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“I told you I’d take care of you, Jolie.”

We’re groaning into each other’s mouths, repeatedly murmuring our names. Entangled. Finally, together.

I peak. And Fabien shudders.

“My angel,” he moans.

“Finish for me,” I moan back. “I want you to finish inside me. I want you to really show me how much you’ve missed me.”

And he does.

And warmth takes me as he releases.

I have never felt so good. So whole.

And now nothing will ever be the same.

* * *

It’s happened. He’s taken my virginity, and I offered it to him willingly. It’s got nothing to do with the Order. It was my choice.

Afterward feels like a recovery. My head rests on his chest, rising and falling with his breathing.

“Jolie?”

Fabien’s voice is soft and loose. As if he’s run a marathon.

I know exactly how he feels.

“Yes?”

“You’re okay?”

“I’m more than okay.”

I hear him swallow.

“Was that a dream, or reality?” the man asks.

I take a breath. Fabien’s natural, raw, sweaty scent fills my lungs. I inhale him like a drug. I know I’ll remember this moment forever.

“You tell me,” I say, closing my eyes and drifting off to sleep.

37

JOLIE

I wake to Fabien’s touch.

He’s trailing a finger up my bare leg, skillfully causing my body to tingle with a delightful pleasure. The rain outside the bedroom window that looks out over Central Park has finally stopped, but this room is still lingering with a storm of our own creation.

It’s like I’ve awoken to a dream.

“I’m sorry for what I said to you in the steakhouse,” Fabien says gently as he makes little circles on my thigh. “It was wrong, and it was a lie. I turned my hurt from that email into cruelty toward you. In that moment, I wanted to hurt you, so I said something completely untrue.”

I hate you.

“What you did to me just then was a good enough apology,” I murmur dreamily as I lie back and think of nothing else but his trailing finger.