"Harder," she demands breathlessly. "I can take it."
I give her harder. Give her everything I have, every ounce of strength and desire and need. The room fills with the sound of skin on skin, her gasps, my grunts, the rhythmic thud of the headboard.
"Touch yourself," I order. "Make yourself come on my cock."
Her hand slides between us, finding her clit. I watch her face as she works herself, see the pleasure building in her expression, and it's the most erotic thing I've ever seen.
"That's it. Show me how good it feels."
"So good," she moans. "So close..."
"Come. Come for me right now."
She shatters with a scream, her whole body convulsing beneath me. The feeling of her clenching around me, pulsing and squeezing, triggers my own orgasm. I come hard, seeing stars, barely keeping myself from collapsing on top of her.
We're both sweating, shaking, completely spent and wrung out.
I roll off her, and we lie side by side, staring at the ceiling while we catch our breath and wait for our hearts to stop racing.
"That was serious branding," she finally says.
"Yeah." I smile. “It was.”
We're quiet for a long moment, just breathing. Then she turns onto her side to look at me.
"What are we doing, Axel?"
"What do you mean?"
"This. Us. One minute we're fighting like we hate each other. The next we're..." She gestures at the bed, at our naked, sweaty bodies. "And I don't know what we are to each other."
"What do you want us to be?"
"I don't know. Something more than just people stuck together by a baby. But I don't know what that looks like or how to get there."
I turn to face her, reaching out to tuck her hair behind her ear. "Then we figure it out. Together. One day at a time."
"Just like that?"
"Just like that." I pause, searching for words that don't come easily to me. "Aurora, I don't know how to do this. A relationship. I've never had one. Never wanted one. Never thought I was capable of it. But with you..." I stop, trying to find the right words. "With you, I want to try."
"Even though we fight constantly?"
"Even though. Maybe especially because you fight with me. You don't let me get away with anything. You call me on my bullshit. That's... that's something I need. Something I didn't even know I needed."
She's quiet, processing this. "I want to try too. But I need you to understand something."
"What?"
"I can't be locked away. Can't live my entire life behind walls, no matter how nice those walls are. I need freedom. Need to make my own choices, even if they're sometimes stupid choices."
"I know. And I'll try to give you that. But you have to meet me halfway."
"How?"
"Tell me when you want to do something. Let me set up security. Don't just disappear and hope for the best." I touch her face gently. "I can give you freedom, Aurora. But I can't give you recklessness. Not when there are people who want to hurt you to get to me."
She considers this for a long moment. "Okay. I can do that. No more sneaking out. But in exchange, you stop making decisions about my life without asking me first."
