"There." His voice is strained, barely controlled. "Right there, baby. Where I belong."
He starts to move with unhurried strokes, deep and rolling, each thrust sending pleasure spiraling outward from everywhere we're joined. His forearms brace beside my head, his forehead drops to mine, and we breathe each other's air as he moves inside me.
I wrap myself around him, legs circling his hips, arms pulling him closer, needing more of him. All of him.
He groans against my throat. "You feel incredible. So tight, so fucking perfect. Your pussy was made for my cock."
God, yes. "It was, Nick. Only for you.”
His rhythm falters at my words and a rough sound escapes him, something between a groan and a curse.
"Mine." He thrusts deeper, punctuating the word with his body. "Every inch of you. Mine."
The pace builds as his control begins to fray, that iron discipline giving way to something raw and more desperate. Histhrusts grow deeper, harder, his cock hitting that spot inside me that makes pleasure spike white-hot through my entire body.
I match his rhythm, moving with him, our bodies finding that perfect synchronicity that's always existed between us. I can feel his pleasure building alongside my own, his cock swelling inside me, his breathing turning ragged against my throat. The tension coiling tighter in his arms, his jaw, his whole body.
"Come with me." The words are rough and desperate against my ear. "I need to feel you."
I'm right there with him, hovering on the edge of something vast and overwhelming.
"Nick." His name is the only word left in me before I break once more.
Everything in me pulls tight and releases at once, pleasure so sharp it's almost pain. My body clenches around him, drawing him deeper, needing him closer even though there's no closer to get. His name tears from my lips as I feel him groan against my throat, his cock pulsing inside me as he comes, filling me with his release while we fall apart together.
For a long moment there's only sensation, his body and mine and the pulse of release between us. Then he collapses against me, not crushing but present, his weight grounding me to the bed and to this moment and to everything real. His face buries in the curve of my neck. My hands trace the sweat-damp skin of his back, feeling his muscles slowly release beneath my palms as our breathing evens together.
After a while he shifts, pulling out of me carefully. I make a soft sound at the loss of him, but he doesn't go far. He just rolls to his side and gathers me against him, my back pressed to his chest, his arm heavy and warm across my waist.
"You okay?" His voice is rough and tender against my shoulder.
"More than okay."
His lips press a kiss to the curve of my neck. "I've got you."
We lie there in the quiet as our breathing syncs and the sweat cools on our skin. The city moves on somewhere beyond these walls, but in this room, time has slowed to the rhythm of his heartbeat against my spine.
His hand slides from my waist to my belly and settles there with a tenderness that makes my throat ache.
My hand covers his.
I find myself thinking about last night, about the bedroom door he stood at but didn't open. The space between us that felt like miles even though we were only rooms apart. And now there's no space at all. His body curled around mine. His palm pressed warm against the place where our child grows. His breath soft and steady against my neck.
This is what we almost let fear take from us.
I turn my head and press a kiss to the hard line of his jaw, tasting salt and warmth and everything I love about this man.
His arm tightens around me in response, pulling me closer. His hand stays on my belly, warm and steady, cradling our future.
Finally, there is only this. His heart beating against my back. His hand protecting what we've made together.
And the quiet certainty settling into my bones that whatever comes next, we'll face it together.
16
NICK
The quiet afterward isdifferent this time. Calmer. Steadier, now that the fracture that had opened between us last night is smoothed over. What’s left in its place feels stronger than what was there before.
