to make sure he understood exactly. “What I mean is…” She stopped to let a breath fill her lungs, fueling her admission. “I want to see you again. I don’t want this—whatever it is—to end when we leave New York.”
His features froze. His lips were parted, his jaw was set, and his eyes were vulnerable. He didn’t move, as if he were slowly absorbing her request. Soon enough, though, he found words, his voice gravelly. His question came out as a scratch. “You do?”
She nodded vigorously. “I do. Maybe that is crazy. Do you think it’s crazy?”
He shook his head. “No!” flew off his tongue.
The speed of his response emboldened her. That, combined with the endorphins still rushing through her system, drove her on. “I just,” she began, running her fingers through the fine hairs on his chest. “I just would be so sad to leave New York and not see you again. And I don’t have a plan, or an agenda, or anything beyond the here and now. All I know is I want to see more of you. Which probably sounds…” Her voice trailed away, lost in the noises of late-night New York floating through the window.
“Sounds what?” he asked, prompting her.
“You probably think it sounds too hard, since I’m in Paris and you’re in Las Vegas, and that’s how it was before,” she said, worried that they were facing the same obstacles, those very ones that had splintered them years before.
That sexy smile returned, tugging at his lips as he shook his head. “No. It’s not crazy at all. We’re not the same as we were before. The distance—it’s not as daunting. We have the means to deal with it.”
She nodded. “Yes, we do. And all I know is that I don’t want this to end.”
He pulled her closer, held her tighter. “That’s enough for me to fly across an ocean for you.”
He dusted her lips with his—a soft, sweet kiss that was both gentle and thrilling at once. On his lips, she swore she could taste his happiness, and she kissed more, taking some of it for herself.
They chatted in bed, talking about friends and family, work and music, photographs and security. Every now and then a small shard of latent guilt stabbed at her, but she pushed past her nagging worries. She wanted to savor these moments with Michael. This time with him was the sweetest thing she’d experienced in a while, and she’d rather revel in it, especially after so long of having felt the opposite.
Soon enough, their lips found each other again, and they kissed, slow and lazy, the kind of kiss that made her wetter and him harder, that led to fingers slipped between legs and dirty words like, Get on your hands and knees. I want to take you that way.
She didn’t need to be asked twice. She wanted to be fucked that way by him, with her palms flat against the navy blue comforter, her knees sinking down, and her ass in the air. Michael ran a hand down her back, inch by torturously slow inch, each touch making her wriggle and writhe.
“Mmm,” he murmured, his big palm tracing her flesh, pushing her spine low, forcing her to raise her ass higher. “Look at you. Look at my Annalise. So fucking wet. So fucking hot. So needy for me.”
Like a sparkler igniting, those dirty words set off a fresh wave of desire. Heat pooled between her legs as she lowered herself to her elbows, her breath coming fast. “I do need you. I need you in me, Michael.”
He dragged his fingers through her sex, and she moaned, closing her eyes, giving in to the fevered rush in her body, surrendering to her desire to be fucked.
Sheets rustled behind her as he moved, straightened up on his knees, and positioned himself. When he rubbed the head of his cock against her pussy, a wild cry ripped from her throat. Mon dieu, who was this woman in her body? Inhabiting her, taking over her mind, using her mouth to speak such dirty things? “Fuck me. Hard. Take me. I’m yours.”
He took, fucking her as she’d never experienced before—rough and beautifully cruel, fingers digging into flesh, hands gripping her breasts and pinching her nipples, teeth on her shoulders. Deeply buried inside her, he fucked her savagely. She moved with him, moaned with him, slammed her pelvis back on his cock, letting him know that the more he filled her, the hungrier she was.