“Please,” she whispers.
“Please what?”
She bites her lip. “You know.”
I push two fingers inside her and watch her shatter.
Her back bows. She clutches at me, head thrown back, mouth open on a silent cry. My cock is so hard it hurts, pressed tight against my trousers, but I don’t rush. Not yet. I need to see this. Need to etch the way she falls apart into the backs of my eyes so I can take it with me if?—
No. Not if.
When.
I strip the last of my gear off with shaking hands. Her eyes widen when I settle between her thighs, hard and heavy and lined with spurs, but she doesn’t flinch. She cups my face in both hands.
“I trust you.”
I don’t deserve it. I take it anyway.
I press into her slowly, inch by inch, her body stretching to take me, trembling around every ridge. She makes a sound I’ll never forget—half sob, half moan—and I bury my face against her neck, holding myself still while she adjusts.
“Stars,” she pants. “You—you weren’t kidding.”
“You okay?”
She laughs, breathless. “Better than okay. Move.”
And I do.
I fuck her like I’m running out of time.
There’s no rhythm, no restraint—just need. White-hot and blinding. Every thrust punches a groan out of my chest, every whimper she makes ratchets my control closer to the edge. Her nails dig into my back, legs wrapping around me, dragging me deeper.
She kisses me between gasps. “Harder?—”
I oblige.
The bed creaks. The walls echo. My name is a chant in her mouth, a prayer, a command, a plea. I want to give her everything. Want to brand her from the inside out with the shape of me, the sound of me, the weight of what I haven’t said.
“Roxy,” I growl, dragging my lips along her jaw. “I love you.”
She gasps, goes still for half a beat.
I don’t let her speak.
“It’s not a question. Not a confession. It’s just true. You don’t get to argue.”
Her eyes shine, wide and wet and stunned. I kiss the breath from her again before she can say a word.
The bond hits like gravity reversing.
I see stars. I smell ozone. My vision whites out for a second and I think I forget my own name. All I know is her. Her skin, her voice, the tremble in her thighs when she starts to come again, the way she says my name like it’s the only word that’s ever mattered.
CHAPTER 24
ROXY
He’s still inside me.
