I’m so consumed by him, I don’t realize he’s moved us until my back collides with the soft mattress. We come apart for a moment, and I gasp for breath. Raven kneels to pull off his tunic, and then he settles his body between my thighs, grinding his hips into mine.
We fall into each other, all fevered mouths and searching hands, a tangle of heat and hunger that leaves no space for hesitation. I map out every inch of his broad shoulders and the flexing muscles of his back while his palms set fire to the sensitive skin of my stomach and breasts. He rolls the peak of one hard nipple between his rough fingers, and I moan, writhing with need beneath him at the fluttering sensation that ignites deep in my core.
“Raven,” I say with a desperate gasp.
“Gods, El.”
If only it were my true name falling from his lips. I would give anything to hear it.
I want him to say it a thousand times—to never call me by another. I want to hear him chanting it like a prayer to the gods while he’s buried deep inside me.
“Please,” I pant out, my hands pushing at the waistband of the pants he still wears. “I need you.”
Raven pulls back at my words, hovering over me as he pushes his pants down over muscled thighs. Desire burns through me as I finally see him in all his glory again. Hair tousled from my wandering hands,broad chest rising and falling with short breaths, defined abdominal muscles leading down to the thick, hard length of his arousal.
He’s a vision pulled from the depths of my memory—stitched from yearning, sculpted by heartache, and burning with the kind of desire that never truly fades.
My breath hitches, and my heart pounds so loud I’m sure he can hear it. Every fiber of my being is alight with anticipation, every overwhelming sensation hammering against the walls of my mind. It’s not unfamiliar ground—but it’s been over a year since we stood at the edge of it like this, since we let ourselves want this openly, completely. My body trembles with equal parts nervousness and longing, my thoughts a whirlwind of want, uncertainty, and need. Yet, deep within, there’s a flicker of something more—a sense that once I cross this line again, it won’t be something I can ever redraw.
At this moment, I can’t find it within me to care.
Raven’s heated gaze burns a path over my skin, completing a study of my body. Like he, too, is committing every detail to memory once more.
“So fucking beautiful,” he rasps.
The sound of his voice, so full of want, is my undoing. I grip his wrist and pull him forward until he’s bracing over me. With my other hand, I grip his thick cock and line it up at my entrance as he pushes forward, entering me in one hard thrust.
I cry out, but his lips slam down on mine, smothering the sound. My body clamps around him like it remembers—like some part of me never forgot the way he fits, the way it feels to be full of him. But I’m desperate for him to move.
When my body adjusts to him, he finally does, pulling back before plunging in deep again. We both moan with the sensation.
Raven tears his mouth away, leaning his forehead against mine as he continues to move within me. “You feel like a dream, El.”
I bite my lip, pulling him closer, his words dissolving into the haze of sensation clouding my mind. The only response I’m capable of is another moan as he angles his hips and strokes against a sensitive part inside me. Raven kisses down my neck and chest, taking my left nippleinto his mouth and watching me as he flicks his tongue over the peak. I cry out when he bites down gently before making his way to the other. The hot and cold sensations wreak havoc on my mind as he relentlessly thrusts into me, and I drop my head back to the mattress.
Raven starts to move harder, deeper, murmuring my name in my ear like a benediction. Everywhere he touches aches, burns. A sweet pressure builds up beneath my skin and deep in my core. He moves one hand between us, finding the tight bundle of nerves at my center and rubbing in small, torturous circles. I groan and arch up into his touch, demanding more, and he obliges.
“Come for me,” he commands. “Let me feel you.”
And I obey.
Pleasure bursts through me, filling my veins with liquid fire. I cry out, closing my eyes as stars flash in my vision and I shudder around him. Raven keeps up the roll of his hips, dragging out my ecstasy with each stroke. When my body finally stops trembling, he pushes himself up onto his knees, lifting my legs over his shoulders. I whimper as the position allows him deeper, clutching at the silk sheets as euphoria starts to build once more.
My desire burns white-hot as I watch him, his muscles tensing and flexing. He drops one hand back to my center and starts circling the pad of his thumb over the sensitive nub as his pace quickens. Raven’s fingers bite into my thigh and he tips his head back with a deep moan. The sight and sound combined push me over the edge once more, and I clamp down around him, pulling him over with me. His hips stutter, a strained curse falling from his lips as he fills me with his release.
When the pleasure finally relinquishes us both, Raven collapses on top of me. I wrap my arms around him, welcoming the weight of his body on mine.
We lie together, cradled in each other’s arms, until our ragged breathing slows and silence fills the room. As the quiet moment stretches, memories surge like a gentle tide, filling my mind with echoes from our past.
I shift beneath him, my question slipping out before I can stop it. “Why didn’t you say goodbye?”
Raven’s body tenses, his arms tighten around me before he rolls over, repositioning our bodies so I’m sprawled across his chest. His eyes find mine, and I swear I could drown in the warm depths of them forever. But I can’t fall into them. I need him to answer.
“When they assigned you to Alpha Flight,” I whisper, “you just…left. No note. No message. Nothing.”
“I know,” he says, his voice rough, laced with something I can’t quite name. “That was the point.”
“What does that even mean, Raven?” My chest aches, and I push away, only for him to pull me back right back.
