I can feel the pressure building at the base of my spine, my balls drawing up tight.
"Baby, you need to stop or I'm going to come down your throat."
She pulls back just enough to look up at me, eyes dark and wicked, then takes me deep again, hollowing her cheeks.
"Fuck… Iris—" My grip tightens in her hair. "I need to be inside you. Now."
She releases me slowly, and I'm on her immediately, pressing her back into the mattress, covering her body with mine. I capture her mouth in a bruising kiss, tasting myself on her tongue, and she moans into it.
I position myself at her entrance, pausing to meet her eyes. "Tell me you want me."
"I want you… so badly, Silas."
I ease inside, giving her time to adjust, and we both groan. She's so tight, so perfect, and from this angle I can watch every expression that crosses her face as I fill her. I set a steady rhythm, feeling her respond, shifting slightly to hit the spot that makes her gasp.
"There. Oh God, right there—"
I keep hitting that spot, increasing my pace gradually, and she wraps her legs around my waist, pulling me deeper.
"You feel so good," I breathe against her lips. "So perfect. Like you were made for me."
Her nails dig into my back, and I welcome the bite of pain. It grounds me, keeps me from losing myself completely.
"Silas, I'm close—"
"Then come for me. Let me feel you."
I slide my hand between us, finding her clit, and she shatters with a cry. Her body clenches around me, pulling me deeper, and the sensation is so intense I can barely hold on.
I thrust through her orgasm, prolonging it, until she's trembling and boneless beneath me. Only then do I let myself go, burying myself deep as my release crashes over me. I come hard, her name on my lips, and it feels like every piece of me that's been broken is suddenly whole again.
We stay like that for a long moment, both trembling, both struggling to breathe. I'm afraid to move, afraid to break whatever spell has been cast over this room.
Finally, I pull out carefully and then gather her against my chest. She comes willingly, her head finding the hollow of my shoulder like she was made to fit there.
My hands stroke up and down her back, soothing, possessive. I press a kiss to the top of her head and just hold her, feeling her heartbeat gradually slow to match mine.
Outside, snow begins to fall again, soft and silent against the windows. Inside, wrapped around each other in the tangled sheets, we drift in that hazy space between waking and sleeping, neither of us wanting to let go.
I tighten my arms around her, and for the first time in longer than I can remember, I feel at peace.
Chapter 8 – Iris
I wake to warmth and the steady rhythm of a heartbeat beneath my ear. For a moment, I'm disoriented, this isn't my bed, this isn't my room, and then everything from last night comes rushing back. Silas's hands on me. His mouth. The way he looked at me like I was the answer to every question he'd ever asked.
Heat floods my cheeks even as desire pools low in my belly.
I'm draped across his chest, one leg thrown over his, my hand resting over his heart. He appears asleep, his face relaxed in a way I've never seen when he's awake. Without the guards up, he looks younger. Almost vulnerable.
I study him in the early morning light filtering through the curtains. The strong line of his jaw, dark with stubble. The way his lashes fan against his cheeks. He's beautiful in a harsh, masculine way that makes my breath catch.
And last night, he was mine. The possessive thought surprises me. I've never been the possessive type. But something about Silas brings out instincts I didn't know I had.
His hand, which has been resting on my lower back, starts moving in slow circles. I tilt my head up to find him watching me with those intense gray eyes.
"Morning," he says, voice rough with sleep.
"Morning." I'm suddenly aware of how naked we both are, how intimate this position is. "Did I wake you?"
