We’re drenched.My clothes are plastered to my skin. My hair drips into my eyes, and every breath fogs the space between us. But he still hasn’t let me go, not since he stood up on that rooftop with me wrapped around him. He carried me all the way here, and I know exactly which apartment is his now.
When he pushes the door open, I don’t look around. There’s no point. I can’t concentrate on anything when his hands are already on me, sliding over rain-soaked fabric like he’s memorizing what I feel like when I’m wet and wanting.
My mouth finds his neck, and I kiss him hard enough to mark, pressing my lips to his skin, needing to leave proof that I was here.
He hisses—not in pain but in approval.
“Fuck,” he growls against my hair. “Do that again. Mark me. Make me bleed—I don’t care. Just don’t stop touching me.”
I bite down, sucking his skin between my teeth until I taste salt and rainand him.
We reach his bedroom, and he lowers me carefully until my feet touch the floor beside his bed.
“Tell me. I need you to say it.”Wet hands cradle my face, his eyes scanning mine like he’ll find the truth there or die trying. “Please, baby, I need you to… I can’t?—”
“I’ve always belonged to you in one way or another, Phoenix.” The words come out breathless as I step forward and press my hand over his heart, right where it’s been beating my name for years. “And this never stopped being mine, did it?”
“Never,” he rasps.
“This isn’t just sex. It could never be just sex with you.” I force myself to stay steady when all I want is to fold into him. “While we figure this out, while I’m learning how to process it and how to be with you—because I know you get it, you know this is a lot—I promise it’ll only be us.”
“Just don’t leave,” he pleads, and it tears through me.
I rest my forehead against his chest, curling my fingers into the front of his soaked shirt.
“I’m not leaving. I need you to know I’m not running.” I tip my head back to look up at him, and for the first time, he looks terrified of wanting me. “I’m yours, Phoenix. Not just in the dark but in the light too.”
I step out of his arms, letting my coat slide from my shoulders and pool at my feet in a wet heap. My fingers hook into the hem of my shirt, and I tug it up and over my head, the fabric clinging to my damp skin. I shiver when the air hits, raising goose bumps along my arms, but it barely registers, not when Phoenix is looking at me like that.
My shoes come off next, then my jeans, and I’m left standing in front of him in nothing but a dark-purple lace set I chose for him,matching the flowers he sent me, because I wanted him to know I’ve been thinking about this.
His chest heaves as he takes me in, and I step toward him. I peel away his clothes—his shirt first, dragging it up and over his head, revealing ink-marked skin I want to trace with my tongue.
“You’re so beautiful,” he whispers.
My hands run across his body, and I press a kiss to his chest before lacing my fingers with his.
“You’re beautiful, Phoenix.”
I lift his arm so I can run my lips over the dark lines he inked on himself when he wanted me from a distance, sealing them to his skin with gentle kisses so he knows he never has to do this to himself again. I move into his body, and his fingertips trail down my spine until they reach my bra clasp. He fumbles with it for a second, and I feel him exhale shakily against my hair when it finally comes undone. The straps fall down my shoulders so slowly it’s almost torture, and his eyes hold mine, searching my face like he’s looking for any sign that I’ll change my mind.
“You feel—” He groans, his hands sliding up to cup my breasts, his thumbs circling my nipples before pinching them between his fingers. “Tell me you’re real, baby. I’ve had you in my head like this for so long.”
“I’m right here, Phoenix.”
We stare at each other for long seconds before he hoists me into his arms, my legs wrapping around him again just so he can lay me down on his bed. His mouth crashes into mine, kissing me breathless while he kicks off whatever clothes are still clinging to him. Then—holy hell—I feel him.
He rolls his hips and drags his tongue from my mouth down my jaw, my throat, and along my collarbone until he reaches the valley between my breasts. He pauses there for a moment, hismouth hovering over my racing heart as if he’s listening for his name in every frantic beat, refusing to move until he finds it.
Soft kisses trail down my body until he finds the dip of my navel, his tongue swirling slow circles before his teeth scrape over my hip bone. He bites down hard enough that I’m already obsessing over the bruise it’ll leave, and I can’t wait to press my fingers into it tomorrow just to remember the way he’s finally marked me after years of marking himself.
When he reaches the purple lace clinging to me, he goes completely still. He just stares, and even though I’m practically floating off the bed, my hips tilting toward him, begging him to touch me—I force myself to give him this moment because I know how much this matters to him.
“Baby…” he says breathlessly, staring at me after slipping my panties off. I know I’m wet, and I know that’s what has him captivated.
“Phoenix, please… I need you close.”
He lowers himself slowly, bracing his arms on either side of my head, caging me in. My whole body is wound tight, but his is shaking, and all I want is to pull him close and hold him there.
