Chapter 26
ALEXEI
I kiss her again, this time with a little more purpose than before, and she meets me with the same passion. It’s like she can feel it, the way things have shifted between us, and I need to remind myself that this is the right choice.
It’s hard for me to confess, even to myself, that I might have gone overboard protecting my family. After what happened with Vinski, I’ve told myself that every choice I’ve made has been justified.
But I can’t stand the thought of my son looking at me a few years down the line, and viewing me through that lens of control and obsession.
Even now, the notion of easing up my security scares me, but what choice do I have?
I heard the way she talked about her parents.
I know I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if, one day, that’s how my son talked about me, too.
When I pull back, I brush my nose against hers, feeling a rush of warmth in my chest as I gaze down at her. She smiles at me, stroking her fingertips across my face.
“Take me to bed?” she asks me sweetly. She seems to know that my weak point is when she asks me for something, and, as I slip my hand into hers, I squeeze it tight.
“Anything you want.”
And I mean it. There’s almost nothing in the world she could ask for from me that I wouldn’t be willing to gift her, when she looked at me like that, the sweet hopefulness in her gaze and that wanting tone to her voice.
I lead her through to the bedroom, and I pull her into another kiss as soon as the door falls shut behind us, my hands in her hair this time, drawing her closer and closer to me.
I love the way she feels against me, the way her body yields to me with such ease, as though this is what she has been waiting for all along.
I caress my thumb along the nape of her neck, guiding it down, pressing my hand flat to the small of her back to draw her against me just to feel the slight gasp emerge from her lips as she feels my hardness against her.
“I want you, Cara,” I tell her, my voice low and throaty.
And she knows, as clearly as I do, that I’m talking about more than just the physical, though that is all I can think of right now.
I want her in ways I’ve never wanted anyone before, so deeply and so completely it’s like everything else just drops away.
She plants a soft peck against my lips and drags her nose against mine.
“Show me,” she tells me. And I need no more encouragement, as I draw her into my arms and lift her on to the bed, moving down on top of her so I can rest my full weight there for a second.
I take her arms and push them above her head, our fingers interlinking as I pin her there. I trace my tongue over her soft cheek, the velvet-smooth of her skin like heaven against mine, before I plunge it into her mouth once more.
She is wearing nothing more than a light dress, and I make short work of it, keeping her wrists pinned with one hand while I undress her with the other.
As the sides of the dress fall open, I lean back to look at her, admiring the curves of her body—the details on her skin that reminds me of everything she has been through, the stretch marks on her belly, the softness in her arms and her thighs.
“Fuck, Cara,” I whisper to her, running my hand from her chest down to her stomach. “You’re so perfect...”
Her lips part, but before she can say a word, I lean down and kiss her again, unbuckling my pants as I do so and tossing my bet to the floor.
She must be able to tell how much I want her, as my cock springs free, a drop of pre-cum already glistening on my tip, judging by the way she moans in delight upon seeing me.
And I think of teasing her with it, as I’ve done so many times before, pushing her to that point where she is begging for nothing more than the feel of my length inside of her, but I know I don’t have that kind of restraint in me, not here, not now.
No, I need her warmth around me, to be connected to her in the deepest way imaginable.
The mother of my child—the mother-to-be of my third baby, too.
A surge of intimacy rushes through me, and I lower myself on top of her, using my hand to guide myself to her slit as she parts her legs to let me in.
I thrust up and into her in a single motion, burying my length inside of her and listening to the gasp that she lets out in response.
I love the way she reacts to me, like she has been waiting for me for longer than she can put into words.
I know how she feels, after the years we spent apart.
I’ve never stopped thinking about her, about her body, her touch, her voice, all the things that burned themselves on to my brain the very first night we were together.
I groan appreciatively as I still myself there for a moment, letting her softness close around me, the warmth rush up and through her system.
And then, I begin to move, driving myself into her in long, deep strokes that satisfy the primal urge within me to claim her.
I love the way she feels right now, but more than that, I love the way she looks at me.
As though she is seeing me, truly seeing me, for the first time, and she actually likes what she has laid eyes on.
“Fuck, yes,” I grunt, as I kiss along her neck, her hands still pinned above her. She lifts her hips in an attempt to give me back what I’m giving her, and I take that as all the cue I need to move harder, faster, deeper.
Our bodies come together like they have been made for each other, and, when she hooks her ankles around my legs, I feel as though we might just fade into each other entirely. I don’t want their to be any distance between us, I’ve waited too long to find her again for that.
Our union has brought a child once, and now, we’re going to have another.
I’ve never been one much to buy into shit like the universe and fate, but when she looks at me like that, when I think of everything that has brought us to this moment, it’s hard not to imagine that something or someone wanted us to find each other once more.
I can feel her breath coming faster, rising and falling against my chest, her lower belly starting to spasm and tighten as she draws closer to the edge. I let my full weight down on top of her, shifting so that I can grind into her with each and every thrust.
Suddenly, I’m overcome which the urge to make her come.
I know I’ll not be able to settle for less than feeling that moment where she gives in around me, the contraction of her pussy around my cock, the sign that she needs me as much as I need her.
I slow my pace, just grinding against her, and she lets out the most delicious little whimper as she edges closer and closer to her release.
“Come on, Cara,” I whisper to her. “Let me feel it. Let me feel you come...”
And it seems like my words are all it takes to push her over the edge.
As though on my command, she gives in, her thighs trembling around me as her body quakes with orgasm.
Her entire system seizes for a moment, her back rising as her body comes flush with mine.
I can feel her warmth, her wetness, the pulsations around my cock that flow helplessly into the next as she finishes, and I grin against her neck, kissing her.
I release her hands as I reach for her hips, and she rakes her nails along my back. Even through my shirt, I can feel the pressure of her nails against my skin, and I realize I want her to mark me—to remind me that, as much as she belongs to me, I belong to her in the exact same way.
I resume my pace as her body comes down from the high it just rode out, slamming myself deep inside her over and over again as I coax her pleasure out just a little longer.
I’m greedy for it, greedy to feel her give herself over to me, and the knowledge that she can’t hold back is all it takes for me to find my own release.
I bury myself inside of her, craving that feeling of being as close to her as I can possibly be.
And, as my cock twitches, I let out a long groan.
It feels like a release of more than just the pent-up lust that grows whenever I’m around her, but something deeper, something more demanding, something that needs her in ways I can’t quite put into words yet.
I kiss her again, and the frantic hunger with which she kisses me back is all it takes to assure me that she feels exactly the same way.
I don’t make any move to pull back for a long moment, not wanting this to be over yet.
I know there is still so much complication that exists outside of this moment, but it is hard to care when she feels as good as she does, when her body gives itself over to me as though there is nothing she needs more in the world.
She traces her fingers through my hair and gently tugs my head back so she can look into my eyes. And the way she looks at me, fuck, I don’t think anyone has looked at me like that before in my life.
She’s not seeing the man I was, the man I’ve been for so long, the one caught up in the darkness of this world that has consumed me for as long as I can remember. She’s sees someone worth loving.
She kisses me again, without saying a word, and I kiss her back, making no move to draw away from her because I see no damn reason to. I want us to stay entangled, stay together, stay as close as we can, because the thought of denying myself this woman after so long feels impossible.
I resolve to stay the night. Not just this one, but many of the nights to come. And I know that, for the first time in a long time, the two of us are actually seeing eye-to-eye.
And that whatever we have is only going to grow deeper now that we understand each other better than we ever have before.