We both know who has won the battle.
But this war has only just started.
He pulls out slowly and rams home hard, quickening his pace and I’m paralysed, watching him, seeing how he can’t take his eyes off my face. This isn’t my body he’s screwing, it’s me. Every single needy inch.
His slight change of angle hits the point inside me that turns the sky to silver starburst and I come again. Ben’s grip tightens, he clutches onto my hips and then I feel him fill me with his semen, doing what no man’s done before and coming inside me.
I’m frozen. My nipples are hard stones and my body is still shuddering from my climax. I’m half aware that I’ve made enough noise to wake the dead of the island but I’m too spent to give a fuck.
He pulls out of me and I feel that warm gush. I should probably feel guilty. Dirty even, but I don’t. I get to my knees and face him, keeping my kisses to myself.
He’s still hard.
“Don’t think I’m going anywhere.” He moves to the top of the bed, behind me, and then I’m lying against him, my back against his chest and his arms around me, not touching my breasts or between my legs.
He’s holding me.
I haven’t been held since I was a child.
Connections that haven’t been made, relationships that have failed, the need to be touched but no one is allowed close enough: a tarnished crown bars the way. My title is wrapped with barbed wire.
His cock presses against my back and I know that in a few minutes maybe, he’ll be back inside me and I’ll let him.
Because with Ben I am safe.
I’ll always defend you.
I rest my head against his shoulder and glance up at him. The kiss that falls is golden and tender, soft like his touch and the tears fall without any chance to stop them.
He wipes them away and the energy between us has changed. What should’ve happened before he left has been done.
The world is realigned.
I have no idea what the future is meant to hold, but for once, I have my present.
Chapter Ten
Thin curtains are blown by the gentle huffs of the wind. An island calm fills my room, but my bed is empty. The sheets are coated with man and musk and sex. My body aches.
The space next to me is cold and for the first time I’ve ever known, I haven’t slept in the middle of the bed. I feel bereft.
When I fell asleep, Ben was behind me, curled around my back and ass, his arm pulling me to him, his breath against my neck.
The second time we’d fucked had been slow. Tender. He’d put me on top of him and guided me up and down his cock, using his fingers to help make me come and letting me set a pace that I needed.
Then we’d showered and he’d entered me from behind, pushing me against the shower wall, the cold tiles a sharp contrast on my breasts from his warm hands when he’d soaped them.
I’d gone to bed with him, fallen asleep in his hold. I didn’t expect him to be here this morning.
There’s a knock at my door; Franklyn’s knock, which tells me some of our household have arrived. I reach for the robe and pull it on, although I probably don’t need to bother, given that Franklyn has seen me in a variety of states since I was seventeen.
“It’s okay to come in.”
He enters and looks about the room, judging without giving his impression. The island air will have rid the room of the stench of sex to anyone but me, but still, I’ve always been convinced that Franklyn has supernatural powers.
“You’ve settled in well.”
It isn’t a question. Franklyn doesn’t ask questions.
