She smiled against his lips, triumphant and breathless, and kissed him back as if she’d been waiting for this moment all along.
Their clothes disappeared, then their hands and mouths learned each other’s bodies in sensual exploration.She’d been around fit, muscular men all her life, but Kayne had the sexiest body she’d ever seen.Touched.Licked.He was male perfection.
With his expertly talented lips and fingers, she came twice and thought she might die from that ecstasy alone.She resorted to crying and begging him to make love to her before she combusted.When he braced himself above her, she held his gaze as he slid into her in one long, deep, velvety stroke.She moaned, or he did.He was impossibly large, but he fit perfectly, making her feel whole in a way she never had before.Her eyes rolled back in her head.So good.So damn good.
After that, it was frantic, bordering on frenzied.They both needed each other too much.Body to body, skin slapping against skin.When they crested the peak together, Chloe had to bite her tongue to keep from screaming her pleasure to the rafters.Anja might already have an idea that they were together.There was no sense in broadcasting it in surround sound.
Later, when the world had narrowed to warmth and breath and the steady weight of Kayne beside her, Chloe lay spooned against him, listening to the slow, unyielding rhythm of his heartbeat that made her feel anchored instead of trapped.
She felt wrung out in the absolute best possible way.Everything pointed in her had finally dulled: not gone, but set down for the moment.
The fear was still there, hovering at the edges, but it didn’t own her anymore.It no longer felt like a wave waiting to break, more like a distant hum she could acknowledge without being swallowed by it.
Kayne’s arm was draped around her, his thumb tracing slow, absentminded arcs on her belly.The urgency was gone, and she luxuriated in his presence.He didn’t demand anything from her or ask her to be braver and stronger than she already was.
“I didn’t break,” she said quietly.
He smiled against her hair.“No, you certainly didn’t.”
She tilted her head up to look at him, studying his face in the low light, memorizing the way his eyes softened when he looked back at her.
“I think this is what needing someone is supposed to feel like,” she said slowly, choosing each word with care.“You don’t lose yourself, you share the weight.”
His gaze softened further, something warm and sure settling there.“That’s exactly it.”
Chloe settled back against him, letting herself rest fully for the first time since all of this began.She didn’t brace or listen for sounds that didn’t belong.She let the tension slip from her shoulders and trusted the space between heartbeats.
Outside, the night pressed in close, full of unknowns and unanswered threats.Tomorrow would come with questions and fear and hard truths she couldn’t avoid.She knew that.But right now she felt safe.Not because the danger was gone, but because she wasn’t facing it alone.
And that changed everything.
Chapter Twenty
Kayne didn’t sleep.He lay beside Chloe in the dark, one arm draped over her waist, breathing shallow so he wouldn’t wake her.She’d finally drifted off sometime after two, exhaustion winning out over fear.They’d made love three times, and still, he craved her like an addict.Her body stayed tense even in sleep, muscles tight and breath uneven.Her mind didn’t trust unconsciousness.Even in what was supposed to be a relaxed state, she was braced for impact, and the realization gutted him.
He stared at the ceiling and cataloged failures.It was an old habit, one he’d never managed to break.Strip everything down to what he’d missed, what he should’ve seen sooner, where the margin for error had been too damn thin.
