Chapter 68 - Luna
The door clicks shut behind him, sealing us inside the tight, wood-paneled darkness under the stairs. I’m still frozen, my heart hammering as I stare into the eyes of the man I haven’t seen in two years. Not since the night that shattered everything.
Mars.
He steps forward, close enough that his chest brushes mine, his presence thick and overwhelming in the cramped hideaway. His hands come up, slow and careful, settling on my hips like he’s afraid I’ll vanish if he touches me too fast.
My brain is a storm of confusion. What is he doing here? How did he get here? Is this real? But those questions slip from my mind the moment his fingers graze my waist, triggering a flood of memory so strong I almost drop to the floor.
He sets me on the edge of my tiny apartment’s counter, his hands warm and steady as he peels off my boots, one by one. His voice is low, gruff in that way that always makes my stomach clench.
“I’m here…for you, Little Moon. I’m here to make you mine.”
I gasp, almost whimper at hearing those words from him, and he hammers them home by saying it again.
"I'm here for you, Luna. I’m not going anywhere again."
I breathe out a shaky laugh, cupping his jaw. "You promise?"
He leans in, his forehead resting against mine. "Yeah. I fucking promise."
His lips meet mine with a hunger that’s been simmering between us for a while.
It’s not sweet, it’s desperate and hot, like he’s burning and I’m the only thing that can put the fire out.
His mouth devours mine, and when I moan and pull him closer, tighter against me, his hands slip beneath my shirt, rough palms sliding over my ribs until he lifts it over my head.
My skin prickles in the cool air, nipples peaking as he dips his head to kiss down my throat, across my collarbone, over the swell of my breasts.
"God, look at you," he murmurs, thumb brushing across my nipple through the lace of my bra, making me shiver. "So fucking perfect."
I tug his shirt off, fingers shaking as I run them over the hard lines of his chest. Every inch of him is muscle with hot, smooth skin.
The boy I crushed on and the man I’ve been falling for all tangled up in one beautiful body.
He lifts me from the counter, my legs wrapping around his waist as he carries me down the hall to my bedroom.
He lays me on the bed like I’m breakable, but the way his eyes darken tells me exactly how he wants to ruin me.
He kisses his way down my body, slow and reverent, until he’s kneeling between my thighs.
His strong hands land on my parted legs and push them wider before they skim up to the bottom of my skirt and then he inches it up slowly until it’s around my waist. I reach to pull him on top of me, but he just growls and pushes my hands flat against the bed.
“You need to have patience, baby. You have no idea how long I’ve imagined, fantasized, about being right here between these gorgeous thighs. I’m not going to rush this after waiting so long.”
I moan when the back of his fingers brush over my mound and my hips lift, searching for more.
His heated grey eyes lift up to meet mine, and the look in them has me biting into my lip as my whole body flares with need.
His fingers tighten on my thighs at what he sees on my face and then he snarls, “Fuck, I can’t wait. ”
He drops right down until his hot mouth covers my pussy with only the thin barrier of lace separating us. I can feel the heat of his exhale against me as he breathes deeply and then he rips that lace right off of me.
I reach down and grasp his head to stop him. I want this so badly, but I need to know. I need to be sure before we take things too far. “Mars…are you sure? Like, really sure about this. Atlas…”
His expression softens, and he brings one of my hands from his head and kisses my fingers. “I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life, Luna.”
When his tongue finally slides over my aching flesh, I moan and grip the sheets, hips bucking up to meet his mouth. He licks me like he’s starving, like he’s memorizing every sound I make, every twitch, every gasp.
"You taste like heaven," he growls, holding me open, lapping at me until I’m sobbing his name. And when I come, it’s like a wave crashing through my entire being.
This! This is what Jules was trying to tell me the night of my prom.
How this feels is everything it’s supposed to be, and I’m so happy that it’s this man making me feel it all.
He doesn’t wait, doesn’t give me time to settle from the orgasm.
He surges up, kisses me hard, and quickly slides a condom on before lining up and surging into me in one deep, perfect thrust. His size is a shock, but the moment of pain when he stretches me only triggers more aftershocks from the orgasm I’m still riding.
He goes still above me, letting me adjust, and his eyes never leave mine.
His voice is a rough rasp when he says, “Fuck, Luna, so fucking good.”
I moan when he starts to rock his hips in small movements that turn into a gentle roll. It feels amazing but my greedy body wants so much more. I dig my nails into his back and my heels into his ass and lift my hips to make that roll harder, deeper.
“Mars, Mars… please… I need more!”
With a savage snarl, he pulls almost all the way out of me and then slams back in, hard and deep.
My back bows off the bed as a sob of pleasure tears from my throat and then we start to move together like we were built for this, like we were made for each other.
I cling to him, nails digging into his shoulders as he fucks me slow and deep, whispering how beautiful I am, how much he wants me, how he’s never letting me go again.
I cry his name when the next orgasm hits and he growls mine as he follows me over.
Jesus, this, this is what it’s meant to feel like.
I drop bonelessly back on the bed and he hovers over me, stroking my skin with long, deliberate caresses as he stares into my eyes and then finally settles down beside me and gathers me close.
"I want to get a place here together next year when we come back," he murmurs into my hair. "Somewhere just for us. I want you to be my home, Little Moon. I’ll be the man you deserve, Luna. I promise, I’ll give you everything."
We fall asleep tangled up, his arm slung over my waist, his breath warm against my neck and in this moment, I believe him.
The loud bang of a door upstairs shatters the memory like glass.
I jolt, breath catching in my throat as my body trembles.
That sound—it echoes too close to the stairwell door at the hospital the night I lost my family.
The last time I saw him. The night he left me and vanished when I needed him the most. Anger roars up, slamming into my chest like a freight train. How fucking dare he?
His thumbs brush lightly against my skin, grounding and intimate, and it makes me flinch back. He doesn’t get to fucking touch me. I slap his hands away, teeth gritted in a silent snarl.
Outside the dark space, soldiers’ voices grow louder. Boots scrape over the steps. We’re trapped in here together and I have nowhere to run, no way to escape him. So I’m forced to stand stiff, back against the paneling, glaring at him in the dim light.
Those gorgeous grey eyes of his staring back into mine are filled with regret and pain is etched into every line of his face. But I don’t care. Not right now. He left me when I needed him most. When I could barely fucking breathe from the grief.
And now he’s here?
Too fucking late.