Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 75793 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75793 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
Heat flushes my neck and cheeks. “I remember.”
“I love you. Have for a long time. Do you understand that? I never said the words, not really, but they’re true in here.” He sets his hand over his heart.
I smile, warm tears stinging my eyes. “Well, if we’re doing this, I’m pretty sure I’ve loved you since I was fifteen years old,” I say, feeling embarrassed and unable to hold his gaze.
He tips my face up to his and smiles and that smile touches his eyes, warms them. But there’s more. There’s something heavy, something dark inside them.
“What is it?” I ask. “Did something happen? You’re different.”
He pulls me in for a tight hug then draws back to look at me again before kissing me. Taking my hand, he walks me to the stove and switches off the oven, then lifts me in his arms. He carries me up the stairs to our bedroom, where he strips me naked. Eyes locked on me, he does the same until he’s standing naked before me, looking every inch a god, shoulders broad, arms and chest dusted with dark hair and defined with muscle. His stomach is cut, thighs powerful, and his cock, well, his cock has me dropping to my knees before him to worship.
Silas looks down at me as I run my hands up along his thighs before cupping his ass and licking the length of his cock. He caresses the back of my head when I open my mouth to take him and moans, closing his eyes as I taste him. He weaves his fingers into my hair and watches me as he moves me over himself, pushing in deeper and deeper, taking me right to the edge and pulling back when I can’t take more.
A few more strokes like this, and he pulls me off.
“I want—”
“Later.” He raises me to my feet and kisses me like he’s starved, like he’s never kissed me before. “Later, I’ll take your mouth but right now I need to be inside you, O. I need to feel you from inside.”
He lays me down on the bed and never stops kissing me as he nudges my legs apart and pushes into me, that initial intrusion making me draw in a shuddering breath. He sets his elbows on either side of my head to carry most of his weight, but our bodies are touching, as close as possible. He kisses me, watching me, tongue claiming my mouth, cock reaching the deepest parts of me. He holds me close, closer than we’ve ever been.
“I love you, do you understand that?” he asks.
I nod, his thrusts deep, purposeful, his cock growing impossibly hard inside me.
“No matter what, I love you,” he says again, more urgently.
“I love you, too, Silas. No matter what.” I mimic his words although their intensity is confusing and when he repeats himself, I see he’s far away. He’s right here, eyes locked on me, but he’s far, far away.
“Do you understand?” he asks again, and I realize he’s waiting for me to answer him. “Do you know?”
“I know, Silas. I know.”
“No matter what, O. No matter.” He closes his eyes then and wraps one hand around the top of my head, his weight heavy on me. I touch his face, so he opens his eyes. I want to see him. Watch him. He’s so beautiful. So perfect. And like this, we are one, just him and me. Just us.
The thought draws warm tears from my eyes. It was always meant to be just us.
When it’s over and his breath has leveled out, he rolls onto his side seeming surprised by my tears. He wipes them away.
“What is it?” he asks.
“I wasn’t right,” I start, the thought coming out of nowhere.
He cocks his head and waits for me to clarify.
“When I told you you’d become the villain of your own story. I wasn’t right. You broke, I think. No, I know. You broke over and over again for a long time. That part was right. But the way you healed, your scars,” I continue, touching his temple where the physical scar is, then his broken nose. “They’re what make you perfect. You’re no villain. You could never be that. Not to me. I love you, Silas Cruz. I have loved you for a very very long time. And I will love you for the rest of my life. No matter what.” That last part comes without conscious thought and again, mimics what he said just moments ago. It’s a strange thing to say, for both of us. There’s a feeling that seems to have attached itself to the words that I can’t quite name but it makes me uneasy.
I kiss him to banish those feelings, those thoughts.
“You’re very philosophical tonight,” Silas says, perhaps sensing my unease.