“I feel it.”
He continues to fuck me with a powerful, slow force, each penetration going deeper and deeper. I grab on to his arms for support, his muscles flexing as his body tenses up with every intense stroke of our bare flesh as my body begins to climb with his.
When the heat ripples through me, I begin to shudder beneath him. He drops his head to mine, his cock grows even harder, thickening inside of me, pressing against my walls as they begin to constrict around his shaft, and I come hard.
“Oh, fuck,” he growls, losing control of himself as he pounds into me.
My moans grow louder with each pulse of sheer euphoria that shoots through me. I wrap my legs around his hips, clamping my pussy around him, milking his cock, craving every drop of his sperm that fills me up. I’ve never felt so loved, but it consumes me in this moment as I surrender everything that I am and hand it over to Declan. I need him to spread his feral scent all over me as he takes me as his to do with as he likes, because I want to be a part of him.
He pins his eyes on me, and I know he can see the hunger in me when he starts fucking me even harder, refusing to stop even though he just came. His pupils are dilated black, flaring in possessive need when he hisses, “You’re mine.”
“Yes.”
Thrust. Thrust.
“I own you.”
Thrust.
“Completely,” I breathe in submission.
Thrust.
“My property.”
Thrust.
“Yes,” I mewl in ecstasy as I come again, spiraling away into shrills of sensuous pleasure. He’s a beast on top of me, and when he spreads my legs wide open, pressing my knees into the mattress, he slams his hips down, burying his cock inside of me to the root. With a carnal groan, I feel a warm stream of fluid flood inside of me and spill out between our connected bodies.
“Declan,” I release on a faint breath—shocked as he fills me with his urine—claiming and marking me as his in the most animalistic way.
He releases my knees and quickly slips his arms under my back, holding me close before rolling us to our sides. My breathing is staggered as we stare at each other. Maybe I should be disgusted by what he just did, considering the things Carl used to do to me, but I’m not. I’m safe—safe enough to hand myself over to him entirely and know that he will take care of me—never hurt me. I love him, and I feel this intrinsic need to be as intimately close to him as I can possibly get.
“You belong to me,” he eventually says as our bodies calm down, still connected, and bathed in his scent.
“Yes.”
He threads his fingers through my hair, asking, “Your back? Did I hurt you?”
I shake my head slightly, responding, “You settled me. Everything you want from me is exactly what I want to give you. You don’t even have to take it. Just have it because it’s yours.” I give my sincere words and watch as he digests them. His face softens peacefully, and when it does, I take his lips in the most loving kiss I’ve ever given.
Without selfishness.
Without expectations.
Without malicious undertones.
I give him the purest piece of my heart that I have remaining and hand it over in the most honest way I can despite all the evil that surrounds me. In this moment of time that I have with him, I want to love him and give him the best parts of me I can find. I want to feel this—the part of life that’s good, the part of life I never thought I’d feel. I want to give every last bit of what I’m feeling right now to Declan because somehow, in some magical way, he makes life feel like it’s worth living.
A RICH, INTOXICATING fragrance fills my senses as I stir awake. Rolling over in Declan’s bed, I’m alone, aside from the dozens of pure white lotus flowers that are spread over the bed and myself. Containing my smile would be a feat, so I don’t even bother. The heady mixture of fruit, rain, and earth wafts through the room as I take in the beauty of the delicate blooms—Declan’s favorite flower.
Turning my head, I see a folded piece of paper sitting on his nightstand. I reach out and sit up, unfolding the paper to read his hand-written note.
Nina,
I tried to shower you in something that was just as pure and beautiful as you, but I fell short. The lotus was the best I could do, but they don’t even come close to the perfection I see every time I look at you. I know I said we’d spend the day together, but I have to run into the office for a little while. Call me when you wake up. I miss your sweet voice already.
No one could possibly love you more.
-D
The phone is already ringing by the time I finish reading as I wait for him to answer.
“Good morning,” he says.
“When did you do this?”
“Secrets, darling,” he teases, and I can picture his smile now, lines crinkling at the corners of his eyes.
“Keep your secrets then, as long as I continue to benefit,” I joke right back.
“I adore you.”
“When are you coming home?” I ask and his responding growl makes me laugh. “What’s that all about?”
“Fucking makes me hard that you call my place home.”
“You’re bad,” I giggle.
“You have no idea.”
“I think I do.”
“No,” he says and then pauses before he continues, “I don’t think you could ever know how deep you run through me.”
It’s been nearly two weeks since I finally allowed myself to recognize that I love Declan. I spend every moment I can with him, and even with Bennett in the picture, we’ve connected in a way I didn’t think two people ever could.
“Finish up your work and come home. I want you to show me how deep you can run through me.”
“Christ. You’re not helping my dick by saying shit like that. I’m going to be walking around with a semi and blue balls for the rest of the day.”
I laugh, telling him, “Good. Motivation for you to hurry up and get back here.”
“I’ll call you when I leave. I want you naked and on your knees, waiting for me. I’ll let you pick out the belt because I’m going to have my way with you,” he demands in a low voice, causing a delightful ache between my legs.
“I want the one you’re wearing so that every time you look at it today, you’ll think about me naked and on my knees,” I say, flirting with mild laughter.
“Bad girl.”
“I love you.”
“Love you,” he says before we hang up.
I lie back down in the sheets, staring at the flowers and dreading tomorrow when Bennett comes back and I have to go to my other home. I love being here with Declan. For the first time, I feel happy.
Truly happy.
Truth is, I’m confused.
Really confused.
Happy and confused.
I hate what I’ve done here with Declan—lying and manipulating. I want to be honest with him about who I am. I want him to know me, Elizabeth, not Nina. But there’s no way to do that. I’ve set the ball in motion, and I’m not sure how to stop it. I don’t think it can be, but I want it to be. I just want to freeze time, cast a spell and make the past disappear so that I can start fresh with Declan. Give him the real me. But I fucked myself. Life has fucked me—it always has. And now I must forsake the one thing I want to be greedy with because what I want most of all is just more time with him.
I pick up one of the white flowers known for their birth in muddy waters only to grow and bloom into a flawless spread of purity. I wish for a moment that this flower could resemble me. That maybe I could be one of the lucky ones to truly get a new beginning. I’ve never felt as clean as I do with Declan. Not even Pike can clean me the way Declan does. But the reality is, my new beginning will still be filled with rot. Destroying the life of two men—one innocent and one who deserves the destruction—to live a life of retribution. Only that retribution will forever be tainted by the memory of what this will undoubtedly do to Declan.