"Better than okay." I get my hands in his hair and pull him down so I can see his eyes. "It feels good. Right."
He begins to move.
What follows is slow and deep and devastating, and he keeps his eyes on mine through almost all of it, and he says my name like it's a thing he's still amazed he's allowed to say. He's careful even now, even past the boundary of his own restraint, attentive to every shift in me, and somehow that care makes it more intense rather than less, because I have never in my life been touched by someone paying this much attention to whether I was alright.
I feel it building, the heat low and tightening. He feels it too, then he adjusts to find the angle and the rhythm and the exact pressure I need, and when I break it's nothing like the careful contained pleasure of six weeks ago. This time it takes all of me, head to feet, and I cry out his name and grip him like an anchor while he holds me through it, murmuring things against my throat that I'm too far gone to fully hear.
He follows me a few strokes later, his whole body going taut, a low broken sound torn out of him as he buries himself deep and holds there, shaking, his forehead dropped against my shoulder.
We stay like that for a long moment, both of us breathing hard, his weight a warm and grounding thing above me.
"I'm not crushing you?" he asks against my neck.
"No. Stay." I wrap my arms around his back. "Don't move yet."
He stays. After a while he shifts us so we're on our sides facing each other, still tangled, and he brushes the damp hair off my face and looks at me with an expression of such naked tenderness that I have to remind myself this is the man his enemies are afraid to be in a room with.
"Was any of it bad," he asks. "The real kind."
"None of it." I press my hand flat against his chest, over the heart that's still slowing down. "Akyl. None of it hurt. Do you understand what that means? I just did that, and nothing hurt,and it was the best thing I've ever felt, and I didn't think I'd get to have this. I'd written it off. I'd put it on the list of things that were for other women, healthy women, women whose bodies worked."
"Your body works." He kisses my forehead. "Your body is extraordinary. And now it's mine to take care of, and I take exceptional care of what's mine."
"Possessive."
"Profoundly." He doesn't apologize for it. He never does.
I laugh. "I have something to tell you," I say into his chest, when I've collected myself.
I feel him go still. "Go on."
"Not bad. Don't tense up." I tilt my head back to look at him. "The foundation got its approval today. It’s official." I can’t stop grinning. “It means I can finally start helping other women.”
His arm tightens around me. "You did that."
"We did that. Your name opened the door. I just refused to let it close again." I settle back against him. "There's going to be so many people I can help, Akyl. A lot more. I can feel it. I'm going to be very busy and very loud and probably very irritating to a number of medical administrators."
"Good." I feel him smile against my hair. "I look forward to funding their distress."
Akyl
She’s still trembling against me, her skin damp, her breathing ragged in the quiet of the room. That first time shredded something in me, watching her come apart so completely, hearing my name break on her lips like she’d never expected pleasure to feel like that. I hold her close, one hand splayed across her back, the other tangled in her hair, grounding us both while her body settles.
But the hunger hasn’t eased. Six weeks of restraint have left me raw, and feeling her wet and clenching around me, then falling apart so beautifully, has only sharpened it. My cock is still hard against her, throbbing with every small shift of her hips. She notices, and lets out a soft, surprised laugh that vibrates against my chest.
“Already?” she murmurs, tilting her head back to look at me. Those gray-green eyes are dark now, pupils blown wide with want.
I don’t answer with words. I roll us so she’s beneath me again, careful even now not to put too much weight on her abdomen, and kiss her hard. I bite her lower lip, tug it, then soothe it with my tongue. She gasps into my mouth and arches up, pressing her perfect tits against me, nipples tight and begging.
“You said you’re cleared,” I growl against her throat, dragging my teeth down the column of it until she shivers. “Tell me your limits, Katriona. Right now.”
She swallows, her hands sliding up my arms, nails digging in just enough to sting. “I want to feel you. All of you. Don’t hold back like before. I’m not fragile anymore.”
I search her face, reading every micro-expression the way I’ve trained myself to do with her. No fear. Just heat and trust and that fierce determination that makes me want to ruin her in the best possible ways.
“Good girl,” I say, and the words pull a whimper from her throat.
I flip her onto her stomach with a firm hand on her hip. She goes easily, pushing up onto her elbows and knees without hesitation, offering herself. The sight of her like this, her back arched, ass raised nearly undoes me.
