Page 230 of My Real Love Affair

I caught his wrist before he could pull away. “Wait.”

He stilled and his gaze locked with mine.

I shifted onto my knees, heart thundering against my ribs. There was a swell of butterflies just beneath my skin, but they were excitement, not nerves. “I don’t want one tonight.” My fingers skimmed down his forearm. “I’m on the pill. And we’re only with each other, right?”

His Adam’s apple bobbed. “Right. Only each other.” The words felt like a vow. His hand slid up my throat and cupped my jaw, thumb brushing across my lower lip. “You sure?”

I nodded. I was surer of this than I’d ever been of anything. I wanted to feel him, just him, nothing between us, no barriers. I wanted that intimacy so badly it was a pulse low in my belly. “I want you, all of you.”

His groan was low and broken. He closed his eyes and tilted his head back like he was thanking the heavens.

Gently, he lowered me onto the mattress, lowering himself over me like I was something sacred. My knees fell open for him and he settled between them. When he moved his hips, that first slide of him against my slick folds had us both gasping. I dug my nails into his shoulders just to anchor myself.

“Slowly,” he breathed against my neck. “I want this to last, and without a condom, all bets are off. I don’t think I’m going to last more than five seconds being inside you.”

I touched his cheek. “We have all night.”

Slow was agony; slow was heaven. He brushed along me teasingly until I was writhing, tiny pleas falling out of me. His hand replaced the glide, two fingers sinking deep, and I nearly exploded. I felt the tension spiraling, already coiling tight.

“Please, Austin, I want you inside me.”

He withdrew his fingers slowly and then it was him. One deliberate push, and he was sliding into me bare for the first time. The feeling was overwhelming. It was more intimate than anything we had shared before. I felt every pulse, every ridge, felt the stretch and the fullness like it was brand new. My nails scored down his back. He growled against my collarbone, hips rolling forward until we were flush, until there was nowhere left to go.

We stayed like that for a heartbeat, just breathing and feeling. Then he started to move. His forehead touched mine and his breaths rasped against my lips between kisses.

“God, you feel like… mine,” he whispered, voice breaking.

“I am,” I answered, tilting my hips to meet every thrust, biting my lip when the angle had him hitting that perfect spot. “Only yours.”

His rhythm built, steady at first, then rolling into waves that crashed harder, faster. Pleasure sizzled under my skin. I felt it gathering low and urgent. The soundtrack I had selected for my little runway show was still playing, barely audible over the sound of our bodies slapping against each other.

I felt the orgasm coming on fast and hard. There would be no stopping it. I shattered into a million pieces, pulsing around him, pulling him deeper as he buried himself to the hilt.

He stilled, eyes squeezed shut, jaw clenched so tight I could see the tension in the fine line of muscle in his neck. “Melody. Oh fuck, I’m not gonna last after that.”

I curled my fingers into his hair and kissed him roughly. “Then don’t. Let go with me.” I clenched deliberately around him and watched his control unravel. His hips jerked forward twice, three times, and then he was spilling inside me with a guttural groan that was the most beautiful sound I’d ever heard.

The heat of his release inside me sent me fluttering into aftershocks. Tiny tremors made us both twitch and sigh. He lowered himself until his weight was half pinning me, half blanketing me. After a moment he rolled to the side, gathering me against him so we were chest to chest, legs tangled. I could feel his heart still racing. I pressed my palm over it like I could hold on to the beat forever.

Austin tugged a sheet over us and pressed kisses across my shoulder, my neck, the spot just behind my ear that made me sigh. “I love you,” he whispered against my skin. “Every day, in every possible way.”

I tugged his face to mine and kissed him softly. “I love you too,” I said. “So much it terrifies me. Like my heart decided to walk around outside my body. I love who I am when I’m with you.”

“Same, baby girl. Same.”

CHAPTER 73

AUSTIN

Ipulled my car to a stop in the circular driveway. The last time I had been here, it hadn’t ended well. Neither had the time before that or the time before that. It was time to change things. I didn’t want to dislike my father. I knew life was short and I had already wasted so much time being pissed at him. It was time to fix this thing.

This conversation was long overdue.

Cash had texted me that morning:Dad knows you’re still with Melody. Fair warning.

Of course he did. Armand Bancroft didn’t get to where he was by missing details. And the fact that I’d disappeared to the Hamptons for a long weekend right after the Summer situation probably tipped him off.

I finally got out of the car and headed to the front door. Kathy answered, looking pleased to see me. “Austin! Your father’s in his study. Go on back, he’s expecting you.”