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She tilted her head back and cupped his jaw, mouth quivering. “I love you. I will always love you, but—”
He slid his thumb to still her lips. “Wait. Let me feel that.” He closed his eyes and let her words wash through him. Love. Always.
A helpless sob left her and she buried her face in his shoulder again.
“Love did seem like a liability.” He wove his fingers into her hair so he cupped the back of her skull. “It makes you so vulnerable, it’s excruciating. But these last days... As helpless as I feel, I am so freaking motivated to kill or die for you and our baby. I didn’t understand that love is also power, when you let yourself feel it. When I hear you say it to me, it fills me with strength. With something so right, I’m invincible. Can you please, please feel that, too, Sash? Because I love you. I always will.”
Sasha didn’t want to weep. She had done enough of that lately, but these were tears of release. Of acceptance. She didn’t ask him if he meant what he said. She had to believe that he did. Had to. It was the only way to embark on this new beginning of trust between them. More importantly, she had to believe she deserved his love. It was, after all, a rare and special gift from someone who was very cautious about offering his heart.
“Sash? My love? I know I took too long to say it—”
“Shh,” she told him. “Let me feel it.”
A choked noise left him, then his arms closed more firmly around her, keeping her safe. Impressing into her the power that he’d spoken of, the way it made her feel valued and centered and right.
When she lifted her head minutes later, she didn’t speak or let him say anything. She pressed her salt-stained lips to his and they both moaned with the agony of reunion. It was a chaste, soft kiss of forgiveness that slowly grew into something more questing and generous. It was a kiss that she sank into so deeply, she didn’t realize he had tipped her onto the sofa until the weight of his hips were crushing her own.
Still they kissed, letting their love pour into the other. Letting it heal them both. It was a kiss she would remember all the rest of her days. The sweetest most loving of kisses she had ever known.
But the power of their love had other facets. Hot, sharp glints that began to spark and glitter and need. As she grew hotter and the insistence of his erection pressed on her thigh, he picked up his head, a question in his ridiculously beautiful eyes.
Her answer was to begin unbuttoning his shirt.
A satisfied growl rumbled in his throat and his chest expanded when her hands crept inside to explore his skin. She kissed the underside of his chin and scraped her teeth against the stubble there.
“Do you want me to shave?” He rasped his palm against it.
“I want you exactly as you are.”
“You are deeply, deeply precious to me, Sasha. I’m sorry that I never made that clear.”
“Show me now,” she whispered.
He did. He undressed her slowly and set worshipful kisses against the skin he bared. He told her how much he adored the tender spots under her breast and inside her elbow and at the crease of her thigh. He said, “I missed you.”
“I missed you, too.” She wasn’t as patient as he was. She pushed at his clothing, arching and moaning at the luxury of his hot, hair-roughened body atop her own. “I want you inside me. I need to feel you.”
She wasn’t quite ready. It took a moment of shifting and caressing. Of kissing and him saying, “There’s no hurry. I’ll always be yours.”
Then he was deep inside her, pulsing like a heartbeat. He shook and she trembled.
“I pride myself on my control, my love, but I have been wanting you very badly for a very long time.”
“It’s okay.” She petted his back and shoulder. “You don’t have to wait for me.”
“The hell I don’t,” he grumbled. “I’d wait the rest of my life if I had to.”
That made her smile because in some ways he really would never change, and she loved that most about him.
Of course, he waited. He barely moved while he lovingly fondled and caressed her all over, tracing paths across her skin that left a wake of shooting stars. He kissed her until she was drowning in sensuality, intoxicated by the taste of his mouth and the thrust of his tongue.
Then she realized their bodies had begun the dance of lovemaking. This slow slide and build was them, moving in perfect accord, each drawing the other along the path of ever deepening arousal. He traced his fingers down her breast and she shivered. She opened her mouth against his bicep, delicately sucking, and his breath grew jagged.
In this moment, nothing existed but the two of them. They were utterly attuned to each other, making those small noises of acute pleasure, the ones that bordered on suffering as they fought to stay here, in this glorious place, where they were one. United. Unbreakable.
Then they did break and even then, they were indelibly together.
“I need to tell you something,” Rafael said as they were getting ready for their meeting with Molly’s team of specialists.
