she struggled to catch her breath, she was a woman looking up at her master. It humbled him. It filled him with an unbreakable determination never to live without that trust from her. That trust owned him as much as he could ever own her.
“I was coming back to you,” she whispered.
A weight crushed down on his chest. In the crystal clarity of the moment, with her handing over her terror and doubt to him, to share, to repair, he knew she meant it. “I know.”
The exhilarated smile that spread across her face reached inside Connor and mended every damaged corner of his being. It mended him. Made him whole. It made him want to live forever so he could see the same smile as many times as God would allow. There was no choice before him but to press their bodies together and kiss her.
Erin had lost any sense of space or time. She was everything Connor decided to give her. Everything he decided to make her feel. His to conquer and direct. Yet at the same time, she was there with him, moving in the same patterns, accepting every gift of sensation with a sureness that he would provide with it. There was no uncertainty here, only revelry. The overwhelming intensity of being tied up, trapped, had been transferred to him until he became all she could see, feel, taste. Her all. His mouth moved over hers, hard and delicious, vanquishing any reminder that her arms were bound. He was the only thing binding her now.
This kiss started out slow and savoring, but it built. Oh, it built until they were struggling to wrap their bodies around each other. Growls of desperation, bucking hips, licking skin. His hips wedged between her thighs and even without being inside her, he was already fucking her. His bulky erection slid through her wet flesh, over her sweaty belly and back down to nudge her entrance.
Instead of thrusting into her like she was physically begging him to do, he took hold of his length and teased her clit with the smooth head, jaw loosening as he groaned. The green of his eyes had turned almost gray in the dim light. His massive body hovered over her like a predator, muscles catching the light and shadows, highlighting every valley and ridge. For the first time, she wished for the use of her hands if only so she could explore that unbelievable body, touch the man who was about to take her. He was fucking magnificent. And by some twist of luck, he was hers.
His head dipped so he could close his mouth around her nipple, watching her through hooded eyes as he sucked. When she started to writhe, he moved to her other breast and licked it reverently. “After tonight, we won’t talk about how you left ever again. For my sanity, Erin. We won’t discuss it.” With a drive of his hips, he plunged inside her and held her there, pinned, without moving. She couldn’t breathe or think beyond the pressure already building in her abdomen. “For tonight, though, we won’t forget.” He spoke through clenched teeth. “I’m a man who lost his woman and I’m going to fuck her very hard until she knows what it did to me. I’m going to make sure she never does it again.”
She wanted to soothe him. To tuck herself into the space between his neck and shoulder and croon to him. But there was another, equally poignant side to her that wanted it rough. “Go ahead, Connor. Show me.” She worked her hips and his chest shuddered. “Make me sorry.”
Until she said the words, she didn’t know they were there, ready to spill out. It was as if some unknown part of her had communicated with Connor on a different level. As soon as the challenge left her mouth, the air around them changed. Thickened. Her heartbeat echoed in her ears as he withdrew from her and knelt beside her on the bed. She stopped breathing. What was he going to do?
Her question was answered when he clutched both of her ankles in one big hand and lifted the bottom half of her body off the bed, as if she weighed nothing. The position left only her head and shoulders resting on a pillow, hands still connected to the bed frame, the rest of her dangling from Connor’s grip.
His breath rasped in and out. “Make you sorry, Erin?”
“Yes.”
“No.” His calloused hand smoothed over her