The cards scatter beneath me as Adrian pushes me back onto the table, his weight a delicious pressure pinning me in place. His mouth leaves mine to trail fire down my neck. My back arches instinctively, seeking more of him, wanting all of him at once after so much time lost.
“I’ve always wanted to fuck you like this,” he rumbles as he nips at my nipple through my blouse.
“Like what?”
“Without holding back.”
Those words set us both in motion and we claw at each other’s clothes. In a matter of seconds, we’re both naked and both too desperate to be joined that nothing else matters. Gripping my hips firmly, he lifts me and thrusts inside.
The force of him is so intense I cry out. He’s always been girthy and he gave me no time to adjust to his size. But I don’t care.
“Fuck me,” I bite out, gripping his shoulders.
His mouth crushes against mine, swallowing the sounds, his thrusts deep and relentless. It’s too much. It’s not enough. My body shatters around him, ten years of craving finally, blissfully, satiated.
I gasp his name, and he slows—a subtle shift that sends sparks through every nerve ending. Just a few years ago, he wouldn’t have cared about making me finish, yet now he’s easily made me come twice. In the past, he would have fucked me quickly, his movements cold and stiff. Now he’s all fire, all hunger, his movements matching mine with an eagerness that makes my heart beat only for him.
He pulls out and then pauses—a wicked gleam in his eyes before he slams back into me with such ferocity I think I’ll come apart at the seams. The table rattles beneath us as I clutch at his shoulders, dragging my nails down his back.
“Aurelia,” he groans again, and this time it’s a plea.
Before I can respond, he withdraws completely again. I whimper at the sudden emptiness but then moan when he trails a finger down my thigh to where I’m still aching for him. He’s teasing me. Torturing me.
“You want more?” he asks.
I can’t form words; I can only nod desperately as the tension builds to unbearable heights.
Adrian leans over me again, capturing my mouth in another kiss as he thrusts back in—slow this time, drawing it out until I’m unraveling beneath him. His lips move to my ear, whispering my name.
“Yes,” I gasp, pulling him closer.
He picks up his pace again but doesn’t lose control this time. Every stroke is deliberate and perfect and sends us spiraling toward oblivion together. His hands are everywhere—cradling my face, gripping my hips, entwining with mine above the chaos of scattered cards—and the entire time he’s watching me with an intensity that holds me captive.
“I love you,” he whispers. And I realize—this is making love.
For the first time in my life someone is making love to me.
“Adr—” I start to say but can’t finish. My release crashes over me suddenly, violently, overwhelming in its completeness.
Adrian follows moments later with one final thrust that makes us both cry out as if in pain. But it’s only pleasure; an all-consuming pleasure.
We collapse together on the table, a tangle of limbsand sweat. He buries his face in my neck while I cling to him.
When our breathing finally steadies, Adrian lifts his head to look at me—really look at me—and what I see in his eyes steals whatever air I’ve managed to recover from my lungs.
“Do you believe me now?” he asks softly.
I nod because words are still beyond me; because for the first time since this all began—the betrayal and bloodshed and the web of lies—something feels right again.
I press my lips to his forehead in answer and feel hope flicker to life inside the hollow spaces where grief once lived.
“We should probably get dressed,” I say eventually.
He only lets his delicious weight sink into me further. “So soon?” he asks, slipping his hand between my legs. Then he grins. “But we’ve only just begun.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
JULIAN
