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“Does that turn you on?” I press my forehead to hers, still moving inside her, slow and relentless. “Tell me it turns you on.”

“God, yes,” she gasps. She stares down between us again, watching my hips drive relentlessly against hers. “I want that. I want all of that. Don’t stop—don’t stop talking to me.”

“You want my baby.” My pace quickens, catching her breath in her throat. “You want to be so big with my child, your pretty tits heavy and swollen.” I grip her hip hard enough to leave marks, thrusting deep and holding myself there. “All mine. Say it, Cora.”

“All yours,” she breathes, her hands clutching my chest, pulling me down into a messy kiss.

I cradle the back of her head, lifting it, making her look down between us. “Then watch while I fuck my baby into you.”

I fuck her hard and deep and without mercy, her voice breaking on my name. Her hands flat against my chest, right over my pounding heart, her eyes locked on the sight of my cock thrusting in and out of her.

A woman who owns my heart, and a family to protect. I’ve completely lost my grip on the man I decided to be.

I don’t give a single fuck.

She comes hard and shaking, my name torn from her lips in a helpless scream. I follow her over the edge with a ragged groan that I bury in her hair, spilling deep inside. My hips press flush against hers, my hands locking tight to her thighs to keep them pinned while my seed floods her core.

I stay there, heavy and breathing hard, feeling her walls pulse around my shaft as the last of my release moves through us both.

Then I pull back just enough to look at her face. Her lips are swollen, her chest heaving. She looks radiant.

“Don’t move,” I tell her, as I slowly draw my cock out of her.

Before a single drop can escape, I slide my hand between her thighs, my fingers pressing firmly against her opening, sealing my cum inside.

“This is what I want,” I say, my voice deeply possessive. I tilt her hips upward to keep her pelvis elevated. “Every single time. You full of me. You’re going to keep all of that inside you, printsessa. Every drop.”

“Yes,” she breathes, shivering under my touch, her body yielding completely to my command. “Yes, I will.”

I lean down, pressing a kiss to her swollen lips. “Good girl.”

I lie down beside her on the couch and pull her against my chest, wrapping my arm firmly around her waist. The city outside glows amber through the tall floor-to-ceiling windows. Her breathing slowly begins to even out. My hand moves through her hair, slow and rhythmic, and I feel the last of the day’s violent frustrations working their way out of my muscles, one degree at a time.

Cora works her magic on me the way she always does.

After a while, her fingers find mine where they rest against her stomach, and she laces them together. The quiet intimacy does something to my chest that fifteen years of careful, isolated living never prepared me for.

“I’m going to get you free of him,” I say, my voice coming out harsher than I intend. “Troy. I’m going to find him and finish it, and then there won’t be anything standing between us. You’re going to have the baby. The wedding. All of it. I’m going to deliver every single thing I’ve promised you.”

She’s quiet for a moment. Then she turns in my arms, shifting until she can see my face, her small hand coming to rest gently against my chest.

“Zevran.” Her green eyes move over my face. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong.”

She touches my jaw, her thumb brushing my stubble. “I can hear it in your voice. I can feel it. Please tell me.”

I gather this beautiful woman closer.

“I love you,” I say.

She doesn’t look away. “I love you too.”

I’ve never uttered those three words to a woman, nor cared to hear them. Those words break every vow of self-preservation I made at my brother’s grave. Hearing her say them back should terrify me. It should make me want to bolt. But instead, she’s anchoring me to a life I’m finally willing to risk everything for.

“Your eyes are sad tonight,” she whispers.

I stroke her hair back from her face, hating and loving that she can read me so easily. I’m not used to anyone looking closely enough to see through the armor.