A future where he would have to find another queen. Where he would have to produce an heir. Where he would potentially fail as a husband all over again. Right now he wasn’t failing. Right now, he had a warm, willing woman in his arms who was as into this as he was, and he wasn’t going to release his hold on her.
Not for anything.
Nimble fingers began to work the buttons on his shirt, and he found it pushed off of his shoulders, and he assisted. Her palms were flat against his chest, and he could see that her eyes were wide, glittering as she moved her hands over his muscles, fingertips skimming his nipples, the sensation so erotic he grasped both of her wrists in one hand and held her still for just a moment. “I am on edge,” he said.
“Did I do something wrong?” she whispered.
“No,” he growled. “It’s too good. Too good. I don’t want to lose control.”
“I don’t mind if you do,” she whispered. “I told you. This is for you. Whatever you need.”
If he were to discover that this was a hallucination, one brought about by the horrors of the last week, he would have been unsurprised. Because this seemed like something straight out of a dream he’d never allowed himself to have.
He released his hold on her, and she moved her fingers down his chest, his stomach, her touch reverent. Her dress was a stretchy, knit material, and he pushed it up her hips, peeling the clinging material away from her body, leaving her in dark-colored, brief underwear and a black bra. His blood was running hot and fast. Everything inside of him begging him to take her. Take her.
He was about to ask yet again if she was certain this was what she wanted, when her hands went to his belt buckle, undid the button and zipper on his pants. Her hands were trembling, and he lifted one up to his lips and kissed her fingers. “It doesn’t have to—”
“I want this,” she said.
It was the first time she had been very clear that she wanted more than simply to comfort him.
She was clear. She wanted this. She wantedhim.
He needed to be wanted. He hadn’t known that. Hadn’t realized how hungry he was for someone to desire him. He was a confident man; he had every reason to be. But five years of being treated as if his desires were a punishment had taken something from him. Eroded like waves against sand, slowly stealing pieces of who he’d been before with each pass of the tide.
This was like being healed.
So he stripped off the rest of his clothes, reached behind her back and unsnapped her bra before moving down to slide her underwear down her legs.
He wished that he could see her better, and yet was grateful that he couldn’t. Because there was no way he would be able to keep his control and his composure. Even now, in the dim light, the faint impression of her body was enough to make him come. It took digging deep into his self-control to keep from losing it.
He kissed her again, reaching down between her legs and feeling how wet she was. So wet. For him. And with ease. He moved his thumb over her clit, before pushing two fingers inside of her. She whimpered, moving her hips in time with his strokes.
He moved his mouth away from hers, kissed down her neck, down to her glorious breast, where he sucked one tight nipple into his mouth, the sensation making his cock pulse with need. He growled, grinding his hips down into hers, wrapping one arm around her waist and drawing her up against him as he flexed against her.
Her hands went to his hair, fingers digging into his scalp. He moved, and felt the head of his arousal right up against her slick entrance. He couldn’t hold back. “Yes,” she whispered in his ear.
All that he needed to hear.
He drove into her, the harsh cry on her lips fueling him on. She was so tight. So glorious and perfect.
It had never been like this. Not ever. He had never felt anything quite so essential. Had never felt like coming home before. But it did now.
He began to move, gripping both of her hips as he drove himself home, over and over again. Then he felt her begin to tighten around him, her back arched against him.
“Yes,” he whispered. “Come for me, darling.”
Her cries of pleasure seemed to shock her, her hand coming up and covering her own mouth as her internal muscles clenched around him, as she lost her control completely.
He couldn’t hold on. Not any longer. He let himself go, claiming her hard and fast, until his need was a raging beast he could no longer outrun.
He growled, pouring himself deep inside of her, the pleasure blotting out everything. Every thought. Every pain. Every doubt. Everything. For one, blissful moment, he knew what it was to simply be a man. A man lost in need. A man perhaps found in need as well.
He kissed her. Deep, hard.
Wrapped her tightly in his arms, and felt sleep begin to drag him down, an exhaustion that he’d never felt before claiming his entire body.
When he awoke with a start, he was naked on the chaise lounge, alone. All signs of his beautiful partner gone.
