She loved the way he said her name, the single syllable laced in pleasure and pain.
“Belle!”
His hands tightened on her hips, the grip firm enough she suspected he was leaving bruises. A smile escaped when she thought that the bruises would be a nice complement to the hickey he’d left on her inner thigh.
Victor was an artist, treating her like his own personal canvas, and something told her she was about to spend way too much time these next few days admiring his work.
She wasn’t sure what had prompted her to eschew the condom. She’d certainly used them with all her previous lovers. All she knew was, she wanted to be filled by him. It made her feel even more connected to him, and she liked that.
Then her ever-hopeful heart went ahead and imagined there might come a day when she went off birth control as they made a baby together.
Her body continued to tremble, aftershocks striking when Victor gently lifted her off his now-soft cock.
Later, much later, Belle lay curled against Victor, her head on his chest, listening to the steady rhythm of his heartbeat beneath her ear.
She felt…floaty. Light. Like if she tried hard enough, she could actually lift off the bed.
“Sunshine.” Victor’s voice was quiet, thoughtful, and not at all gruff from sleep, which surprised her. She thought he’d drifted off ages ago.
“Hmm.”
“We need to talk about something.”
Damn. There it was.
Reality…knocking at the door.
She sighed softly but didn’t lift her head or move away. “Okay.”
His fingers traced absent patterns on her arm. “Pip.”
Belle braced herself, because she truly didn’t know what he was going to say next. He told her by the pool that nothing could happen between them because of Pip, because she would be the one to lose out if things went south.
That fact hadn’t changed, and yet…
Here they were.
She took a steadying breath, then lifted her head, resting her chin on her hand that lay flat on his chest. “Pip,” she repeated, terrified he’d come to his senses and was regretting what they’d done. If that was true… Well, Belle wasn’t entirely sure she’d handle the fallout from that with much grace or style. She wasn’t much of a crier, but if Victor pushed her away after everything they’d just done, then the world was in for a flood of tears.
Victor hesitated, which gave her hope. “I don’t want her confused. Or thinking something’s changed that might not—” He cut himself off, his jaw tightening.
Belle stilled as she filled in the rest of his sentence in her head.
Something that might not last.
For a split second, that thought stung. But only for a second.
Because she understood him and where that fear came from. He’d thought Amelia was the one, so much so, he’d bought a ring. And then, she’d knocked him for a loop after two years and living together, telling him she couldn’t handle him being gone so much.
No one could predict the future, and as amazing and perfect as this felt now, Belle knew Victor well enough to understand just how cautious and careful he was about things that involved his family.
Rolling out a changed dynamic between them in front of a five-year-old Pip, who was observant, curious, and deeply impressionable, would be a huge mistake.
“Hey,” she said softly, brushing her fingers over his bearded jaw. “We don’t have to define this,” she waved her finger between them, “tonight. I don’t want to confuse her either. So no PDA in front of Pip. We keep things the same, act normal.”
Victor nodded. “Okay, yeah. We’ll keep it on the down-low. For now.”
Her concern over him pushing her away faded when he added those last two words. Because there was an urgency behind them that told her Victor wasn’t willing to keep what was happening between them a secret forever. It was reassuring enough that she decided they’d said enough for tonight.
