Page 137 of Lease to Love

He was deeper like this. I could feel him in my throat.

He fucked me like he was proving a point. Hard and deep and deliberate, each stroke grinding against that spot inside me that made my vision blur. His hand found mine, our fingers lacing together against the sheets. His mouth never stopped moving — promises whispered into my skin, into my hair, into the hollow of my throat.

“I’m going to take care of you,”

“The shop. The apartment. Anything else you can think of.”

“You’re never going to have to carry it alone again.”

I wanted to respond, but my body was already there, already at the edge, and the sob that came out of me wasn't grief or fear or pride. It was surrender.

I came with a scream, my body arching off the bed, my fingers gripping his like he was the only thing keeping me tethered to the earth. And Roman followed me over, his hips stuttering, his release hot and deep and endless.

When it was over, he lowered my legs gently to the bed and collapsed beside me. The mirrored ceiling reflected two bodies, sweat-slicked and tangled together. I could see myself. I could see him.

I could see, for the first time in eight years, a future that didn't feel like a battlefield.

"Still thinking about the soufflé?" Roman asked, his voice rough but smiling.

I laughed, and the sound came out raw and real and free. "What soufflé?"

I laid there, sprawled across the bed, warm and breathless, surrounded by orange rose petals that had somehow ended up everywhere.

One had stuck to my shoulder.

Another was caught in Roman's hair.

I plucked one from the sheets and rolled it between my fingers.

"Orange rose petals," I murmured. "Nice touch. Let me find out you're a romantic."

He smiled and reached for one of the petals beside my hip, twirling it lazily between his fingers. "I thought so."

He looked at me. "Red is too cliché for my Sunshine."

My heart gave a little flutter.

He glanced at the petal. "Orange roses mean a lot of things. Creativity. New beginnings. Passion…"

He stopped twirling it, and his eyes found mine.

"And fierce love."

The word landed somewhere deep.

Love.

My heart seemed to stop for a beat.

I stared at him.

He stared back. "Sounds like where I am in my life right now."

My mouth went dry.

He was going to say it.

He was going to say it.