Chapter 44 #3
Soft curves and toned muscle. The faint tan lines from what must have been a bikini. A small constellation of freckles scattered across her left hip that I want to map with my tongue.
“Dom.” Her voice is strained now, edges fraying with need. “Please.”
“Please what?”
“You know what.”
“Say it.”
Her amber eyes meet mine, blazing with frustration and want in equal measure. “Fuck me, Dom. Please just—fuck me.”
I’m never going to forget the way she sounds saying those words.
I position myself at her entrance and pause there, just for a moment. The head of my cock pressed against her slick folds, heat beckoning, every cell in my body screaming at me to push forward.
“Last chance to change your mind.”
“I will literally kill you if you stop now.”
Good enough.
I push inside her in one smooth stroke.
Phoenix’s whole body arches off the bed, her mouth falling open in a silent cry. Her walls grip me like a vice—impossibly tight, scorching hot, slick enough that I slide home without resistance despite her body’s best efforts to hold me still.
Fucking hell.
I have to stop moving. Have to lock every muscle in place and breathe through the overwhelming sensation, because otherwise I’m going to come on the spot like a goddamn teenager.
“You okay?” The words come out strangled.
Phoenix’s eyes flutter open. Her pupils are completely blown, amber reduced to a thin ring around endless black. “I’m…” She shifts beneath me, and the motion sends electricity shooting up my spine. “Move. You have to move.”
I don’t need to be told twice.
I pull back slowly—savoring every inch of the drag, the way her body clings to me like it’s trying to keep me inside—and then thrust forward again. Harder this time. Deeper.
Phoenix moans.
The sound unlocks something primal in my chest. Some ancient, animal part of my brain that doesn’t give a fuck about gentle or careful or taking-things-slow. All it cares about is more.
I set a punishing rhythm. Deep, driving strokes that hit places inside her that make her keen against the thin cabin walls. Her legs wrap around my waist, heels digging into my lower back, urging me faster. Harder.
“Yes,” she gasps. “Yes, like that, just like that—”
Her nails rake down my back, leaving furrows of sweet fire in their wake. Her head thrashes against the blankets, copper hair tangling in knots she’ll probably curse me for later. Her body rises to meet every thrust, matching my rhythm with a desperation that borders on feral.
“Dom—” Her voice cracks. “I’m gonna—I’m close, I’m so close—“
“Let go.” I shift my angle slightly, grinding against her clit with every stroke. “Come for me, Phoenix.”
She shatters.
Her whole body locks up, every muscle going rigid as the orgasm crashes through her. Her walls clamp down around me so tight I see spots, pulsing in waves that threaten to drag me over the edge with her.
I grit my teeth and hold on.
Watch her fall apart beneath me—the way her back bows off the mattress, the way her lips part around a soundless scream, the way her eyes squeeze shut so tight tears leak from the corners. Watch her ride the crest of pleasure and then slowly, gradually, float back down.
When her eyes flutter open again, they’re hazy. Unfocused. Swimming with something that makes my heart clench.
“That was…” She swallows, throat working. “That was…”
“Yeah.” I’m still hard inside her, cock twitching with the effort of holding back. “It was.”
“Keep going.” Her legs tighten around my waist, heels digging into my ass. “Don’t stop.”
“Phoenix—”
“I want to feel you come inside me.”
Jesus fucking Christ.
Whatever thread of control I was clinging to snaps clean in half.
I drive into her with renewed fervor, chasing my own release now.
The wet sound of our bodies connecting fills the cabin, obscene and beautiful.
Phoenix moans with every thrust, still sensitive from her orgasm, and her walls flutter around me in aftershocks that push me closer and closer to the edge.
“Fuck,” I groan against her throat. “I’m—Phoenix, I’m gonna—“
“Yes.” Her voice is fierce now, certain. “Come for me, Dom.”
That’s all it takes.
The orgasm hits me like a freight train—wave after wave of blinding pleasure that starts at the base of my spine and radiates outward until every nerve ending is singing. I bury myself as deep as I can go and spill inside her, knot pulsing, vision whiting out at the edges.
For a long moment, neither of us moves.
I’m collapsed on top of her, probably crushing her, but I can’t make my muscles cooperate. Can’t make anything work except the ragged bellows of my lungs as I try to remember how to breathe.
The knot tying us together is going to keep her stuck here for at least a few minutes, and I distantly realize that I should have chosen a more comfortable position for her than crushed underneath me.
But if Phoenix is bothered, she doesn’t show it. Her fingers trace lazy patterns across my back. Over the scars, the tattoos, the places where the two intersect. Her touch is gentle now, soothing, nothing like the desperate clawing of before.
“Hey,” she whispers.
I manage to lift my head. “Hey.”
“Thank you.”
The words hit somewhere deep. Somewhere vulnerable. “For what?”
“For finding me.” Her amber eyes are soft in the dim light, all the fear and panic from earlier washed away. “For not letting go.”
I press my forehead to hers. “Told you I wouldn’t.”
“I know.” Her smile is teasing. “That’s why I thanked you.”
The boat rocks gently beneath us. Above, I can hear the muffled sounds of Judah and Mason and Atticus—voices I can’t quite make out, movements I can’t quite parse.
None of it matters.
What matters is this. Phoenix in my arms, warm and alive and safe. The steady rhythm of her heartbeat against my chest.
I never want to let her go.
But tomorrow, she’s supposed to fly away.