“I know.”
“Sorry, I never said it until tonight.”
“It was worth the wait.”
I kiss her again, but she pulls back and touches her lips to my forehead. Then, my cheeks. My nose. My mouth. My jaw. Like she’s…damn, like she’s worshiping me.
Her palms smooth over my chest. “God, you’re so ripped.”
“Thanks?”
“You work so hard.” She presses her fingers into my muscles. “You’ve been at it nonstop since we got here. I know you miss your old home?—”
“You’remy home,” I growl. “Period.”
“You’re in everything.” She gestures all around us. “Bits and pieces of you. They’re everywhere.”
I close in, kissing her neck while pinning her hands on each side of her. “Less talking. More fucking.” I need this. Need her.
“Seth, mmm…wait, just a second.”
It’s the first time I brandish my fiercest glare. The one I get when I’m about to raise some hell.
Then, I deadpan. “One.”
Her eyes widen. “Oh. My. Go?—”
I slam into her, and she lurches with a long moan, nails digging into my hands.
I fuck her and watch every micro-expression.
I should be exhausted. But she makes me feel like I’m on a high. Every. Damn. Time. She makes me feel something good. Something real. A million beautiful, brilliant kinds of fucked-up real.
I drive into the tight, hot fist of her pussy, so hard, so close, it’s like we’re fused. Seeing her melt as her muscles pulse around my hardness, her heartbeat pounding against mine, I almost lose it.
Instead, I get her up against the corner and lift her leg, her bad one, until it’s over my shoulder, giving me more access. I don’t treat her any differently. I won’t change. None of us will. If anything, we’ll get worse now. Just different.
Freed now, her hands drop to my neck as I hammer into her, bow my head to hers, and say, “Fuck, Briella, do you know what you do just by walking into a room?” I dart my eyes between her hazel ones, shimmering in the dim light. “It’s like the world forgets to breathe, its heart stops, then you smile? And it jumpstarts. A trillion-volt shock.”
“Seth.” It’s the sweetest, most beautiful time she’s said my name. Her lips part slightly, then she presses them together. And in her expression—the purest adoration a man could ever want. “Seth…“ God, she cups my face, rubbing her thumbs over my five-day-old stubble. “Seth…Iseeyou.”
Until this moment, I never thought anything would be better than ‘I love you’.
Taking her mouth again, I fuck her in the shower until we come again. I get her on the floor, prop her legs on my shoulders, and lick her until she’s screaming loud enough to wake all the others.
But they don’t come in. Not when we all know the difference between her screams of pleasure vs. fear.
I fuck her against the bathroom counter, the wall, and even the sink. I don’t stop until the fog from the shower disappears from the mirrors.
Finally, I bring her to bed.
With her back to my chest, my arms around my only home, I bury my face in her hair and confess, “Love you, Briella.”
“See you, Seth.”
I’m out in seconds.
84
