Page 229 of The Grand Duel
I nod, running my hands up his back, revelling in his warmth. “Anything.”
He eases back, his chest and abs flexing and rolling in the firelight, his cock hard and big. I stare at him, and he lets me, and I wonder if he feels as wanted. If he feels as special when I look at him as I do when I’m in his arms.
I hope he does.
I hope he knows.
He eases open my legs, and I don’t blink. Don’t look away from his stare for a second. I can’t. He can’t.
When he settles back over me, our noses meet, his body restrained by his arms. “You’re perfect to me, Lissie girl.”
A tear falls from the corner of my eye.
“The world doesn’t have to see it for it to be true.”
His knees stretch out against my thighs, spreading them slightly wider. I move with him, angling my hips as he readjusts. His cock grazes over my pussy, and a wave of pleasure rolls through me, the anticipation of what’s about to happen making me heady.
When the first inch of his cock pushes inside of me, his eyes close, his breath leaving him.
“You’re a good man, Charlie,” I whisper, kissing his closed mouth. I smooth my hand over his chin. “I see you.”
His eyes open, strong, sure, certain.
He shifts forward slowly, rolling his hips into me until our bodies are one, our hearts thudding against one another in an uncontrolled, out of rhythm beat.
The groan that leaves him once he’s fully inside of me makes my cheeks flame.
I lift my knees slightly, knowing it will put him deeper, needing him as deep and as lost inside of me as he can get.
“Lis,” he mutters, before taking my lips.
He rolls his hips, and we both shudder.
His hands fall from my face, smoothing down my arms, holding me, worshipping me as they brush over my hips, the backs of my thighs. He lifts one to my waist and thrusts forward, grunting into my mouth.
“Yes!” I cry, his tongue fluttering down my throat.
“I’m not going to last. You’re…” He thrusts hard, pinning me to the mattress, and we both moan. “You’re everything,” he whispers against my skin, breath ragged. “You’re everything to me, baby.”
I take his face and pull him back to my level, kissing him with everything I have within me. Giving him everything.
He finds us a rhythm, a route home, a place to take our beating hearts to safety. With our hands linked, our heads braced, our souls tied, our bodies give way. And together, we let ourselves come undone.
I’m staring at the cuts on Charlie’s hand, his naked body wrapped around mine on the mattress.
We fell asleep after having sex, seeing out the remainder of our first night together in each other’s arms.
I’m not sure I’ve ever felt safer.
“I’m sorry,” he tells me, my thumb tracing the torn skin. “I’ll put it right.”
I swallow and look up at him, his blue eyes piercing, full of promise.
I lean back and lift my head, kissing him. “You don’t have to apologise.”
He searches my gaze as if looking for a lie.
I blink, searching for the right words. “I probably feel as guilty as you do. The idea of it seems terrifying—you showing up like that. But I can promise you that they haven’t felt such a feeling, a feeling of guilt or remorse or concern, in their entire lives. Maybe on a level, maybe in passing late at night when they arrived home, but not enough to do anything about it and change.” I smooth a hand over his jaw. “I don’t share your guilt, it’s different, I have my own. Because I should care that you did it, but I don’t. I can only sit here feeling like the luckiest girl in the world to know a man like you, a man who wants to be in my life, who will care about me enough to go after the things that hurt me.” I kiss his cut up, bruised knuckles. “I’m guilty of being selfish.”