“This is what you need, baby,” he breathed against my ear, voice rough, timing his words with a powerful snap of his hips. “Me fucking you like this.”
“Yes,” I cried, fingers clawing down his back. The obscene sounds of skin on skin filled the enclosed space, wet and desperate, echoing around us. “Fuck,yes.”
My body started to come undone, muscles tightening around him, pleasure spiraling out of control. “Please,” I whispered, voice breaking. “Let me come.”
“Do it,” he growled, thrusting harder, faster. A handful of punishing movements shattered me completely, my climax tearing through me in blinding waves that left me shaking.
With a raw groan, Julian slammed fully inside me and froze. I felt the pulse of him, the way his body betrayed him as he found his own release.
Afterwards, we lay tangled together on the floor beside the desk, my head on his chest, his fingers tracing lazy patterns on my bare shoulder. Our clothes were still scattered somewhere in the darkness, and both of us were breathing hard.
“I can't believe you organized all of this,” I said, voice hoarse. “The hunt, the empty library, everything.”
“Worth it?”
“Absolutely worth it.” I tilted my head to look up at him. “Although I might be a little sore tomorrow.”
His smirk was unrepentant. “Good. You'll think of me every time you move.”
“I was already going to be thinking of you. It's our wedding day.”
“Now you'll be thinking of this specifically.” He pressed a kiss to my temple. “Of me chasing you through the dark. Of what I did to you when I caught you.”
Heat curled through me again despite my exhaustion. “You're insatiable.”
“Only with you, baby.” His hand slid down my spine, possessive and claiming. “Only ever with you.”
We lay there in comfortable silence for a few more minutes before reality intruded.
“We should probably get dressed,” I said reluctantly. “Before security comes back.”
“They won't for a while,” Julian said, but he started sitting up anyway, reaching for his discarded shirt. “But you're right. We need sleep before tomorrow.”
I found my clothes scattered across the fourth floor, getting dressed while Julian watched with obvious appreciation. When I reached for my purse where I'd dropped it earlier, he was already there, handing it to me.
He walked me back to my dorm, hand in mine, neither of us speaking much. We didn't need to. Everything that mattered had already been said. At my door, he kissed me goodnight; sweet and chaste and completely at odds with what we'd just done in the library.
“See you tomorrow,” he said, smiling. “At the end of that aisle.”
I smiled back. “I can't wait.”
I watched him walk away, then let myself into my dorm and collapsed on the bed, still buzzing with adrenaline and satisfaction and bone-deep happiness.
Tomorrow, I'd marry him. Tomorrow, everything would change. But tonight had been perfect.
A hunt. A chase. A claiming. Exactly what we both needed.
I fell asleep with a smile on my face.
50
Violet
Julian had once describedValcourt Manor as ‘a museum people happened to sleep in’. Black stone rising from the cliffs, its bones steeped in history and secrets. The kind of place that made you feel small and powerless inside its hulking frame.
And yet, when I stood just beyond the wedding terrace doors, listening to the low swell of music and the quiet murmur of guests, it felt completely transformed.
Golden light spilled across the marble beneath my feet, catching on ivory florals and trailing greenery that climbed the columns instead of strangling them. Sheer fabric drifted in the breeze off the cliffs, fluttering gently where iron and stone once dominated. Candles lined the terrace in careful rows, their flames steady, warm, and welcoming.
