She hums in affirmation, vibrating around me, and my body shudders hard. Not yet. Not yet. Not?—
‘Baby Girl…’ I try to pull back. ‘Enough.’
The deal is a baby – and this won’t give her that.
But she doesn’t stop.
She doubles down.
‘Taylor.’
Her name crashes out of me, raw and wrong, but oh-so right. My fingers curl into her hair, holding her still as her wide, glazed eyes lock on mine. I’ve never said her name like that, likethis.
Baby Girl, yes. Tay, yes. But Taylor…
Fuck.
‘Up here,’ I bark. ‘Now.’
Her breath breaks against my mouth as I haul her into my lap, dress bunched at her hips, thong shoved aside. One second, she’s straddling me; the next, I’m inside her. Her heat closes around me, ripping a groan straight from the darkened depths of me.
It’s everything.
Like coming home to a place I was never brave enough to claim.
And whether it’s stupidity, courage, or the darkness in me, I take her mouth too, forcing her lips apart with my tongue as her hands claw my hair. She locks us together, deepening the kiss until I can’t tell where she ends and I begin.
Andnowit’s everything.
The kiss turns us feral: teeth, tongue, nails, hands, taking, taking, taking.
I yank her bra down, her breasts spilling into my hands. Her nails pierce my scalp as I knead her soft flesh, pinching and rolling her nipples until she’s panting, frantic?—
‘That’s it, Baby Girl,’ I rasp against her lips. ‘Take what you need… take it all.’
I slip a hand between us, strum her clit, and her breath catches. Her body tightens. ‘Ax— Ax— Ax?—!’
She shudders apart, and the force of her release takes me with her. Pleasure detonates through every limb as I spill inside her. Mind, body, soul – hers.Alwayshers. And it feels so fucking good, it hurts.
I growl into her neck, needing to release it, bury it, dosomething.
I hold her through the tremors, every muscle locked, every breath stolen. She clings to me like I’m the only solid thing she has, her heartbeat thudding against mine, her breath warming my skin. And for one reckless moment, I live in it: the dream that sent me running.
The dream of her, of this, of a future so vivid, it feels real.
Because the longer she stays wrapped around me, the more something old and starved whispers to stay… to choose her… to let her choose me.
Not just for the baby, but for always.
To tell her the truth, and damn the rest.
But I can’t.
Safety is knowing your worth – and knowing she will always be worth more.
More than the broken pieces of me, at any rate.
Slowly – too slowly – I ease my hands to her hips. She stiffens,sensing the shift as I lift her away, setting her on her feet as I stand. Her fingers linger on my arm, and it takes everything I’ve got to pull away.
