Page 228 of Operation: Defiance

Every touch is proof she’s real. That we’re real. That I haven’t lost her. And maybe…I won’t.

The soft sounds of arousal fill the room. My fingers skate over her stomach, down to the brown curls covering her mound.

She sucks in a breath.

Shit.

“Raine? Can I taste you?”

Her lips part, chest stuttering for a beat before she nods. “Y-yes. But…I need to see you. Please…”

Drawing the pillows closer, I help her move by inches, ensuring she’s supported before settling between her thighs, never losing eye contact. “If this is too much, we stop.”

She watches me, her breathing still too fast, but there’s a fragile steadiness to her now. One I’ll do anything to protect. “You won’t hurt me,” she says softly. “My heart knows that. But…”

I run a hand up and down her thigh. “You’re in control. Always.”

Raine tightens her fingers in the sheet as I press a kiss to her mound. She smells like the ocean after a storm. The first stroke of my tongue through her folds is like coming home.

She shudders, her heels pressing into the mattress. “Okay?” I ask, my gaze lifting to hers.

“Uh-huh.” Her eyes are half glazed over. Hearing Raine reduced to soft, breathless sounds rather than carefully measured words sends all the blood in my body rushing to my dick.

I rest my fingers lightly over her lower lips, parting her folds enough for my tongue to lap at her clit. With each stroke, her muscles coil tighter.

Tiny whimpers spill over one another until her entire body strains, her back arches, and she lets out a keening cry. The climax shudders through her like a tidal wave, and I gentle my strokes as her breathing steadies, then move back up to her side.

She fits against me like we were destined to be together like this.

“I choose you,” I whisper, my lips right next to her ear. “Always.”

Her hands slide up to my shoulders, fingers digging hard enough into my muscles that I hope I’ll carry the marks with me into tomorrow. When she shifts, guiding me onto my back, I let her take control. Because she’s choosing me, too.

I’m already leaking, and I snag the condom from the nightstand, tear the foil, and roll it over my aching length.

Her hair tickles my chest as she climbs on top of me. The way she looks at me, fiercely present, trusting without conditions, shatters every wall I’ve ever built around my heart, breaking me wide open, and love spills through the wreckage until I’m drowning in it.

I hold Raine’s hips, my thumbs brushing along her sides, memorizing the shape of her as she sets the rhythm. Every touch, every glance, every thrust is a promise that we’ll have the life we only dared let ourselves imagine tonight.

If—no—when I come back.

I’d choose Raine in any timeline. Take any amount of pain to spare her even a second of it.

GSD can do whatever they want to me if it keeps her safe and free long enough to build that future she never knew she wanted.

I cup her breast with one hand, the other steady at the small of her back. Her eyelids flutter, her channel gripping me tighter with each roll of her hips. And for one perfect moment, there is no tomorrow. No uncertainty. No fear. Just the quiet conviction that we’ve found what we never knew we were missing.

“Touch me,” she whispers, leaning down to kiss me, then capturing my lower lip between her teeth.

I find her clit with my thumb. It only takes a few strokes before she cries out, and my own release carries me with her.

Raine collapses against me, curling under my arm, her face tucked against my chest. I press my lips to her hair, memorizing the scent of her shampoo, the warmth of her body, the way her breath catches as she comes down.

Until I feel her tears soaking into my skin. The small, steady tremors she’s trying to hide.

“I’ve got you,” I whisper, pulling her closer and skimming my palm up and down her back. I know her tells now. What calms her. What sends her spiraling. And this…this steadies us both.

The urge to confess my feelings for her is dangerously close to the surface. But if I say the words now, it will make tomorrow that much harder for both of us.