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“Thank you,” Tess said, her eyes warming. “I don’t even know how to… Thank you.”
He bobbed his head. Was he uncomfortable with her gratitude? That was what she thought… until his eyes snagged on hers. Gratitude wasn’t on his mind. He’d realized it first. They were alone… in what had been their bedroom… on their bed.
“I shouldn’t have—”
“Yes, you should,” she said, crossing the last few inches of bed between them to take his face in her hands. “You absolutely should.”
Pulling him closer, she couldn’t help herself, couldn’t stop her need from joining their mouths. She tasted his hunger, his craving for her, the potent heat of sweet desire racing for its climax. He was more than she wanted. More than she needed. Her fingers slid from his face and her arms wound around his neck as he held her waist to guide her onto her back. Coming down on top of her, he fulfilled her wish with his promise.
Opening her legs to accept his body between them, Tess grabbed for his face again when his mouth left hers. It didn’t go far. His hands drove up her outer thighs, pushing her dress from her hips until it was over her head and gone.
“Daire,” she begged in a gasp before he kissed her again.
Dominating her with his desire, his fingertips skimmed down her body. With more than basic entitlement, he scooped her from the bed to erase the barrier of her bra. Tess couldn’t feel everything all at once. It was too much. The heat of his kiss pressed to her mouth for a moment, then those lips were on her neck, branding her skin with the scorching demand of his possession.
This man. This lover. He wanted to own her. Wanted title to her body and everything that came with it. Her anger, her fear, her love. His kiss proved his rough claim to her soul. It conveyed his intention to put her before anything and anyone else. To keep her safe, to hold and occupy her existence with his own.
“Please,” she begged as his entitled mouth ravished her breasts. Doing more than just kiss her, he bit and sucked, bruising her, marking her in a way neither of them could ignore. “Oh God, Daire, please.”
With her fingers in his hair, her body rising and writhing, undulating with the rhythm of his need, Tess handed her life to him. More than any physical danger that could ever harm her with its violence, she gave him her future, her present, her identity.
He tore his kiss away from its mission to yank off his tee-shirt. Before her hands could even find his skin, his mouth was in her cleavage. Opening it to drag his teeth across the sensitive flesh, his urgency couldn’t match hers. No matter how frenzied his devouring need became, it was nothing to the pulse of her pounding heart that fought to get nearer to his.
“I need you inside me,” she pleaded, her knees sliding higher on his body, testing and claiming whatever they touched. “Daire.”
He squeezed her breast, preparing it for the heat of his mouth. Just that quick caress wrung another whimper from her soul. Joy tightened her stimulated gut when the buckle of his belt rattled. Until that moment, she feared he’d come to his senses, that something might tear them from their desire.
His mouth left her skin and he reared up. In one slick move, his body slid up hers, their eyes met, and he pushed into her. A ripple of instant pleasure spilled through her.
“Yes,” Tess said, her mouth never closing, her eyes never leaving his.
He pulled back and pushed into her again. Taking what he needed with such deliberate intention, there wasn’t an ounce of equivocation. Daire didn’t only want her body, didn’t only want to occupy her, she was necessary to his existence, essential. Tess couldn’t explain it, didn’t know how she knew it. Moving in time, their haste heightened the closer they got to their end. As much as she never wanted their joining to be over, its completion was vital to the next beat of her heart, the next breath he took.
“Daire,” she whispered, the pressure of her pleasure building.
His hips sped up, pushing her deeper into the guarantee of what only he could give. The tension snapped and a loud yelp of climax burst from her lungs as she tightened around him. He didn’t stop; she wasn’t sure he’d be able to if his life depended on it. Her pleasure pressurized again until the burden collapsed once more and her body was thrust into a harsh ache of pleasure so acute it was almost painful.
As the blur cleared from her vision, she saw him grit his teeth and propel himself into her, delivering himself to his own promise. Panting, unable to think, Tess tried to smile as he descended from his peak, but she didn’t have the ability. With a weak arm, she touched her fingertips to her lips and lifted them to his, giving him the closest thing to a kiss she could muster.
He stayed there above her, scrutinizing her, though it seemed more for himself than for her. Whatever he was trying to work out, Tess wasn’t sure he got to any conclusion before moving away. They were almost exactly in the middle of the bed. Or she was, Daire didn’t move her or even lie down, he shifted to sit on the edge of the bed, where he’d been when she kissed him.
THIRTY-SEVEN
STRAIGHTENING HER ARM, her fingertips touched his spine. He didn’t move away, but he didn’t say anything either. Tess didn’t know what to say that might reassure him. Sex before had been part of his mission. Getting close to her, giving her whatever she needed to keep her close, he’d been with her for a purpose.
Whatever they’d just done wasn’t for any mission, not that she knew about, and it wasn’t sanctioned by Olympus either.
When he didn’t react to her fingers, she took them to her cleavage where the bullet he’d given her was nestled. Somehow, the chain had stayed in place.
“I have to tell Harry,” he said and couldn’t sound less happy about it.
“You said he wasn’t an idiot,” Tess said. “He probably knows we were together before. You didn’t want to talk to him about that.”
“This is different,” he said, bending over to grab his tee-shirt from the floor. He pulled it on, his jerky movements angry. “He needs to know.”
Tess sat up. “I think before you tell him, you should tell me.” His head jolted toward his shoulder, though he didn’t go so far as to turn around. “What is it you want to tell him? That we had sex? You’re an adult, Daire. It was consensual. You don’t have to explain yourself to anyone.”
“You don’t understand,” he said, shaking his head. “It isn’t as easy as that.”
