Page 162 of Before You Fell

He fucks me hard, his hips driving into me with enough force to move the bed beneath us.

He is so much rougher now. Hungrier. As if the careful, controlled version of him has run out of patience and what’s left underneath is this.

The pressure builds again.

He smirks, clearly proud of himself. “Ready to give me another fucking one?”

He draws it out of me, piece by piece, reading every tremble, ragged breath, and every desperate, broken sound I can’t hold back.

His body is slick with sweat above mine, but he doesn’t slow. His muscles are shaking with the effort of fucking me. With every curse, he presses hot against my skin.

My whole body locks beneath him, back arching, thighs clamping. My moan breaks apart into his mouth as my pussy throbs around his cock.

“Fuck,” he growls against my mouth. “That’s my fucking girl. Give it to me.”

His voice is the last thing I hear clearly before pleasure takes the rest of me.

“Fuck,” he growls. “I wish I could experience you bare, fill this pretty pussy, and watch you drip my cum for the rest of the night. Make sure you know exactly who fucked you.”

His body locks up.

I perceive the exact point when he loses it.

His rhythm stutters. His head drops, and I watch his face.

His jaw locks, eyes squeeze shut, brows furrowed, like he’s fighting it and losing spectacularly. Every muscle stripped of the smirk and the swagger. His hips stall and his cock pulses inside me as he comes. Helpless shudders move through his body. His mouth falls open and for one second there is no sound at all.

Then a groan tears out of him. My name is tangled somewhere in it. His hips grind slowly through every wave as if his body has taken over completely.

He looks nothing like the man the world thinks it knows.

For a long time, there is only breathing.

Mine.

His.

The room settles around us as if it, too, is waiting to see what happens next.

That is when the fear slides in.

The last time ended with him pulling away and leaving me exposed in a way that had nothing to do with being naked. My body remembers that moment.

The second my body goes still beneath his, Phoenix’s eyes find mine. All that post-sex haze is gone and replaced with something else entirely.

He eases his cock out of me. He gets up, deals with the condom, and is back before I have finished convincing myself to turn away, make myself small, and pretend tonight was something I can file neatly away and survive without damage.

He lies down facing me. He pulls me into his chest, close enough that I can feel his heartbeat still racing against mine.

His hand comes up, pushing the hair back from my face. He tips my chin up so I have nowhere to look but at him.

“I’m here,” he says. “I told you I’d fucking learn to stay. I meant it, Wills. Every fucking word.”

He presses his mouth to mine.

When I pull back, I tuck my face into the side of his neck, my nose against his skin, breathing him in.

His arm tightens around me and for once in his life, he stays.