22. Christian
Christian
Her mouth crashes into mine like an apology and a promise wrapped in need, and I take it all.
The stars burn softly overhead as I keep her pinned against the wall, the heat of her body making steam rise between us in the cold air.
My hands slide up to frame her face, rough palms against soft skin, and my breath comes out in white puffs as I search those green eyes for her truth.
She stayed for me.
She’s here for me.
She’s fucking mine.
Her body arches into me, and I trail my mouth down the length of her throat, letting my tongue linger at her pulse as I taste her and breathe her in.
She shivers beneath me. Out here, where the cold could freeze hell over, that shiver doesn’t belong to winter.
It belongs to me. It’s proof that when I touch her, her body remembers exactly where it fits and who it’s for.
“You have no idea what you do to me,” I rasp against her throat, letting my teeth graze her skin and biting just hard enough to pull a whimper from her lips. “You were barely gone for ten minutes, and it felt like you took every piece of me with you.”
“I was always coming back… I just had to tell Vi —god…” Her words stutter into a moan when I bite down on her neck again.
“I knew I wasn’t leaving you the second you told me to go.
” The confession breaks free between gasps as I shift my hips, pinning her harder against the wall so she can feel just how much I need her.
“I wanted to take those words back the second they left my mouth.” I slide my hand up to her face, my thumb tracing her jaw.
“You belong with me, Piper, and you’re gonna let me show you why there will never be anyone but you.
” I press my forehead to hers, our ragged breaths mixing in the space between us. “You with me, darlin’?”
She looks up at me with those fuck-me eyes, lips swollen and parted. “Always.”
I grab her throat and slam my mouth against hers, pressing her harder into the wall like I’m trying to fuse us together, because fuck—I can’t get close enough. She’s soft beneath me, and I let myself unravel, becoming this breathless, desperate mess I only ever am with her.
“Inside,” I whisper against her lips as her hand slides under my shirt, nails raking down my stomach. “Before I tear those jeans clean off your body and take you right here against this wall.
I barely get the door shut behind us before she’s on me again—her mouth crashing into mine while her fingers claw at my jacket.
I lift her clean off the ground, and those perfect legs wrap around my waist like they were made to be there.
The nearest wall takes the impact when I press her against it, hard enough that a picture frame crashes to the floor, but fuck if I care.
The whole house could go up in flames around us, and I’d still be here, because this is where we burn, and I’d go up in flames a thousand times if it meant going down with her in my arms.
Her breathy little moans against my mouth turn me feral. She yanks my hat off, tossing it somewhere behind us just so she can sink her fingers into my hair. My hands slide down to cup her ass, gripping tight through the denim I’m dying to tear off her body.
I pull her in, grinding her against the bulge in my jeans—right where she needs me, right where I need her.
“Tell me you’re mine. I need to hear you say it.”
“I’m yours. I’ve always been yours. ”
I shove her coat off and drag mine halfway down my arms before I walk us to the stairs, half stumbling around as my mouth tries its hardest to remain attached to hers.
I don’t know how we ended up sprawled on the stairs.
One minute, I’m carrying her to bed, and the next she’s half undressed, jeans and pink lace caught around her ankles while my jacket hangs off one shoulder like it’s clinging on for dear life.
I drop to my knees on the wooden step, and those beautiful legs fall open for me, spreading as wide as the clothes bunched around her ankles will let them.
She’s breathing hard, that dark hair a wild mess framing her flushed face, her shirt pushed up to reveal inches of pale skin that I want to worship with my mouth.
“You’re so damn beautiful.” I exhale, unable to look away from those eyes that have turned to emerald fire in the dim light.
My cock throbs painfully behind my zipper at the sight of her laid out before me, her hands already roaming her own body like she’s imagining what I’m about to do to her.
I tug off her boots one at a time, then peel her jeans and panties away.
My hands glide up her calves, trailing over the sensitive skin behind her knees before I grab her hips and drag her down a step, lining that perfect pussy up with my mouth.
She sucks in a breath, arching so hard she nearly slips, but I steady her with the flick of my tongue across her clit.
I start slow, teasing her with lazy licks until I feel her legs tremble around my shoulders.
“Christian—oh god.”
“This is mine,” I growl, pulling back just enough to spit between her legs, watching it drip before I spread her wider with my thumbs. “My cunt to eat, to fuck, and to make a goddamn mess of anytime I feel like reminding you exactly who the hell you belong to.”
She’s squirming on my tongue, and I breathe her in like I’m starving—like I can’t get enough of her.
“Yes, god yes, just don’t stop—” One hand slams against the wall for balance while the other fists in my hair, tugging as she begs through her moans. Her thighs tremble and shake as I suck and flick her clit, and her whole body suddenly tightens.
I don’t stop feasting on her. Not when she’s whimpering my name, not even when she tries to pull away because it’s too much.
I hold her there, pinned against my mouth, and tongue-fuck her through every last aftershock until she’s dripping down my chin.
Until she’s so thoroughly wrecked, there’s no question about what it means to be mine.
When I finally pull back, I wipe my mouth with the back of my hand, staring down at the beautiful mess I’ve made of her. The smirk that crosses my face is pure predator—sated for now, but still hungry, a man who knows he’s nowhere near finished.
“I thought I was meant to be fixing this.”
“Giving yourself to me like this… letting me touch you, taste you— this is how we fix it. This is how I show you you’re safe with me. And that this”—I press my palm to her chest, over her heart—“is real.”
I drag her shirt up and over her head, tossing it down the stairs without a second glance.
Her bra follows, landing somewhere behind me.
She’s bare and breathless beneath me, the most beautiful thing I’ve ever laid eyes on, and I’m going to spend every day for the rest of my life showing her just how precious she is.
Rocking back onto my knees, I shrug out of my jacket, pull my shirt over my head, and work my belt open.
“I need you. I need to be inside you,” I say, grabbing her hips and pulling her down the stairs until she’s flush against me.
One hand grips the railing behind her head, the other guides my cock, and I slide inside her in one deep thrust.
“Feel that?” I whisper, my jaw tight as I bury myself to the hilt. “This is what you would’ve been walking away from. What we would’ve lost.”
I’ll never get over how good this feels with her.
How perfectly she takes me.
“Faster,” she begs. “Please fuck me faster.”
I wrap a hand around her throat, lowering my lips to hers and kissing her like she’s everything I’ve ever wanted and more than I ever thought I could have.
She claws at my shoulders, trying to pull me closer, and I give her everything as I pin her down and fuck her into the wooden stairs.
Desperate to make her understand this isn’t just me taking her, it’s me giving her every part of myself in return.
“Anytime you forget this,” I murmur, my lips brushing her ear, “ anytime you start to doubt what we are, I’ll fuck this perfect little pussy until it remembers. Until it aches for nothing but me.”
“I don’t… I won’t. You’re everything to me.” Her eyes flutter as I thrust harder, hitting that spot inside her while my hand rests against her neck—not controlling, just connecting.
“Yeah?” I pant, forehead pressed to hers. “Then promise me you’ll never walk out on me again… because I love you, Piper. I fucking love you.”
And just like that, she breaks.
Her whole body tightens around me, her nails marking up my chest as her orgasm rips through her. Her scream turns to a sob, and I catch it with my mouth while fucking my love into her like it’s the only way I know how.
The roar that tears out of me is feral, more animal than man, as I slam into her one final time, cock buried to the base, breeding her, and filling her with everything I am.
My hand leaves her throat and finds her waist, then slides around to her back, drawing her close until there’s no space left between us.
“Say something, darlin’… Please.”
I don’t know why the words slipped out when they did. Maybe it’s because we’re never more vulnerable than in moments like this, when the only language left between us is touch and wanting.
“Say it again,” she breathes, so softly I almost miss it. “Please… tell me again.”
I bring my hand to her face, my thumb finding the curve of her cheekbone, tilting her chin until her eyes meet mine because if she’s going to hear this, she’s going to see that I mean every word.
“I’m in love with you, Piper. I always have been.”
A single tear slips from the corner of her eye, tracing a path down her cheek, and I lean in and kiss it away.
“I only tried to leave because I thought I was protecting you.” She holds back the tears that threaten to fall, her bottom lip trembling as she fights through the words. “I didn’t want to be the thing that broke you. I couldn’t make you choose because I knew it would tear you apart.”
“So you were choosing for me?” She nods, and I shift us carefully on the step, settling her in my lap so she’s facing me, her legs wrapped around my waist. “You would never not be my choice. Not in this lifetime, not in any that come after.”
Her fingers slide into the damp hair at the back of my neck, and her forehead tips forward to rest against mine, our breaths mingling in the small space between us.
“I thought I was doing the right thing, but leaving you wouldn’t have fixed anything. It would’ve hurt you, and I can’t do that. I could never hurt you like that. You have to believe me, Christian.”
God, I’m gonna marry the hell out of this woman one day.
“I love you so much it scares me sometimes.” She leans in closer, brushing her nose against mine, her eyes wide and shimmering with everything she’s never said until now. “I’ll fight the world for you, Christian. I’ll fight you if I have to, but I’m not going anywhere.”