“Not for two. Foryou.” Each word a breath. And when he curled his fingers just so, those words became a moan.
“For us. Open my fall.”
Her eyes widened, but her fingers did not hesitate to comply, finding his buttons in the now-scorching narrow space between their bodies and flicking them open, releasing him.
He pulled his hand out of her and wrapped it round her waist, brought his other hand to her breast to caress her nipple, collect a gasp to remember always.
“Grip me,” he demanded. She did. He groaned but grit his teeth and called on every bit of control he possessed. “Look at me.”
She’d been looking everywhere but at him, and she froze a bit, but then unfrosted, slowly, like a hesitant spring, and finally met his gaze. He cupped the back of her neck and held her tight.
“Do not look away.”
Her eyes fluttered. “No.” She bit her lip.
“Ride me, love.”
Her already labored breath hitched, then her muscles flexed, and she lifted, positioning his cock right at the apex of her body and sinking down onto him. He’d demanded she not look away, and he had to fight the urge to close his eyes as pleasure rippled through him.
Not too difficult to do so. Not when he could look at her instead.
She rode him up and down, setting a patient rhythm, and he rolled his hips each time their bodies came together. Her lovely eyes sparked and flamed, and the sun illuminated the escaped wisps of auburn hair curling round her face. Her cheeks pink, and every inch of visible skin—not enough visible—pink, too. Her chest rose and fell with each labored breath. And those eyes locked onto his, so full of lust and life, with an amber ring of sorrow on their very edges. Slow, so slow, they moved, bodies leaning ever nearer until her forehead rested on his, until he could not tell where he ended and she began.
Her green eyes sang all his sorrows away. But for the ones she still hid, ringed in amber round her eyes.
Slow, so slow. To make the moment last forever.
But now her breath hitched, came a bit faster, and her legs, sheened with sweat, clenched up and down with a more frantic pace. Him, too, losing control. Their bodies together whirling into chaos.
Beautiful chaos that ripped a roar from his throat as she shuddered and contracted around him. Perfect chaos as he came inside his wife.
She collapsed against him, and he held her close. And the sunlight streamed through the window, pooled around them, like a benediction.
He stroked his hand down her hair, loving her. He placed little kisses wherever he could reach without much movement. Loving her. With a heavy limb, he lifted his hand, patted the chair’s arm. “Excellent craftmanship, Clara. Not even a squeak.”
She laughed. “I never imagined breaking it in this way. I—” She stiffened, swallowed, and left his lap, smoothing her skirts as they fell back down to her ankles. She gave a harsh laugh, false in every way. “I had not meant to break it in so much as break it. Yes. I remember now. My but you make me forget.”
Shehadsaid something about breaking it, hadn’t she? And she’d been crying when he’d arrived. And he’d just sat and demanded she please him, and—hell.
He jerked to his feet. “Damn, Clara, I’m a cad. I have been insensitive. Selfish. But surely you don’t mean to destroy it.”
“I do. I must. I made it out of guilt for keeping you here longer than you wish. And this morning I looked upon it and thought perhaps when he sees it, he’ll wish to stay anyway. Perhaps I can bribe him to stay with room after room of comfortable chairs made just for him. But I will do everything to help you as you’ve helped me, including tearing this chair apart until it is nothing but splinters and specks. Alfie and I are safe now, Atlas. There’s nothing keeping you here.”
Nothing keeping him here? Nothing but his own damn heart. If he stepped beyond this property now, he’d lose that forever. Hate himself forever.
“Think about what we have just done, Clara.” He pointed at the chair. “Think about what that means.” Her brow furrowed, and he stepped closer. “I came while deep inside you, love.”
Her hand flew to her mouth. “We have been so careful not to risk… I cannot believe we forgot…”
“I can. I want to forget, Clara. I want to see your belly swell with?—”
“It will come to nothing.” She backed away from him. “It must come to nothing because I will do nothing to force you to stay. I have seen you day after day, week after week, month after month. Your every word and movement a lie. A well-intended one, but a lie nonetheless. To convince everyone you are well. But I have seen that you are not, and I willnothave that.”
“Clara,” he warned, stalking toward her.
She backed away from him with another round of panicked steps, holding her hand out, palm flat, to halt his advance. “You must be well because you deserve it. I love you too well to haveit otherwise.” Her back hit the doorframe, and she gasped, a tiny thing, distracting her enough for him to take one giant step and gather her into his arms.
God, she felt good there, her every curve the perfect counterpart to his every angle. Her heat better than a bonfire to warm his bones.
