Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 83216 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 416(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83216 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 416(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
I brace myself on one elbow and cradle her chin with my other hand so my thumb can sweep over the tremble of her lip. Her lashes lower like a curtain as she tries to break eye contact.
“Don’t hide from me, Rina,” I whisper. “Not tonight.”
My cock nudges her entrance, and the slick heat makes my head spin as I sink deep inside her. There’s no slamming or urgency. It’s just deliberate, unhurried strokes that say everything I can’t trust myself to put into words.
Her lips part on a moan, her body clenching around me like she’s trying to keep me close.
“Do you feel that?” I murmur against her mouth. “This isn’t just sex. This is me giving you every fucking thing I am.”
Her hands fist the sheets, then shake as they slide up my arms, searching for something solid to hold on to.
“I’m scared,” she says, her voice breaking. “Everything with you feels so different.”
I kiss her slow and deep, my forehead pressed to hers as I whisper, “I know, baby. I feel it too. But you’re safe with me. I’m not going anywhere. What I’m offering is forever.”
It should terrify me, how much of myself I’ve given to this woman without even realizing it. But for the first time in my life, I don’t want to take it back.
Her nails rake down my back, her body shuddering as release rips through her. Watching her unravel beneath me, head thrown back and lips parted in ecstasy, is the most powerful thing I’ve ever experienced.
I hold her through it, kissing her throat, her cheek, the corner of her mouth as I move inside her, trying to give her everything I have.
Everything I am.
Even as she clings, arms locked tight, I feel the fear she can’t let go of, the walls she’s still gripping for safety.
I roll us onto our sides, keeping her close, gathering her against me until she’s curled in my arms. Eventually she exhales, cheek pressing against my skin as her body melts into mine.
The quiet of the moment seeps into me. Holding her like this makes me ache with how much I want this woman. Not just her body but the hidden parts she keeps locked away. It hits me that maybe if I take the first step and show her the hidden parts of myself, she’ll do the same and finally believe this is more than sex.
I steady myself and force out the question. “You know the picture of my family in the living room?”
Her voice is drowsy. “Mm-hmm.”
“My dad died right after it was taken. It’s the last one I have of us all together.”
Her lashes lift, eyes blinking open, startled by the quiet admission.
Even though it’s difficult, I swallow hard. “Hayes was still in high school when it happened. One day he was just my brother, and the next, he was… everything. He had to take care of us, keep the house running, and keep me in line. He became more of a father figure than a sibling, and it wasn’t fair to him, but he did it anyway.”
The truth comes out raw and jagged, but I continue because she deserves this part of me too. “He held us together when we could’ve easily fallen apart. He was good at it. Better than anyone his age in the same circumstances should’ve been. No matter how hard he tried, though, there was always a hole none of us could fill.”
I glance down at her, at the way her fingers curl lightly against my chest. “I swore if I ever had a kid, I’d never let them feel that kind of loss. Not if I could help it.”
What I keep to myself is that losing her would feel like losing the only family I ever built for myself.
She stares at me with eyes that are glassy with emotion, and for a second, I almost think she understands me and where I’m coming from.
“That’s the problem, Oliver. You’re saying all the right things because of this baby. But it can’t be the only thing holding us together.”
Her fingers twitch against me, as if she’s reaching for something she can’t quite make herself take.
Her response hits like a blade between my ribs.
The only thing holding us together?
This woman has no idea that she’s the axis my whole damn world tilts on. Of course the baby matters. But Rina?
She’s everything.
I frame her face in my hands, forcing her to look at me, needing her to hear the truth. “You still don’t get it. I’m not here because of the baby. I’m here because of you. You’re already enough—you’re everything. You always have been.”
She shakes her head, a denial trembling on her lips, but her body betrays her as she arches into me, clinging tighter, holding me like she’s terrified of letting go.