Chapter 17
Anan
I followed Rafael upstairs on trembling legs, my heart pounding a rapid staccato rhythm against my ribs as anticipation coiled tight in my stomach. I knew he had figured out what was really going on with me—how could he not when I had been so violently ill right in front of him like that? But I was still surprised by the patience he showed in waiting until we were alone to address it.
He was always like that. He would be patient with me as long as he felt it was necessary. He didn't want to do something he would later regret.
Instead of demanding immediate answers the moment we crossed the threshold of our bedroom, Rafael guided me gently towards the bed with a tenderness that made my breath catch. He sat me down on the edge of the mattress and knelt before me, his hands coming up to frame my face almost reverently.
I blinked a few times, locking eyes with him but quickly finding it difficult to maintain the battle of stares. His gaze was much stronger than mine, and I knew he was right while I was wrong.
"My beautiful husband," he murmured, his thumbs stroking over my cheekbones in a hypnotic caress as he gazed at me with such raw devotion that I felt tears sting the back of my eyes. "You look absolutely exhausted."
I blinked rapidly, trying to stave off the urge to weep at the sincerity in his voice. It was rare for him to show this level of concern and gentleness, especially when he had been so blatantly worried about me earlier.
The contrast made me feel cherished beyond measure. It further made me realize how special I was to him, that he couldn't live without me.
"I'm okay," I assured him even as I leaned into his touch like a sunflower craving sunlight. "Just a bit overwhelmed, I think." It was an understatement, but one that felt safe enough given the intimacy of our position. Later, I would have to confess the truth about my suspicions regarding my pregnancy—there was no way around that now—but for the moment, I simply wanted to bask in the warmth of his adoration.
Rafael hummed as if weighing my words, his eyes never leaving mine even as he continued to cup my face like a delicate treasure. "Mmh," he rumbled low in his throat. "I can imagine how you must be feeling, given the way you ran from the table like that. And now, here you are, looking ready to collapse any second."
His hands slid down to grip my shoulders, squeezing almost imperceptibly as if gauging my stability.
I couldn't help but shudder at the blatant reminder of how vulnerable I had been in front of everyone downstairs—not just physically but emotionally too, with all those ugly memories about my past resurfacing because of Mara's manipulations. It was mortifying to think about.
But Rafael seemed more concerned than disgusted by my weakness, his gaze turning almost fierce as he drew me closer by the lapels of my shirt until our noses were practically touching.
"Never forget that I would do anything in my power to protect you from pain or discomfort," he growled softly, the raw intensity in his eyes making my heart clench. "You are mine to cherish and nurture always."
I swallowed hard around the lump forming rapidly in my throat, hardly daring to believe that I could ever be worthy of such devotion from a man like him. But as he continued to cradle me so carefully, almost reverently, it became harder to doubt the sincerity in his words.
I knew he was telling me exactly what he felt in that moment.
"I love you," I breathed, the truth of those feelings welling up inside me with such force that I could no longer contain them even if I had wanted to. "More than anything."
And then Rafael was kissing me like a man starved for sustenance, devouring my mouth with a hunger that made me dizzy and weak in the knees as I clung to him.
Our lips moved together in a fevered dance of give and take, tongues twining in slick glides as he explored every inch of my oral cavity with devastating thoroughness. Our saliva mixed, making our kiss feel messy—but in a good way.
I whimpered into him, lost to the raw passion and longing he was igniting inside me with such ruthless precision.
This man would be the ruin of me if I didn't die first from sheer ecstasy.
But even as the kiss deepened into something darker, more carnal in nature, Rafael continued to touch me with an almost worshipful reverence.
His hands skimmed down my sides and over the curves of my ass as if memorizing every contour by rote, kneading and squeezing the firm globes.
"You mean everything to me," he groaned against my lips before trailing them down the line of my jaw to nip sharply at the juncture where it met my throat. "And you will never let me forget it."
I gasped as his teeth sank into my delicate flesh hard enough to mark but not quite break the skin, arching into him even as I grabbed handfuls of his hair and held on for dear life.
"Please," I begged, hardly recognizing the desperate edge in my own voice as he licked over the abraded skin with soothing strokes that made me shudder. "I need you inside me. I can't take much more of this teasing."
I couldn't help but be surprised by my own statement. A few weeks ago, I would never have said something like that. Back then, he was the reason my life felt miserable. But everything changed when he began to show me the depth of his feelings for me.
Rafael chuckled even as his hips surged forward to grind his hardening length against mine with deliberate purpose. The friction sent sparks of pleasure-pain shooting through my core, making me keen and writhe against him like a wild thing.
"Oh? And what makes you think I'm teasing you, little omega?" He purred as his fingers found the waistband of my trousers and flicked them open with quick efficiency. "Perhaps this is exactly where I meant to take us from the moment we stepped foot inside this room."
The rasp of denim against flesh as he pushed my pants down to mid-thigh filled the air with the smell of my arousal, making me clench hard around nothing in a visceral need for completion.
"Because I know something you don't," Rafael continued with infuriating smugness as his fingers dipped into the crease of my ass to ghost over my twitching entrance. "I can scent your secret on you now that you've been sick—this sweet, heady musk telling me that you're ready to become a father."
He punctuated his words with a firm press against my hole that made my eyes roll back and my mouth fall open in a silent scream even as my cock throbbed between our bodies.
"You're..." I choked out, unable to form a coherent thought through the haze of lust that fogged up my brain. "How did you know? I haven't told anyone yet!"
Rafael's eyes flashed with feral triumph at my revelation even as he pressed two long fingers knuckle-deep into my quivering channel in one swift, smooth thrust.
"I had my suspicions from the moment you ran to the bathroom and started retching like your life depended on it," he growled, scissoring his digits deep inside me in a deliberate stretch that stole the breath right out of my lungs. "But I didn't think it would be this soon. You are barely showing any signs yet. Other than the change in your scent, there's very little."
He was right, of course. My body had only begun to change subtly over the past few weeks—my stomach flatter than usual and my nipples more sensitive—but nothing that could be considered definitive proof of pregnancy... until now.
"Please," I whimpered as I rocked down onto his fingers, chasing more of that intense stretch he was so effortlessly inflicting on every upstroke. "I need you to fuck me now! I can't take the teasing anymore!"
Rafael's eyes flared with lust at my crude entreaty, a guttural groan tearing itself free from his chest as he surged upright and captured my mouth in another brutal kiss.
At the same time, his cock sprang free of its confines to slap heavily against my stomach, thick and throbbing with urgent demand as it sought out my weeping hole like a missile locked on target.
And then he was sinking into me, his massive girth parting my flesh with ruthless precision until he was buried balls-deep in one powerful thrust that had us both crying out at the suddenness of the penetration.
I could feel every ridge and vein dragging against my sensitive inner walls as he began to move, stoking that spark of ecstasy higher and higher with each deep plunge of his hips.
"You are MINE," he snarled into my mouth as he gripped my thighs hard enough to bruise and hauled them wider apart. "And I will never let you forget it for the rest of your days, not even if I have to ruin your perfect little ass hole every hour on the hour until you are too sore to walk!"
He punctuated his words with a vicious grind of his pelvis that made me see stars and swear in multiple languages even as my fingers scrabbled against the sweat-slicked skin of his back, leaving angry red welts in their wake. Oh God, how I loved everything he was doing to me, and he was so relentless.
"I love you," I screamed at him even as he drove into me like a man possessed. "God help me, but I love you so much it's killing me!"
And then Rafael was kissing me again, his teeth and tongue clashing against mine in a battle for dominance that I could never hope to win... not when I had no desire to fight him on this, anyway.
"God, Anan," Rafael groaned as he slammed home inside of me. "The way you squeeze around me—it's like your body was made for mine, to take everything I give you."
His statement might not be too far from the truth, I thought. I was pretty sure we had always been destined to be together.
I could only whimper in response, my back arching off the bed as he hit some spot deep inside that made my vision go white around the edges. He wasn't wrong—the connection between us felt so absolute, so right that it almost hurt to breathe sometimes.
"Please," I gasped out, writhing beneath him as he set a punishing rhythm, each thrust shoving me up the mattress with the force of his movements. "I need more—need you to make me forget everything but this feeling, this perfection."
There were a lot of things I wanted to forget in that moment, especially the fact that I lied to him and he had to find out the truth himself before I could fix my mistake.
Rafael let out a feral growl in response to my plea, one large hand fisting in my hair as he jerked my head back at an almost painful angle, exposing the delicate skin of my throat.
"My little slut," he rasped even as he latched onto the juncture between neck and shoulder, biting down hard enough to leave a mark. Him calling me 'slut' didn't feel inappropriate. I actually liked it every time he did it. "Always so desperate for me, always begging for more like it's your sole purpose in life."
And that might not be too far from the truth, and so I keened loudly at the sting of his teeth sinking into my flesh, the sharp pain blending so perfectly with the exquisite pleasure coiling in my gut that I could scarcely tell one from the other anymore.
Breathing grew more difficult by the second.
"Yes!" I cried out, my fingers scrabbling against Rafael's sweat-slicked back as he continued to pound into me with single-minded intent. "I was made for this, made to be your slut, your whore!"
The words tasted like a revelation even as they spilled from my lips, as if I had finally come to some fundamental understanding about the nature of our bond. And perhaps it was true—perhaps everything that had led us to this moment had been building towards this revelation all along.