Her voice was tight and hoarse and her hands flew to his shoulders, her nails digging deep, marking him as he’d marked her in the past. The visual of her brand on his skin catapulted him into a frenzy.
He began pumping into her, his pace frantic and yet she still urged him on. She arched, meeting every thrust. Her face was a wreath of agony and ecstasy.
“Get there, Angel,” he ground out even as he felt the first violent expulsion of his semen pulsing deeply into her pussy.
She cried out, her nails sharper, digging even deeper, breaking skin, and he reveled in the sharp bite of pain.
He pushed her harder and harder, faster and faster until the sound of flesh meeting flesh was loud in his ears. She screamed his name and shattered, wrapping her arms and legs so tightly around him that he could do nothing more than wedge himself as deeply as he could go and feel each and every pulse of his release jet into her body.
He lowered himself, burrowing his arms beneath her so that he held her every bit as tightly as she held him. Then he sagged, allowing his weight to cover her like a blanket, his dick still buried in her sweetness, each small aftershock as the last of his release was pulled from him quaking over his entire body.
He rested his forehead beside her temple and shuddered as her warm breaths puffed over his nape. He’d never felt so relaxed and at ease in his life even as guilt crept over him for allowing himself this selfish luxury when she’d given him everything while he still held a part of himself—his soul—from her.
But then she turned her head ever so slightly, just enough that her lips brushed the base of his hairline and she kissed him. One small, exquisite kiss that he felt to his toes. Her body still wrapped firmly around his tightened as she hugged him closer to her, if it was even possible that there was any space left between them.
“Thank you for giving me the gift of your pleasure tonight,” she whispered. “I wanted so badly to do something solely for you. To please you. To show you that you matter to me, Drake. If you ever feel as though you matter to no one, remember tonight and know that you are so very important to me.”
He couldn’t respond for the knot that hastily clogged his throat. All he could do was squeeze her to him, not wanting anything to come between them in this moment. Not his fears, his guilt or remorse. Because nothing could ever make him regret this day. For one wonderful night, time had stopped, and he had seen heaven for the first time in his life. He had felt peace unlike anything he’d ever experienced, and he had learned what it felt like to be surrounded by the wings of an angel.
There was a glow surrounding Evangeline in the weeks following the night of Drake’s decadent fantasy and the ensuing emotional revelations between her and Drake that couldn’t possibly be overlooked.
The only shadow that clung to Evangeline was her continued estrangement from her girlfriends. In the beginning, she’d simply been so busy with Drake and focused on meeting his demands and glorying in the discovery of something new and wonderful that she hadn’t given much thought to the passage of time or how she hadn’t spoken to them for a prolonged period.
But then there was also the fact that none of her girlfriends had made the effort to reach out to her either. And that realization didn’t sit well with her at all. If they were her friends, wouldn’t they want her to be happy? And wouldn’t they want to see that she was happy? How could they know if they didn’t bother to even call or text her?
The argument always circled back around to Evangeline and her own culpability, and guilt would surge hard and strong because just as her girlfriends hadn’t tried to contact her, she hadn’t contacted them either.
The disconnect was more keenly felt when Drake announced he hadto go out of town on business overnight. Evangeline had expected that he would want her to accompany him since he’d said as much in the beginning of their relationship when he’d outlined the rules, but he’d told her he didn’t want her to be bored senseless since he would be in marathon meetings and wouldn’t have any time to spend with her. It would be a flying trip, leaving at noon the first day and returning early the next morning. He’d encouraged her to enjoy herself with the stipulation that one of his men accompany her anywhere she went.
She’d nervously called Lana, Nikki and Steph, thinking to catch up and bridge the gap between them, but her calls had gone unanswered and her texts had not been read. As a result, she opted to stay at Drake’s apartment and not go out because her heart wasn’t in it. She was afraid that she’d lost the friends she’d had since her days in small-town Mississippi.
That night she’d slept alone for the first time since she and Drake had become involved, and she discovered she didn’t like it very much. She tossed and turned the entire night, latching on to the ridiculous hope that he would return earlier than expected. When the morning of his scheduled arrival dawned, she was hatching a half a dozen different ways of jumping his bones as soon as he walked through the door.
As it was, within minutes of his return home, to her chagrin, her mother picked then, of all times, to call. Evangeline had cast an apologetic look in Drake’s direction, but he’d merely smiled and pulled her down into his lap as she talked to her mom—and dad—and had proceeded to distract her by nibbling on her neck and various other parts of her body until she was ready to throw the phone across the room and turn around and attack him.
He chuckled when he overheard her mother inquire about her “young man” and whether he was treating her well, and then to her surprise, he’d taken the phone from her and proceeded to converse with her parents for nearly half an hour.
She watched, pleased, as Drake spoke to them in an affectionate tone, relaxed and even smiling at intervals. Happiness tightened her chest and she snuggled into his side as he continued his conversation, assuring them that he was indeed taking very good care of their daughter but that she was taking even better care of him.
Everything about her relationship with Drake felt... right. No longer did she battle with the questions and fears that had plagued her earlier. The last few weeks had been nothing short of magical and she wondered if dreams really did come true. She chastised herself for being so prepared for when the other shoe dropped and it was all over.
It was time to stop being so afraid of what the future held and throw herself into the here and now and enjoy every minute of her time with Drake. Who was to say they wouldn’t end up in a long-term relationship?
Drake had proved to her time and time again that she hadn’t been wrong to give him her trust and faith. He had taken both gifts very seriously and had respected her offering, cherishing them—and her—as he’d promised to do.
She also no longer questioned whether she was good enough or asked herself what a man like him could possibly see in her. He was happy. She was happy. What else was important? No matter how she saw herself, Drake saw someone completely different, and he never passed up an opportunity to prove that to her.
She felt like a butterfly emerging from a cocoon after a long hibernation and the freedom from long-held and deep-seated insecurities was exhilarating.
Evangeline Hawthorn was... confident! She was beautiful! And worthy of Drake Donovan.
A ridiculous smile attacked her face and she was so encapsulated in the thrall of her dreamy thoughts that she hadn’t even registered Drake ringing off with her parents, until his lips trailed a fiery line up her neck to nibble at her ear.
“My angel looks happy,” he murmured. “I hope my return has something to do with that.”
She turned and threw her arms around his neck, peppering his entire face with kisses.
“Oh, Drake, Iamhappy! I missed you terribly.”
