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He lowered his head, his forehead pressed to hers, and she could feel when he began to lose his control. When the game, the role of master, slipped. And he was only him. As desperate as she was. Crying out for the completion they both needed.

And when he did come, it was her name on his lips.

And she found her own peak again. Then she lay there, spread out on the black couch, her heart pounding hard.

He moved away from her, walking naked into the kitchen, and opening up the fridge. Taking out a jug of water. “You want a drink?”

“Really? Water?” she asked, her breathing erratic and unstable as her thoughts.

“Yes. You need to stay hydrated. Because I intend to keep you up all night.”

“Excellent,” she said.

He smiled then, and it was like she had been given the world’s greatest gift. Because smiles from Adonis were nothing if not rare. At least genuine smiles. He was often sardonic, and eternally dry, but he was rarely a man who expressed any sort of warmth.

What had just happened between them was…hot. Undeniably.

“I will take some water,” she said.

“Great.”

Mainly because she wanted to watch him walk naked around the kitchen. She liked that. She liked it quite a lot.

He brought her a glass of water, and she finally sat up, tucking her legs underneath her and pushing her hair out of her face.

“Your brother would kill me for this,” he said.

She couldn’t read his face when he said those words.

“He’ll get over it,” she said.

Adonis said nothing.

She didn’t know how to interpret it, and she found she didn’t want to push. She didn’t want to think about Alex. Didn’t want to think about anything to do with her real life. Not now.

She wanted to linger in the moment. And nothing more.

She wanted this night. And she wanted to believe that this would only be the beginning. But mainly, she wouldn’t allow herself to think past the next few hours. She wouldn’t allow herself to think of what might happen after the sun came up.

The only thing that was real was this. She finished her water, and he took the glass from her, running his thumb across her cheekbone in an almost affectionate manner. As if he was approving of her taking care of herself. And she found that it made something bloom deep in her stomach that left her feeling satiated in ways she hadn’t been maybe ever in her life.

He led her to the bedroom then, and showed her exactly what it meant that he could be a master, over and over again.

He claimed her in ways she had never imagined wanting. Ways that she knew she would always crave ever after.

And when the sunlight began to filter through the curtains, she knew a moment of panic.

It was always a fantasy. A little voice whispered to her right in that moment. As if it were a premonition. A warning and a blessing all at once.

“It was a good way to end things,” Adonis said.

It was a gut punch all the same. Even though she had sensed it.

“But is doesn’t have to end,” she said.

“Esme,” he responded, as though she was a silly child. “Of course it does.”

“So…that was your plan all along. Take my virginity, send me on my way.”