CHAPTER 30 #3
Her eyes met mine, and I could see it clearly . . . the fear she was trying so hard to bury. Not fear of me or my body or the way I held her. Fear of what this meant. Of how much she was giving up. Of how much she stood to lose.
She wasn’t afraid of the act itself.
She was afraid of believing in it.
I slowed without breaking contact, lifting one hand from her hip and sliding it up her body until my palm settled over her throat. I soothed the frantic flutter of her pulse with my thumb, feeling every wild beat like it was my own.
“I know,” I said quietly, because I did. I knew exactly what was crashing through her head. That she was too exposed. Too open. That she’d stepped off a ledge she couldn’t climb back from. That if I walked away now, the fall would shatter her in ways Ryan’s betrayal never had.
I tightened my grip. “This isn’t a game,” I told her. “Not to me.”
Her lips parted on a silent breath.
“This means everything to me,” I continued. “You. Right here. This moment. The way you’re letting me in even though every instinct is screaming at you to run.”
Her eyes stayed locked on mine.
“I’m not going to let you go,” I said. “I’m not going to disappear. I’m not going to break the promises I’ve made to you—even the ones I haven’t said out loud yet.”
The fear in her eyes wavered, warring with something fragile and hopeful, something she hadn’t let herself feel in so long it looked painful.
“I will never make you regret this,” I finished, softer now, my thumb still stroking her pulse. “Do you understand me?”
For a long, aching second she just looked at me—searching, weighing, deciding. And then she nodded. “Okay,” she whispered.
And that single word felt like the heaviest thing I’d ever carried.
I kissed her, trying to pour every unspoken vow into the press of my lips against hers. She kissed me back with the same fragile intensity, her fingers tightening in my shirt, her body arching into mine like she was finally allowing herself to fall.
I didn’t rush. I didn’t push. I just held her and let her feel the truth in every slow slide of my tongue.
Because she was right to be afraid. But she was also right to trust. And I was going to spend the rest of my life proving it.
“I’ve got you,” I murmured, and her fingers relaxed in my shirt.
When I moved again, I did it slowly, letting her feel the stretch and how my piercing dragged along her walls. Eden gasped, and her back arched off the table, her breasts thrusting forward as I sank deeper. She was so fucking tight, sucking me in like her body was trying to pull me in forever.
I kept my eyes on hers the whole time, refusing to let her disappear into the intensity of it. “Stay with me,” I said quietly.
“I can’t—” She gasped as she shifted her hips, trying to take more of me. “I . . . it’s too much.”
I paused, giving her a moment to adjust, even though it felt like I might die in the process.
My hand slid up her thigh, and I brushed the sensitive skin just below her hip.
“You’re doing so good, baby,” I murmured, leaning down to kiss the corner of her mouth.
“So fucking good. Look at you—taking me like this, letting me fill you up. You feel incredible.”
Her breath hitched, and her lashes trembled as she stared up at me, soft and unfocused, like she was seeing me for the first time and couldn’t quite believe I was real.
“You can take more,” I whispered against her lips, rocking my hips as I inched farther into her tight cunt. “You’re made for this. Made for me. Just breathe, Eden. Let me in.”
She whimpered and dug her fingers into my shoulders, but her hips lifted and met my next shallow thrust.
“That’s it,” I praised, my voice rough with pride and need. “Good girl. Just like that. You’re taking me so perfectly— Fuck, you’re amazing.”
I rolled my hips in a way that made her moan . . . and she finally began to relax around me. Her legs tightened at my waist, drawing me closer and urging me deeper.
“See?” I kissed her throat, sucking lightly at her pulse. “You can take all of me, every inch, every thrust. You’re safe with me, baby. I’ve got you.”
“Yes,” she whispered, rocking her hips up to meet mine. “I’m safe.”
“That’s right,” I groaned as I finally bottomed out and buried myself in her heat.
Holy fuck. Being inside her was unlike anything I’d ever felt.
She enveloped me completely—somehow molding around every ridge and vein.
The fit was perfect and seamless, like her body had been waiting for mine, like every inch of me belonged exactly here, buried to the root in her warmth.
The piercing pressed against her inner walls, catching and dragging with each slow withdrawal, sending tremors through both of us as I pushed back in, filling her again and again.
It was overwhelming.
Every pulse of her around me felt intimate and alive, like she was breathing me in, holding me close, refusing to let go.
The way she fluttered and rippled when I bottomed out, the subtle shift of her muscles gripping and releasing in waves—it was heaven and torment at once.
I could feel her everywhere: the gentle squeeze when she exhaled, the soft clench when she inhaled, the way her body seemed to sigh around me like it had finally come home.