A fury like no other exploded inside of him. He picked up one of the chairs at the table and lifted it above his head.
"Serge...don't," Aubrey said.
A click filled the silence, bathing the room in light and giving him his first sight of Aubrey in over twenty-four hours. He dropped the chair, jumped over the piece of furniture that clattered at his feet, and strode straight toward her.
He backed her into a wall so that she couldn't retreat. Unable to check himself, he hooked her neck, holding her in place. He soaked in every detail about her.
Her eyes were free of makeup. Her bottom lip was wet and swollen, as if she had raked her teeth over the sensitive skin all night, which was something she tended to do when worried. The tendril of hair on the back of his hand felt damp. His chest tightened as he pulled her to him.
"Bree," he murmured.
She melted against him. He crushed her to him until even that wasn't enough, and he picked her up. She wrapped her arms around his neck, her legs around his waist. He accepted her kisses, finally capturing her mouth.
"I'm sor—" She spoke against his lips. "I didn't mean to scare you."
He walked with her two steps and couldn't wait. He took her to the floor and dragged off her clothes, rarely leaving her mouth as he showed her what he wanted to do to her with his tongue. He wrestled getting his jeans off with one hand, refusing to take his weight off her, for fear that she would escape.
In seconds, he'd sunk deep into her pussy. The relief and power of possessing her was more phenomenal than anything he'd ever experienced. She belonged underneath him, surrounding him, sucking the life from him.
Aubrey's body seized, squeezing his cock. He violently thrust into her, wanting to shed the turmoil she'd caused him. The worry that she'd disappeared from his life as quickly as she'd entered fled because he would never let her out of sight again.
His toes curled. Pleasure rolled from his lower back, between his buttocks, and cupped his balls as he ejaculated deep inside of her. A savage groan ripped from his throat. He had her, and she wasn't going anywhere.
Even through the aftershocks of his orgasm, he continued stroking her from the inside, taking the spasms as her sex accepted more and painfully climaxed around him again. He held himself above her, their bodies entwined. He stared at her until he was sure he hadn't dreamed up the moment. She'd come back.
"I can't lose you." He stroked the hair off her forehead and held her to the floor. "It'll get easier. Just give us time. Don't give up on me."
Her eyes, bright and lazy, gazed up at him. He felt her nod under his palm. He sucked in his breath.
He withdrew from her body, helped her to stand, and carried her through the house to the bedroom. He laid her on the bed and laid down beside her, scooping her into his arms.
The angst he'd suffered in the past twenty-four hours continued to torment him. Uptight and unable to sleep, he held Aubrey. He could've lost her. She could've decided to leave him, and there wouldn't be a fucking thing he could do.
For him, he couldn't go fast enough where she was concerned. But, he'd pushed her. He'd scared her. He'd taken too much from her already, and she wasn't ready. He had to slow down or lose her.
Putting his darkness on someone who walked in sunshine wasn't fair. He had no right to ask her to carry that burden. If he had to spend more time at the gym taking a beating, wearing off the excess adrenaline, to get rid of the pain gnawing his insides, he'd do it.
When her body relaxed, he slipped out of bed and changed out of his clothes. Instead of returning to bed, he dressed in a pair of old jeans and a T-shirt and sat in the chair at the corner of the room, content to watch over Aubrey as she slept.
She rolled on the bed. "Serge?"
"I'm here. Go back to sleep." He let his head fall back on the chair.
Aubrey sighed, and soon her deep breathing was the only sound in the room. Still uneasy, he vibrated with pent-up anger. Aubrey walked on eggshells, so afraid she'd lose a part of herself if she stayed with him.
Somehow, he needed her to see the darkness within him and understand how he feels. Maybe then she'd grasp how everything could be lost in a second.
He wasn't going to lose her again.
