“Ian.” Hands found my hair, tugging. “Ian.”
“What do you need, Angel Girl, what do you need?”
“You. The only thing I need is you. I don’t think I know how to keep living without you. Not when the meaning of life now includes you. You’re a part of me. Forever.”
Her fingertips traced over the designs marring my flesh like she could read everything that was etched into my skin. Like she could grasp the story, dip her fingers in deep and feel every scar. What they meant. Where they came from.
Her fingers traced over the demon on my arm.
A shiver rolled through the darkest depths, and the confession was pouring out, “With you, I don’t want to be him. Not anymore. If I could be someone else for you, I would.”
“You’re the man I fell in love with, Ian. You. Not who you could be or who you were in the past. But the man who’s shown me time and again who he really is. The man who’s stood up for me. For my children. The man who’s taken a risk when I know what I’m asking for is more than anyone should have to give. That’s who you are, Ian.”
She was back to pressing her palm against the thunder that roared in my heart.
And I was taken.
Delirious.
I positioned myself at the welcome of her sweet body before I drove home.
Her body arched, and she softly cried out my name.
Home.
I gasped out at the stark pleasure that sizzled through every nerve.
I could stay in that spot forever and be content.
But I was dropping down and hooking my arm over the top of her head, holding her by the back of the knee with the other, opening her up for me as I began to move.
Hard and slow and deep.
Different.
So different from how I’d ever been with another girl. Who fucking knew how many girls I’d fucked. Hundreds? A thousand? I didn’t know. The only thing I knew was none had compared to this.
“You are the best thing I’ve ever felt. This . . . this is the gift, Grace. That I get to experience this with someone, even if it’s only one time.”
I rocked into her, and the girl met every thrust.
I dipped down. Kissed her long and slow and with everything I had.
Forever and ever.
With the truth that she’d come to mean everything, and still I wanted more.
Our breaths turned shallow, and she was releasing these throaty pants into the air that I swallowed down. They only wound me up more, my stomach in knots and muscles flexing and bowing and rippling beneath her touch.
Because the girl . . . she was touching me everywhere.
My scars and my skin and my heart.
“Ian.” She started to jut up into my body, needy for more. That was the one thing I could give her. I edged back, angling to hit her just right, holding myself up on one hand while I stroked her clit with the other.
The girl clawed and whimpered and moaned, her body stretching tight below me. Everything cinching down.
Bliss taking hold of the air.
Taking us with it.
“Ian,” she gasped one more time, and I captured her mouth to silence her scream.
The girl came undone.
Billows of her pleasure streaked through her body and directly into me.
Sinking in and setting me free.
Pleasure knotted at the base of my spine, my balls lifting as they slapped against her body.
Harder.
Faster.
More.
With Grace, I would always want more.
But this was what we had.
This moment.
I gripped her tight when I came. Exploding into her body. My cock surging and pulsing and pouring into the wet, warm welcome of this woman.
My mouth dropped open on a silent roar.
Nothing . . . nothing had ever felt as good as that.
Giving myself to her. Letting her hold it. My body went rigid, both of us hit with tremors and aftershocks.
Floating somewhere high where I wished we could stay forever.
She clung to me, holding me as close as she could as we both floated back down.
Still, it felt like reality couldn’t touch us. Because it was just me and Grace and the ghosts in that room.
I kissed her again.
Nothing but the soft press of lips.
Adoration.
Then I rolled to my side and took her with me, tucking her into my side, refusing to let her go. I ran my fingers through those silky locks as she stared at me in the shadows.
Hope blazed from the depths of those eyes. “Where do we go from here?”
Guessed we both knew there was no going back from what we’d just shared.
My words were gruff. “I don’t know, Grace. The only thing I know is I have to protect you and your kids from that bastard. That is the only thing that matters right now. Beyond that?” I gripped her tighter. “We will figure it out.”