I half expect his mask of indifference to settle on his features, but there’s this faraway look in his eyes, as if he’s somewhere else. “Love is not the butterflies you feel when you’re with someone. It’s the brokenness you experience when you’re apart.”
My heart hiccups, and I place a palm on my chest. “That’s beautiful.”
He looks at me and shrugs. “It’s something my mom said to me once.”
“She’s a wise woman.”
“Yeah.” He takes a sharp inhale. “But I’m pretty sure it’s not that simple.”
“Nothing about our marriage, about our relationship, is simple, Alexius. But there’s one thing that became painfully clear and simple to me in this room today.” I walk closer again, refusing to look anywhere except in his eyes. “I would rather live with the burden of loving you than suffer without you.”
Abruptly, he reaches out and pulls me against him, the air bursting from my lungs, and I quiver with a sudden surge of urgency to have him claim me again—to bend my body to his will and make me his filthy little slut again.
His fingers weave into my hair, and my lips part as I welcome his possession. His eyes are molten silver, and he pins me with a fervent stare of a thousand different shades of blue. I recognize the desire that burns within their depths, and it makes me hyperaware of my own need, arousal pooling between my legs.
He drags a finger leisurely down my chest, over the swell of my breast, stilling for just a moment when he reaches the peak of my pebbled nipple. I hold my breath, anticipating his next move, wanting him to palm my breast, suck the hard nub, and ravage my body as only he can. But his gaze falls lower, his hand now tracing down my abdomen and flattening his palm on my stomach. “Your belly has grown.”
“It has. I’ve also grown impatient.” It’s a challenge, and he sees it as such, pulling his lips in a snarl, his blue eyes flashing with a familiar hunger I've come to recognize so easily.
“You are everything to me, Leandra.” His voice is low and rough. “Nothing will ever change that. But—”
“But nothing,” I say. “You are mine, and I am yours. That’s all that matters, and if you don’t see it, then you’re the stupidest fucking man I know.”
His mouth collides with mine, his kiss fire on my lips, and I return it with everything I have in me. It’s not just about loving him or about him loving me. It’s about needing each other, unable to exist without one another. He needs to understand that what we have is more important, stronger than any ‘what ifs’ held in the past.
My palms are flush against his chest, and a moan echoes off my lips onto his when he rolls his hips, his cock hard and ready, and I can’t stop myself from reaching between us, palming his thick shaft. He lets out a labored breath, his lips parted, and wraps his fingers around my wrist as if it’s an attempt to stop me, but he doesn’t. Instead, he spreads his palm over the top of my hand, urging me to stroke him harder, faster, as he thrusts his length deeper into my eager hand.
“I can’t control myself with you,” he says against my lips.
“I don’t want you to.”
“I hurt you the last time.”
I pull back, jerking my hand, and slap him across the face. “Stop!” I grip his cock harder in my palm and lick my lips as I lean closer. “Were you so fucking possessed that you missed the part where you made me come?”
His eyes search mine, his lips glistening from our heated kiss.
“Were you so caught up in the madness you didn’t realize I liked it?”
“What was there to like? I lost my shit, and I used you to prove a point to my brother. It was fucked up.”
I continue to stroke his dick through his pants, lifting my shoulder as I press harder. “Someone once told me if you want to do something simply because it thrills you, you do it. The world is unraveling, and we have every right to unravel with it.”
He licks his lips, and I can feel his body vibrate, his eyes dark and turbulent.
I loosen his pants and snake my hand inside. The second I wrap my fingers around his smooth cock, he hisses, shoving himself deeper into my palm.
“At Mito, you told me I’ve been a predator all along. You were right. I’m not prey. I’m just like you, and together we do fucked-up so goddamn well.”
Precum beads on the tip of his cock, and I rub my thumb over it. My body is nothing but flames. My panties are soaked, and my pussy throbs, needing to feel him inside me more than I need my next breath.
I force my hand in deeper, palming his balls, and he snarls while biting his bottom lip as he leans his forehead against mine, his eyes rolling closed.
“Unravel with me, Alexius.”
He grabs my hand, stopping me from stroking him, his expression feral.
I lick my lips. “Now, give me what you promised. Love me until death us do part.”