He thrusts in me, claiming me, erasing the time spent apart with every perfect, blissful stroke of his cock. I brace myself, my arms around his neck, our mouths entwined. His tongue meets mine as he moves in perfect rhythm, pleasure lacing through my limbs as I lift my hips to meet him. My legs wrap around him, needing to be closer, even an inch of space too much. I breathe him in while we kiss, I memorize the feel of his muscled body in my hands, my fierce, savage lover, protector, my everything.
He pulls his mouth off mine and looks into my eyes, before he leans down, our foreheads touching. This. This. This was what we needed, to come together again and pledge our love in silence, to erase the distance between us, our hearts torn apart by separation we’ll never permit again. Never again.
“I love you,” he breathes with a firm thrust.
“I love you,” I respond, my nerves sizzling on the edge of release. “May I—”
“Come, baby,” he orders in that deep, raspy voice I know to obey. With a cry, I let myself go, I surrender fully to this, I fall into helpless waves of arousal as I fly into ecstasy. I’m holding onto his neck and he’s groaning, climaxing with me, and it’s fucking beautiful.
We stay like that, still wrapped in each other’s arms, unwilling to let go until our bodies cool and we need to clean up. He kisses my forehead.
“Stay there, sweetheart,” he whispers. I curl up and drape a blanket clumsily around me as he goes to the bathroom to get a washcloth. I watch his beautiful body in adoration. He’s a fallen angel come to earth, flawed yet majestic.
I want to sleep beside him and make love when we wake again, day and night, but we don’t have that luxury. We need to get a move on Morose. We need to form a plan.
After we get cleaned up, we share everything we know, still lying naked with each other in bed.
“Fourth floor,” he says with a nod. “Might’ve fled, but we should be able to gather some evidence, anyway, and know at least where to go to hunt him down.”
“I’ve got people on this,” I tell him.
He grins at me and tugs a lock of my hair. “Of course you do,” he says. “Girl’s got connections?”
I smile at him, my chest warming at his praise. “Yep. And it was time to call them in. I’ve got a private investigator working on it this very minute. First favor I called in.”
His eyes narrow. “And he’ll report to you when?”
“She,” I say, laughing out loud when I realize he’s jealous, “will report to me first thing tomorrow morning.”
He rolls me onto my side and gives me a playful swat to the ass. “I get to be jealous, woman. I spent all that time on the island never knowing you were coming to me. And once you did, I knew you were mine. And there’s no one, absolutely no one and nothing at all I’ll allow to come between us again.”
I throw my arms around his neck and choke him in a hug, until he’s gently pushing me away.
“Gotta breathe, baby.”
“Let’s go,” I say. “Let’s go now. Let’s see what we can find. He’s either fled or—”
Cy finishes my thought. “He’s waiting for us.”
My gut says it’s the latter. I swallow hard. “Any chance you’ve got any favors to call in?” I say, half-jokingly.
“Yeah, baby,” he says, getting to his feet and tugging his clothes on. “I could call in back up, but we don’t have the time.” He meets my eyes, his sky-blue gaze making my tummy do a little backflip, “And we don’t need anyone else, Harper. We can do this. We’ve come this far together. We’ll finish this together, too.”
I hop out of bed and quickly dress, empowered by his words and motivated to get shit done. “We absolutely fucking can.”
We speak hurriedly, finishing each other’s sentences, on the same wavelength about how we will do this, and how we’ll handle any curve balls thrown our way. How this will play out is uncertain, but one thing is not: Cy and I are a team. Now. Tomorrow. Forever.
We leave the building the way we came in, armed and ready. I wonder if anyone is waiting for us. Will they see us? Does he have security guards at the ready? He likely knows we’ve escaped the people he sent to hold us hostage.
What next?
“You prepared for what’s going to happen?” he asks.
I nod. “So damn ready. You?”
He nods, too. “Yeah,” he says. “Sure as hell am. I’m ready to get some answers and kill this bastard.”
I shouldn’t be surprised by his answer, but now that we’re here, back to civilization, we have to talk about this. I stop walking toward the building and hold his hand. “Cy?”