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“I didn’t know it could be like that,” I whispered, the words slipping out fragile and aching, barely audible even in the quiet room.

He stilled behind me, every muscle going tense. “What do you mean?”

I bit my lip, hesitating, but his hand slid up to cup my breast possessively, his thumb brushing my nipple in that soothing way that made me melt even as tears pricked harder. He wasn’t letting me hide. Not from him.

“With…with him,” I managed, my voice breaking on the word, and I hated how it still had the power to make me feel small. “My ex. Every time was…awful. He’d make me feel like shit afterward—like I was broken or frigid because I couldn’t come. Like it was my fault I didn’t enjoy it. I would just lay there faking it half the time just to get it over with. He’d get pissed if I didn’t finish fast enough, or at all, and tell me I was a failure in bed. That no one would want someone who couldn’t even get off properly.”

Sterling’s body went rigid against mine, a dangerous growl rumbling in his chest that vibrated through my back. His grip tightened almost painfully as his fingers dug into my hip like he was holding himself back from punching through walls.

“Sienna…” His voice was thick with fury and something darker. “That piece of shit⁠—”

I pressed a finger against his lips to cut him off and turned in his arms just enough to face him, our noses brushing, moonlight catching the storm in his eyes. The movement pulled him free of my body, and his cock slipped out with a wet sound that made us both shiver. I felt his cum immediately start to leak from me, warm and thick, sliding down my thighs in a reminder of everything he’d just poured inside. My pussy clenched at the loss, empty and wanting even after all he’d given me, and a soft whimper escaped before I could stop it.

Sterling’s gaze dropped between us and he watched it drip, a low, possessive growl rumbling from his chest. “Fuck, can’t waste that,” he groaned as his hand slid down fast, cupping my core like he could stop the spill and pressing two fingers inside so he could push it all back where it belonged. My pussy clenched around him greedily, still sensitive and swollen, and I whimpered at the fresh ache.

“With you, Sterling…” I finally murmured, my voice breaking on the words as I met his eyes. “I come so effortlessly with you. Over and over, like my body was waiting for you all this time. Like you know exactly how to touch me, how to wreck me, without me having to say a word. You make me feel…wanted. Desired. Like I’m perfect just like this.”

Tears slid down my cheeks, and he leaned in immediately and brushed one away with a gentleness that contradicted the feral hunger still burning in his gaze, his jaw clenched tight enough to crack.

He pressed his forehead to mine, his free arm crushing me closer until our hearts slammed together, no space left between us.

“Listen to me,” he said fiercely, every word laced with that obsessive edge that was starting to own every piece of me. “Your body was never worshipped like it deserved…but I’m here now. And I’m going to show you exactly what that feels like. Over and over and over.”

His fingers flexed inside me, pressing deeper for a heartbeat, before he eased them out slowly, dragging through my slick folds to spread his cum over my clit in lazy circles that made me gasp and arch into him.

“With me? You come because this pussy knows who it belongs to,” he growled softly as his hand stayed between my thighs, cupping me fully now and holding his seed inside like a vow. “This cock, this mouth, these hands…they’re made to ruin you in the best way. To make you scream and soak and fall apart until you forget anyone else ever existed. You’re mine, Sienna. My perfect, responsive girl. And I’ll spend every day proving it to you—fucking you senseless until the only voice in your head is mine telling you how fucking incredible you are.”

I wanted to believe the words coming out of his mouth. I wanted to believe them more than I’d wanted to believe anything else in my life.

But he didn’t know everything about me.

The thought slithered in cold and uninvited, a shadow curling at the edges of all this heat and safety. For one cold second, the dread burned up my throat, reminding me of the secrets I carried…and the reasons I was running to California in the first place.

If he ever found out…would he still call me his perfect girl? Would he still look at me like I was worth burning the world down for?

Would he still want to keep me?

The question hung there like poison, threatening to ruin everything.

But then Sterling’s eyes locked on mine, and he pushed it all away with a single devastating kiss. His mouth claimed mine like he could taste the fear and swallow it whole, his tongue sliding against mine in a way that felt a hell of a lot like forever, flooding my senses with the addictive taste of us still lingering on his lips.

Not yet, I thought, melting into him as his hand tightened on my waist, anchoring me to the only truth that mattered right now. He doesn’t know yet.

I hoped he never had to.

STERLING

I stayed awake long after her breathing evened out.

She was warm against my chest, heavy with sleep, her hair fanned across my shoulder like she belonged there. Like she’d always belonged there. My arm was curved around her, and every slow rise and fall of her body felt like proof I wasn’t imagining this…that it had actually happened.

The best sex of my life wasn’t even the thing wrecking me the most right now, though.

It was the quiet.

The absence of it.

The pulse was gone.