Page 82 of Reckless Devotion

I freeze, my heart hammering in my chest. I’ve tried not to insert my own ideas as to why she doesn’t like it this way, all of which push me toward a simmering pit of onyx fury that I don’t want to throw myself into. But it’s impossible not to acknowledge that whatever it is isn’t positive.

“You’re sure?” I ask, every muscle in my body bristling from thoughts I don’t want to have.

She nibbles her lip, her eyes wide. “Someone took this part of me, and I want to claim it back.”

Ice plunges a hole into my heart as she confirms my worst fears without explicitly saying it. The thought of someone hurting Pepper makes me want to raze this city and everything else on this earth to ashes. Corrosive heat floods my system, hot and fast, but I force myself to keep it contained, to be present with her in this moment in the way she needs me to be. In the way she’s asking. Trusting.Fuck it all to hell, my chest aches that she would even ask this of me. It’s a quiet signal that makes my head spin. Something primal and protective rears into life, and in that moment, I make an oath to myself to do whatever I can to protect this woman. To give her the safe space she never had growing up.

“Okay,” I croak, swiping her river of palest pink hair over her shoulder so that it runs down her back in soft ripples. “If you’re sure.”

“I’m sure, Chase,” she whispers, breaking eye contact in the mirror to turn and look directly at me. “Just ease me into it.”

I nod, my ability to speak stolen away by the intoxicating trust etched into every part of her beauty. The urgency I feel for her still remains, even in light of her painful admission, but I force myself to be gentle as I position her in front of me, slightly bent over, our eyes meeting in the mirror as I line myself up and rub my dick along her slick entrance from behind. She gasps, her hands gripping the porcelain tightly.

“I need comms, baby. Tell me if this is okay.”

We’re going to take this slow, at first.

She nods, her eyes fluttering shut as I do it again. “That feels good.”

I glance down at rounded ass cheeks, heart shaped and perfect for me to slam into them. I line myself up, nudging her entrance and wrapping one arm around her torso from behind, cupping her breast. “Ready?”

She nods, her heartbeat hammering against my hand. I sink in as slowly as I can manage, her warm, wet body embracing me in a stranglehold the moment I slide to my hilt. She cries out, her body becoming soft and pliant in my hold, and it’s the confirmation I need to draw back out and thrust myself back in, pleasure pooling at the base of my stomach, giving her a steady rhythm that has her mewling and writhing for more.

Her body squeezes me in response, so tight it almost steals my end right from me. I force ironclad grip onto my resolve, drawing myself back from the finish line that my body wants to barrel recklessly toward.

“You feel so fucking good, baby.” I grunt, rolling her nipple between my fingers and thrusting in again. “I can’t get enough of this.”

Her pussy pulses around me, her skin becoming slick against mine as we move in a perfect flow of give and take, her cries getting louder and higher with every thrust.

“You’re getting close, sweetheart.” I feel her clamp down on me, the beginning of that sharp ascension I’ve become familiar with starting to take hold.

I force myself to remember to speak before I act, giving her fair warning instead of just taking control like I usually would. “I’m going to move our position slightly, okay?”

“Yes,” she hisses, her eyes fluttering shut and her cheeks painted with deep color as her breath saws in and out.

She looks magnificent, breathtaking—a vision of power and beauty as she claims back a part of her that should never have left. I slide my hand up her back and use it to gently press her flat to the porcelain, my other spreading her ass so that Ican go deeper, so that I can hit that spot I know will have her tumbling off a cliff edge.

On my next thrust, she stiffens, the sound of pleasure I expected dying in her throat. I turn to stone, buried deep inside her but not daring to move an inch.

“Baby?” I lean over and swipe away stray hairs that coat her face, finding her eyes squeezed shut and her breath coming in short, panicked punches. “Pepper.” I use the voice that people expect in a boardroom, using it to pull her back to the present.

Her eyes flash open, wide and locked with mine.

“It’s me,” I tell her gently, my heart cracking in two as I see a solitary tear track across her nose and drip onto the sink. “It’s Chase.”

She nods, the hand that was gripped tightly against the edge of the sink reaching up to take mine. “Chase.”

I dip my head in confirmation, landing a soft kiss on the back of her shoulder as I thread our hands together. “We can stop anytime. You’re in charge here.”

“No, I’m fine.” She grips my hand fiercely, her lower lip wobbling. She must see the hesitation in my face, because she tugs me in closer. “Please, Chase. I need to do this.”

I catalogue every inch of her—the hurt, the fear, the echoes of desire still lacing her breathtaking eyes, before deciding. “Okay, but we’re doing this slightly differently.”

“Different how?”

“Get on your elbows.” I help her shaking body up, propping her so that her weight is on her forearms and flush to the sink. “You keep your eyes on me in the mirror, do you understand?”

She chews her lip and nods, some of that flush appearing back in her cheeks.