My lips parted, but my voice didn’t come out.
His voice softened, but it was laced with something tighter now. Hurt, maybe. Frustration he was trying to swallow.
“I could’ve said something. Shut it down. Looked them in the eye and made sure they knew exactly who you were to me.”
“I didn’t want to cause a scene,” I said too quickly. “It wasn’t the time.”
“I don’t care about the time.” He stepped back, dragging a hand through his hair. “I just…” He exhaled, steadying himself. “I hate that you still think you have to handle everything on your own. That you still don’t believe someone’s got your back.”
My heart throbbed.
“Because I do,” he said. “I’ve got you. Always. You don’t have to push through everything alone anymore.”
I took a shaky breath. “I’m not used to anyone standing up for me.”
He closed the distance again, gathering me close like he could shield me from everything. Like he wanted to.
“Well, get used to it.”
His fingers threaded into my hair, tilting my face up again. “You’re mine, Katie. And I’ll fight every person in every room if that’s what it takes to keep you safe.”
I leaned my forehead against his lips, letting him place a kiss there. This man had said all the right things to me, and he meant them. Then why did their words still cut through me like a knife? I closed my eyes and let another tear slip down my cheek.
“I hate it when you cry,” he murmured, his forehead pressed to mine. “Come here. Let me remind you who you are.”
He slid the zipper low, steady and unhurried, like he couldn’t quite believe I was his to touch.
He eased it from my body with aching care, his mouth brushing each inch of newly bared skin. When it slipped to the floor, he stepped back and just looked at me for a moment. His eyes swept over me like he couldn’t get enough of me. Like he’d never seen anything more worthy of worship.
“You have no idea what you do to me.”
Then he came forward again, walking me back toward the bed, kissing the curve of my neck, the slope of my shoulder, the dip of my collarbone. He unhooked my bra and let it fall. His mouth closed over my nipple with a low groan, stubble dragging hot across my chest, his hands strong and firm on my hips like he couldn’t bear to let go.
“Kate,” he rasped, his voice shredded. “You’re so fucking beautiful.”
I let myself feel it.
The heat of his breath. The roughness of his jaw. The way his touch silenced every whisper of doubt still echoing in my chest.
Then he knelt, slowly but surely. His eyes never left mine as he dragged my underwear down with his teeth, hands on my thighs like he needed to hold me open.
“Fuck, Katie,” he breathed. “Let me taste you. Let me take all of it away.”
And he did.
He worshipped me with his mouth, deep, devoted, unrelenting. Like this was what he’d been born to do. His tongue found every aching, perfect place. His fingers curled inside me in a rhythm that he knew hit my G-spot every time. My back arched. My thighs trembled. I came hard, unravelling on his tongue with a cry that didn’t sound like me.
When I pulled him up to kiss me, I tasted the mess of us between us. He was already hard, already grinning that sinful, cocky grin that told me he knew exactly what he’d just done.
“Please,” I whispered, clutching at his shoulders.
He didn’t make me beg again. He was sitting at the edge of the bed when I crawled onto his lap, straddling him.
He lined himself up, nudging against me, and slid in slow, inch by devastating inch, until he was buried to the hilt, groaning like the feel of me might just break him.
“Jesus, Katie…” His voice cracked. “I’ll never get over this. The way you feel around me. Like you were made for me.”
He moved slowly at first. Teasing his long, hard cock fully out of me each time. Then each thrust became deliberate, like he was carving his name into me so I’d never forget. Like he was teaching my body something so I’d remember this very moment.
