“You’ve told me a time or two.”
“That’s because it’s true.”
No one has ever made me feel so seen, so cared for. I know I’m not perfect, but Emmett makes me feel like I’m exactly what he wants.
He steals the air from my lungs as he thrusts inside, stretching and filling me in one punch of his hips.
“Oh god,” I whisper.
“Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d get something like this.” His hand slides into my hair as he holds me and starts a rhythm as desperate as he warned. “And certainly not with someone like you.”
Emotion thickens his voice.
Like he still can’t quite believe I’m real.
The extra touches that I normally need to get there are unnecessary with the intensity in his eyes and the rough grind of his pelvis against mine.
“Damn it, Aspen. What have you done to me?”
It’s less question and more wonder.
Emmett tilts my head back, exposing my neck and chest to him, sucking hard on my pulse point like he needs the proof that I’m here on his lips.
“Me?” My fingernails dig into his back. It’s all I can do to hang on.
“You gave me hope. What the hell do I do with that?” he asks through heavy breaths.
“Hold on to it,” I manage.
The punch of his hips picks up and his mouth finds mine. There’s so much feeling in his kiss that I tighten around him, coming apart just as he swells.
Both of us spent, his forehead falls to my shoulder and he sighs deeply like he’s done fighting himself. It’s so quiet I can hear the pounding of our hearts.
“The only thing I need from you,” I whisper, “is the best you have to give. Trust that you’re enough for me.”
His eyes close briefly.
That might be the hardest thing I’ve asked of him all day.
When they open again, they’re impossibly blue.
“I’ll try.”
It’s not a grand promise for forever. Or that he’ll always be perfect.
But it feels like the truth, and somehow that means more.
I brush my thumb over his jaw. “That’s all I'm asking.”
He leans into my touch.
“Healing has to start here.” I press my hand over his heart. “Only you can do that.”
His gaze drops to where my palm rests against his chest.
For a second, I think he’s going to argue.
Instead, he turns his head and presses a kiss against the center of my hand.
