He stays silent.
The only sounds are my gasps, the water, and the slick, obscene noise of his fingers inside me. His silence only makes everything louder.
I’m falling apart.
“Come. Now.”
The command tears through me like a blade.
I come hard, back arching, forehead to the tile, body shaking as I clamp around his fingers. My moan echoes through the shower like a war cry.
But he doesn’t stop.
He yanks my hips back, lines up, and shoves inside in one brutal thrust, so deep I scream.
He fucks me like he’s digging her ghost out of his chest and burying it in me. Like this is penance. Like I’m the altar and he’s the knife.
“Mine.” His voice is a snarl.
“Yours—fuck! Yes... yours?—”
He pulls me upright, and my back arches against his chest. One hand wraps around my throat, thumb stroking my pulse.
“Look,” he growls.
I twist, meeting his eyes over my shoulder.
And it’s devastating. His red hair falls over his eyes, moving with every thrust he gives me.
“Don’t leave.”
“Never,” I rasp. “Jasper... never?—”
That’s all it takes.
He buries his face in my neck, hips stuttering as he comes, hot and deep. The sound he makes is half sob, half roar, and my body clenches around him as I fall again—another orgasm crashing into me so hard I cry out his name.
He holds me through it, his body shaking against mine.
Then he pulls out and turns me, pulling me tight to his chest. We stay there for a few minutes as the water finally turns cold.
“I heard her,” he murmurs into my hair. “In his voice—calling for me. She was there.”
My chest aches. “Jasper?—”
His hand strokes my back. “I know it wasn’t real, but for a second, I thought she saw it. That she knew he paid the price, finally.”
I cup his face, forcing him to look at me. Water slips down his cheeks, hiding what might be tears.
“She knows. She’s at peace now, because of you.”
His thumb brushes my lip.
“With you, I don’t have to be silent. But I choose it sometimes... because it makes you listen harder.”
And fuck, if that isn’t the most intimate thing he’s ever said.
His silence isn’t trauma.
