Chapter 30 #2
I shake my head as I push out a frustrated breath. “Right. I shouldn’t be mad about this. It isn’t fair to you, and…”
Bash leans in and presses a kiss on the corner of my mouth. “Sweetheart, you’re going to have to help me here. I don’t know why you’re upset.”
My fingers trace over his cheekbones as I choose my words carefully. “Because you don’t need much prep… which means you’ve been… prepped enough recently to…”
Understanding dawns on his face, but the irritation I expect from my insinuation doesn’t come.
“You want to know why?” he asks.
I bite my lip and glance away. “Not particularly… hey!” I gasp as he leans in to nip my chin.
“Now that you’re paying attention, I need you to listen. The only reason I said I didn’t need it is because I was pulling a page from your book.”
I peek over. “My book?”
“Yeah,” he chuckles. “I was too eager for you to get inside me to wait any longer.”
I try to form a laugh that turns into a scoff instead.
He leans in and presses a soft kiss to my lips, like he’s afraid he’ll scare me off if he’s too bold. “Xeni, there hasn’t been anyone since you.”
My heart explodes in my chest and leaves me frozen. It’s too much to expect, too much to even wish for, but I’ve always been selfish. My lungs burn as I hold my breath, afraid to let the moment shatter.
Bash flashes me a shy, crooked smile and runs a hand over his hair in that familiar nervous habit. “I won’t lie to you. I tried… for a long time. But they were too familiar or not familiar enough, and I could never bring myself to do it. It always felt—”
“Wrong,” I finish for him.
The word carries the memory of every night I spent alone, empty from each hollow touch that wasn’t his. Each failed attempt to pretend I could ever move on.
A question lingers in his eyes, and it’s vulnerable in a way that makes my chest tighten.
He won’t ask.
Won’t push for the confirmation he’s desperate for, so I offer it to him instead.
“Me neither, Bash. No one could replace you.”
His crooked smile deepens into something real, relief and need mingling as he pulls me closer. His lips find mine again, and his knees fall to bracket my thighs.
More smooth slides of our hips build the heat between us in no time. Slick heat and perfect friction have us both desperate for more, with my hands clinging to his back while his grip the sheets.
Tension builds in my center and rages outwards, and I tear my lips from his in a plead. “You’re going to make me come too fast.”
He swivels his hips, then follows it with a chuckle that sounds awfully proud. “You always were so sensitive.”
My muscles scream in protest as I flip us until I’m on top, but watching his cockiness shift to surprise makes it worth the pain. I hook his knees and press forward, spreading him wide.
His eyes don’t leave mine as we line up, and he nods as I notch the tip of my cock against his hole. The stretch is eased by my slick, and his spine arches as I sink into him.
I pause as his chest lifts. “Good?”
His smile takes my breath away as he reaches up to tuck my hair behind my ear. “I’m great, princess.”
A shuddering, relieved inhale fills my lungs at the comfort of being with him in this way. I spent years thinking I’d never get to come home, but he’s here now.
He’s home, and he’s mine.
We both groan as I pull back and then sink further, giving him more until our skin sits flush.
The next thrust is harder, and his eyes roll into his head as sparks crackle across my limbs.
Pleasure builds in slow, deliberate waves, and we find a rhythm that feels like rediscovery.
I fight my urge to rush as I fall into the dream of having him here with me, safe and real beneath my touch.
Bash’s fingernails trace down my spine, hard enough to leave a trail of fire but gentle enough not to hurt.
He’s mindful of the lingering soreness in my body—attentive in the way he’s always had.
His eyes don’t move from mine, watching intently for any signs of pain even as he searches for those subtle signals that tell him I’m close.
My hair falls around us like a veil from the rest of the world, shielding this moment for us. He’s beautiful underneath me. A sheen of sweat glistens on his forehead, and his brows are drawn in concentration while his lips remain parted in quiet ecstasy.
Soft moans escape his throat with every drive of my hips, and despite how much I want to savor this, to stretch it into eternity, it takes no time at all before I’m fighting to hold back.
“Bash,” I whine, and my fingers knot in the sheets as my rhythm falters.
“Take what you need, Xen,” he encourages, his voice is rough. Even pinned underneath me, he swings his body up to meet mine with that familiar fire. “Gods, I’ve missed this. Go ahead, princess. I know you need to.”
The words unravel the last thread of my restraint, and I drive into him harder, the rhythm turning urgent as pleasure coils tight in my core. My lips crash into his, swallowing his moans and feeding him my own like we could sustain each other indefinitely.
He arches beneath me and silently urges me on, nails digging into my back just enough to sting in the best way. The world narrows to this, and pressure builds until I can’t hold back any longer.
I tear my mouth from his as I call out his name.
Blinding release crashes through my body like a tidal wave that drags me under and refuses to let go.
Cum and slick spill from him as I pull out, warm and messy, and coating us both.
When I sink back inside, everything is slippery.
Hot, wet friction makes him clench around me with a desperate whimper, drawing out the last pulses of my orgasm.
I pin him there beneath me, hips flush against his and gasping in time with the throb of my cock buried deep inside him. Each thump echoes through my veins until it fades to a slow, satisfied ache.
His chest heaves against mine, breaths ragged and fingers digging into my back like we could ever get any closer than this.
Bash rolls us, flipping me onto my back in a fluid motion. He grips my cock, stroking me as my thighs quiver and my teeth clench against the overwhelming rush of sensation.
He presses himself against my wet hole. The blunt head of his cock teases my entrance, sliding through the mess of slick already dripping from me.
The kiss of metal from his piercing drags along my sensitive rim, the curved barbell catching just enough to send a jolt of electric pleasure sparking up my spine. My breath hitches at the sensation, that foreign bite of steel against a body I’ve long memorized.
His eyes lock on mine, pupils blown wide. “Are you ready for me?”
Unable to form words, I nod frantically, and he drives forward with deliberate slowness. The obscene amount of slick makes his entrance easy, but that damn piercing makes my toes curl.
He pauses halfway, glancing up at me with a wicked smirk. “Knew you liked it.”
“Shut up and fuck me,” I order, refusing to give him the satisfaction of hearing how wrecked I already am.
He huffs a breathy chuckle, then drives forward to fill me completely. A fresh wave of fire shoots through my limbs, my body stretched and stimulated in places that make my vision blur at the edges.
I gasp, back arching off the bed as my fingers claw at the sheets, desperate for purchase. Bash spreads my knees further and pushes even deeper, the piercing pressing right against that spot that makes stars burst behind my eyelids. My palm slaps against my mouth to keep me from crying out.
He stays there, bottomed out inside me as his fingers dance along my length, teasing me with feather-light strokes. When they dip into my slit to collect more slick, my teeth sink into the heel of my palm, muffling the whine that tries to escape.
He chuckles again, low and filthy, wrapping his slippery fingers around my cock and giving one slow, deliberate stroke.
“Look at you,” he murmurs. “Already shaking and I’ve barely started.”
I glare at his smirk, though it’s half-hearted at best. “Are you going to fuck me or not?”
His brow lifts, metal piercing flashing in the morning light like a taunt. “Patience, princess,” he says, pulling back almost all the way before driving in with a wet slap of skin.
My hand falls back against my mouth, muffling the cry as he sets a rhythm.
Slow at first, then faster.
Harder.
“How’s that?” he teases, doing it again with a deliberate grind that has my hips bucking up to meet him.
A low moan leaves me as I shake my head and roll my body. “More,” I demand. “Harder, Bash. Fuck me like you mean it.”
He growls low in his throat, hands gripping my hips hard enough to bruise as he gives me exactly what I asked for.
Relentless, punishing thrusts make the bed creak and my vision tunnel, and overstimulation shifts to a fresh round of delirious need.
What started as controlled and sweet has turned rushed and impatient, with no intention of slowing down.
Our bodies chase release in a fever of heat and friction.
Sweat-slick skin slides together as we race toward the finish, and I’m dancing on that delicious, razor-thin line between pleasure and pain.
The stretch of him inside me burns sweet and sharp, every thrust pushing me closer to the edge of overload.
He fucks me like he still remembers every secret spot that makes me unravel, until I’m shaking, breathless, and completely undone beneath him.
Bash’s words are broken by the cadence of his hips as he leans closer, ghosting his lips over mine in teasing brushes that make me chase them.
“My ass is going to sting for the rest of the day because of you,” he teases, and my breathy laugh turns into a moan of his name.
He grins, eyes wild with the same feral need coursing through me. “Every time you look at me,” he continues in a low drawl, “I’ll feel your cum dripping out of me.”
“Fuck,” I groan, fingers digging into his back as I arch up to meet him. “Keep talking like that and I’ll flip us over and fill you up again right now.”
His laugh is low and filthy, hips snapping harder. “Promise?”
“Try me,” I challenge on a gasp, clenching around him just to watch his eyes roll back. “I’ll have you leaking for days, darling. Everyone will know who you belong to.”
He shudders, breath hitching as he buries his face in my neck, teeth grazing my skin. “All yours,” he rasps, voice breaking on a thrust. “Always fucking yours.”
My body locks, wringing tighter with each of his frantic thrusts. The edge sharpens, teetering on the brink of unbearable as every nerve ending in my body screams for release.
Then it snaps.
Ribbons of cum shoot across my abdomen in hot, pulsing waves, the climax ripping through me like it might split me in half.
Bash curses under his breath, and after a few more desperate thrusts, he bottoms out inside me. My hole squeezes around him as he comes, and he slams his mouth into mine.
“Gods, I love how easy you are,” he murmurs against our kiss. “I love being the one to make you fall apart. I’ve missed you so fucking much, Xen.”
Burying my face in the crook of his shoulder, I clutch at his back as he lazily thrusts through the last few moments of bliss. I savor the closeness, groaning quietly as he slows.
Our hearts pound in tandem as we catch our breath in the aftermath, bodies still entwined and slick with sweat. Bash’s lips chart a lazy trail across the side of my face, kissing a path along my jawline.
“I love you, Xen,” he whispers as his mouth lands beside my ear.
The world stops, for just a moment.
For years, I’ve lived in fear that his love died in the silence I forced between us.
That I’d killed it with my bare hands.
I hold on to him tighter, clinging as if we could ever be closer than we are in this moment.
“Will you say it again?” I ask in a whisper.
He pulls back just enough to meet my gaze, thumb brushing away the track of tears on my cheek.
“I love you,” he repeats, clearer this time, each word deliberate. “I never stopped. Not for a second. And I’ll say it as many times as you need to hear it.”
His mouth moves to my cheek, peppering soft kisses as he whispers it again and again, each confession landing on old wounds.
He maps every inch of my face, murmuring quiet declarations of his love with each gentle press of his lips, and by the time he claims my mouth, my tears are flowing in earnest.
He pushes his forehead against mine. “It doesn’t matter how much time went by, Xen. I never stopped loving you. How could I, when you’re carrying the other half of my heart?”
A quiet sob catches in my throat as he presses another kiss to my ruined eye like its something sacred. It hits me that my eyepatch lies discarded with our pile of clothes from last night, forgotten in the tangle of sheets and skin.
Relief floods through me at the realization, almost violent in nature. He’s seeing all of me. Every scar, every flaw. Every broken piece I’ve hidden for so long.
No more hiding.
No more lies or half-truths to shield the wreckage.
And despite it all—the ugliness, the damage, the years of silence—he still loves me.
The weight I’ve carried for years lifts in an instant, leaving me breathless in his arms. The burden has been shared, so the crushing pressure no longer threatens to break my back.
“Every single minute,” I agree, burrowing into his arms.
His fingers weave into my hair, grounding us both as we soak in the peace. Eventually, though, reality demands our return to solid ground, and the alarms become loud once again.
They’re a harsh reminder of the world waiting beyond these walls.
I prop myself on my elbows as I stare at the light peeking through the closed curtains. “How long do you think they’ll run the sirens?”
Bash shrugs as he sits up. “In the years I’ve lived here, they’ve never run. I don’t know what will happen.”
“What do we do now?” I ask.
He leans in to press a kiss on my shoulder. “First, we get dressed and find some breakfast. I should’ve fed you last night. You’re probably starving.”
“To be fair, there were other things happening.”
He grins so wide his dimple pits into his cheek, and he chuckles as he stands. “Yeah. A few other things.”
Bash steps into the bathroom, and I doze as the water runs.
He returns carrying a towel and cleans me, taking extra care around my thighs before pressing a silent kiss over my scars.
After he’s wiped away the mess from my body, he inspects my wounds, and when he smiles, it looks as satisfied as I feel.