Chapter 14
The air in the room is still thick with the scent of rain as Devlin moves over me.
His movements are chaotic, a frantic map of kisses and gentle nibbles that leave my skin humming.
He constantly seeks my eyes, his dark gaze burning into mine as if he’s trying to memorize my soul before he takes my body.
When he reaches for the hem of my T-shirt and pulls it over my head, a cold spike of embarrassment hits me.
I feel small, awkward—the biology nerd with the wheat-colored hair and the scratches from a dumpster-dive rescue. What if I get it all wrong? What if I don’t make any impression on him?
I try to bare some of his skin too, my palms sliding over the hard, knotted muscles of his shoulders, desperate to feel him.
Devlin doesn’t hesitate. He rips his own shirt off in one jagged motion, tossing it into the shadows. Before I can breathe, he again gathers both of my wrists in one large hand and pins them above my head against the pillow.
“I like it when you do that,” I whisper, my voice trembling.
“I pray to God that you like it,” Devlin breathes against my face, his voice a rough vibration. He kisses me again, deeper this time.
“Do you even believe in God?” I manage to ask, the question slipping right out of my nervous, fluttering heart.
“Sometimes.” He flips me onto my stomach, his hands heavy and commanding as he guides me onto my all-fours.
His voice drops to a dark whisper in my ear from behind. “When I look into your eyes, I believe a little that there is a power I will never be able to resist.”
He begins to undress me, his movements burning with an impatience that makes my blood boil. He unwraps me like a present he’s waited a lifetime to open.
The touch of his large hands is scorching hot. I’m shaking, my body trembling slightly with excitement.
Suddenly, the frantic energy shifts. Devlin lowers his head, pressing his forehead into the crook of my neck.
“If you don’t want to, if you’ve changed your mind,” he says, his voice choking with the effort of restraint, “just say so. I can handle it. We’ll do whatever feels right for you.”
“I can’t stop trembling,” I stammer, my stupid heart thudding against my ribs. “But it’s because I can’t wait for us to do this. I’ve been waiting for this.”
“Fuck,” he murmurs, the word vibrating through my skin more than my ears.
As he begins to stretch me, a strange, liquid warmth spreads through my limbs. I risk a glance back, arching my neck to see him. His powerful chest is heaving as if he’s pacing.
“Don’t destroy me with your eyes,” he says roughly. “I’ll pounce on you.”
I can’t help it. My body reacts before my mind can, my hips wiggling instinctively against his hand, an unspoken invitation. Go on, pounce on me.
Devlin lets out a sound that is half-growl, half-sob.
He bites the palm of his other free hand to keep from shouting, then grips my waist and flips me onto my back.
“I’m going to fuck you while looking into your face,” he growls, his eyes predatory. “I want you to take my cock like this every time. Now spread your legs for me.”
I let out an inarticulate sound, my ears burning as I spread my legs.
I’m so hard it ached, fluid dripping onto my own stomach. For some reason, it feels as though my hole is getting wet, even though I know that’s impossible. It’s as if I need to feel him inside me so badly that I physically sense my readiness.
I need to be filled by him specifically.
“Open up for me.” Devlin’s hands move commandingly over my chest, teasing my nipples until I gasp. He leans down and quickly licks the stray drops from the tip of my cock.
“Mmm, you’re leaking for me.”
I blush to the roots of my hair, my pulse thundering in my ears.
I open myself up completely to him, pulling my bent legs closer to my chest. Devlin’s gaze devours me, intense and predatory.
“Devlin,” I manage to say.
“What is it, sweetie?” he asks, his voice suddenly dropping into a terrifyingly gentle register. He runs his fingertips along my cheek as if I were a priceless work of art and he’s only just been allowed to touch me. “Say whatever you like… Ahh, you’re so shy, I’m afraid I’ll come just like that.”
“I love you,” I whisper, closing my eyes. I know it’s unnecessary, that it’s too soon, but I can’t help myself.
I feel his breath, hot and burning, against my skin. “Open your eyes.”
I look up. He looks incredibly tense.
“You’re everything I’ve ever wanted, everything I’ve ever needed.
I love you more.” He presses my hand against his chest, right over his heart.
It’s beating like a frantic drum. “I love you more. Much more. Don’t let go.
” He sniffs in sharply and begins to enter me incredibly slowly.
“Can you feel it? Don’t let go. Keep your hand on my chest.”
I dissolve into the sensation of his thick cockhead mercilessly stretching me.
My fingers dig into his chest, feeling his heartbeat quicken until it’s frantic. As he thrusts deeper, I arch involuntarily, but I try to keep my hand over his heart.
He moves so deep and forcefully inside me that I instinctively try to open up wider. When he notices, he grits his teeth.
“Val, baby… Are you enjoying this?”
“Don’t stop,” I whisper, almost in a panic. “I need… more and more.”
“You really shouldn’t have said that,” Devlin groans.
He begins to thrust faster and harder, rocking over me. He hits that specific spot inside, and sparks fly behind my eyelids.
He fucks me right into the mattress, his swollen cock bottoming out with every stroke.
I let out a series of pitiful whimpers, my hands clutching his shoulders. He tugs roughly at my nipples, promising to make me leak like this every single day.
With a series of whimpering moans, I come on his cock, my whole body shuddering as he keeps pounding into me.
The sound is wet, my hole squelching slightly as he claims me over and over.
“Devlin,” I whimper. “Please, please…”
“Anything you want, just let me come right inside you…”
“Yes,” I gasp, nodding. “Come inside me.”
He lets out a guttural roar, emptying himself deep within me in a long, hot sequence of pulses.
He stays there for a long time, watching me with a dark, satisfied intensity as he slowly withdraws. He watches the semen flow out of me for a long time before carefully tucking the duvet around my body.
… I wake up at dawn. My body aches with a strange, heavy tiredness.
I sit bolt upright in bed, my hair a complete disaster. For a second, a wave of distress hits me—the bed beside me is empty.
Then I see him.
Devlin is sitting in the chair by my desk, right in front of the bed. He’s staring at me with a silent, intent gaze. He doesn’t even flinch when our eyes meet.
“What the hell,” I laugh awkwardly, my voice raspy. “Devlin?”
“Mmm?”
“Why are you sitting there staring at the bed? It’s early, isn’t it?”
“I’m not looking at the bed,” he says evenly.
I feel playful. I crawl over to him on my knees, the duvet trailing behind me. We look into each other’s eyes for a while. He barely blinks. Then he deftly snatches me up and lifts me onto his lap. I laugh.
“You’re so strange sometimes.”
“Does it bother you?”
“Nah,” I whisper, averting my gaze. “I like it.”
He raises a hand to stroke my throat. “You’ll still manage to get about an hour’s sleep.”
“What about you?”
“I don’t want to sleep.” He gently kisses my ear.
“You seem pensive… even a bit sad,” I say, watching him anxiously.
There is a long pause. He looks away, though he continues to stroke my neck. “I don’t do casual, Val. I don’t want anything vague or in-between. I’ve made up my mind. When I see you… I want a family.”
“With… me?” I stammer.
“Only with you. I want to be your husband. I want a family with you. I know it’s absurd. It’s too soon, I haven’t even dated you properly, but… I’ve already made up my mind.”
“What if… I don’t think it’s absurd?”
Suddenly, Devlin smiles, a crooked, beautiful thing. “Last night and today have definitely been the best days of my life. And, yeah, you don’t think so, because you’re still very…”
“Yeah, yeah, I know,” I seethe quietly. “I’m young and naive and a romantic. But you’re the bigger romantic! You’re an even bigger romantic than I am!”
He laughs, a hoarse sound that vibrates against my jaw before he catches the lobe of my ear between his teeth in a playful nip. “I’m only a romantic for you, Val. For the rest of the world, I’m just a bastard. But when it comes to you? I’m a total idiot.”
He pulls back just enough to look me in the eye, his expression darkening with a flicker of grim humor. “Of course, I’ll have to survive a few rounds with your brother first. He’s going to want my head on a platter for this.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” I grumble. I reach up, threading my fingers through his damp black hair. “I’ll marry whoever I want, whenever I want. Sasha might be big, but he isn’t the boss of my life. Now, stop stalling. What did you two actually say to each other? Give it to me straight.”
Devlin exhales a long, heavy sigh, his fingers tracing the line of my throat with a possessive touch.
“He cornered me. Asked me point-blank if I had a crush on you. I told him the truth—that it was way past a ‘crush.’ That I was already drowning. He lost it. Demanded that I never go near you, never even look in your direction.”
He shifts, his weight a comforting, solid heat against me.
“I told him he was asking for the impossible—that no man with a pulse could stay away from someone like you. We nearly tore each other apart over it. In the end, he made me swear I wouldn’t touch you for at least a few years.
He wanted to give you space to breathe, to grow up without me crowding your world. ”
I roll my eyes, a surge of irritation mixing with the heat still simmering between us. “Well,” I mutter, pulling him down for a kiss. “You didn’t exactly follow all his rules, did you?”
“I lasted two years, Val,” he whispers against my lips, his hand sliding down to grip my hip. “That’s longer than any guy like me should be expected to survive without his heart.”
I kiss him, rubbing against him. He exhales heavily before pulling me onto the bed and kissing my body.
“No, come up here,” I say, pulling him back toward my face. “I want more.”
“Only tonight. You need to rest.”
I knew he’d say that. “Then you’d better answer my question, since you’re denying me sex! Why do you hate my hobbies so much?”
Devlin nips my bottom lip, his teeth sharp and possessive. “I’m not denying you sex, sweetie. I’m just saying there are a thousand ways I can make you scream that won’t leave you too exhausted to walk. But I’ll answer you. ”
His gaze turns heavy, a dark seriousness settling over his features.
“This hobby of yours, saving every unfortunate soul in sight… it’s a thankless, brutal stuff, Val.
I don’t want to watch your dreams crumble.
I don’t want you beating your head against a brick wall until you’re the one who’s broken.
I want you to live a life without a single worry.
” He leans in, burying his face in my neck, his breath hot and frantic.
“I’ll take them all. Every burden, every hit—I’ll take them away for you, ”he whispers, his mouth finding the sensitive skin of my throat and sucking a slow, dark mark into the surface.
I tilt my head back, allowing him to claim me again,