undoing.
He stayed close, his forehead resting against mine. Our breaths mingled, warm and quiet in the dim room. He pulled me into his chest, one hand tracing slow circles across my back.
“You’re mine to protect,” he murmured. “And I’ll protect you.”
I settled against him, my cheek on his shoulder, feeling my heartbeat slow. His warmth wrapped around me like a blanket I never wanted to leave. For a little while, the danger outside the walls didn’t exist. It was just me and Eric and the words he said floating in my head.I was his. The truth was, he always felt like mine, and hearing those words hit me in the center of my chest. But I embraced the moment. I wasn’t running anymore. Eric and the Thornes had given me a place to land.
