Page 48 of Destroyed With You

She closed her eyes, and he resumed touching her.

With every glance and stroke, the need built in him. The need to be inside her. To claim her. To take her like this, bound to the bed, a proposition that had become even more enticing since she’d asked to be released.

Slowly, he kissed his way up her inner thighs, enjoying the way she strained to keep her legs spread and struggled against the bonds at her wrists. He licked her clit with the tip of his tongue, satisfied when she arched up and cried out. Then he moved higher. Starting at her neck and kissing and licking his way down, enjoying both the taste of her and the way she responded to his touch.

He was teasing the soft skin of her mons when she started to beg again. “Please.” She tugged against the cord holding her arms in place. “Please, I want you inside me. Winston, please.”

He wanted to draw it out more. To make her desperation like a living thing. But how the hell could he when he was already so incredibly hard, his body so tense that he was about to explode right then.

“Please,” she begged, and he had to give in, as much for himself as to satisfy her pleas.

He wanted to go slow—to tease both of them—but he couldn’t. He was too hard and she was too ready, and he thrust inside her with one bold stroke, sinking deep and making her arch up and cry out, begging him to fuck her harder as he pistoned inside her, closer and closer until, finally, her core tightened around him, bringing him all the way over the edge.

They exploded together, the world falling in starbursts around them. And in that moment—that singular moment—he wasn’t sure if they were in the past or the present or sometime in between.

All he knew for certain was that she was his. For tonight, at least, they were together.

Later, when she was untied and they were spooned together, he whispered, “Why?”

He couldn’t see her face, but he heard the smile in her words when she said, “Because I knew it would be amazing.”

She rolled over, facing him. “And it was.”

“It was,” he agreed. “And?”

She drew in a breath. “And I wanted you to know I trusted you. Completely. It’s important for the mission.”

“I did know that.”

She shook her head. “You thought you knew. Now you really do.”

For a moment, they simply held each other’s gaze. Then she said. “This doesn’t change anything. The past is gone, Winston. This was wonderful, but not important.”

“I know,” he said, but that was a lie. It was important. And he had a feeling it changed everything.

Chapter Seventeen

He was swimming naked in the quarry outside of Hades with Linda beside him, their bodies twined together, as slippery as eels. The sun beat down on them, and they laughed as the water buoyed them. He’d missed her so much, and now to have her in his arms again, to feel weightless with her the way he did now, it was as if he had suddenly been shown a small slice of heaven.

“Hey.” Her soft voice filled his senses.

“Hey, yourself.”

She smiled, the expression as bright as the sun above them. He tugged her closer, and they laid back, floating easily on the water, their fingers twined together as they looked up at the white, fluffy clouds. It was a perfect day. Absolutely perfect.

Nothing could go wrong. Nothing could take her from him, not again. He’d lost her once, but he’d found her, and damned if he wasn’t going to keep her this time. Damned if he wouldn’t die to make sure that happened.

He shifted, the water splashing against him as he turned his head to look better at her. “You know the truth, don’t you?”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“I love you.”

“You don’t know me. And I don’t know you.”

“But you do. We do.”

“You have to be smart, Winston. You have to really think about these things. You have to know that nothing is ever really what it seems. Haven’t you learned that by now?”