Page 43 of Silent Snowfall

Maybe…maybe it had never been set free before. I thought once upon a time that I’d found my soulmate. But this moment proved how wrong I’d been.

If anyone was my other half, it was the man who welcomed me to the underworld and pushed me into insanity.

This masked stranger felt the connection.

I knew he felt it because his rhythm stuttered. His hips lost their precision for a handful of strokes. His fingers dug into my soft flesh hard enough to leave marks. He kept the vibrator against me through the aftershocks. His thrusts slowed but didn’t stop, gentler now, but still as affective. The overstimulation walked a knife’s edge between pleasure and pain, and I rode the line because stopping wasn’t an option my body would consider.

“You’re mine, Rose.” His hips snapped, and my pussy clenched his cock. “There’s no escaping me.”

“But how?” I whimpered.

My words were muffled into the pillow, but he’d heard them.

“We’ll figure it out,” he rasped. “Say it. Tell me you’ll try.”

The agreement was a broken chord. “Okay.”

It might be full of doubt, but it was what he needed. He came with a groan that sounded like it had been torn out of him. His hips jerked, uneven, and he pushed deep and held there, and I felt the hot pulse of him inside me.

The vibrator went still as he turned it off. He withdrew slowly. The beast of a man collapsed beside me on the bed, one arm thrown open, his chest rising and falling in deep, spent breaths.

I lowered myself onto my stomach and turned my face toward him. My limbs were liquid, boneless, rearranged by the forces that had moved through them. The sheets were damp under my cheek.

With an impatient growl, he tugged me onto his open arm, wrapping it around me. “Talk to me.”

I shook my head. “There are no words, monster.”

He laughed roughly. “Well, if you won’t, I will.”

“Hmm?” I murmured against his chest, drinking in the fresh scent of his body.

“Thank you, Rose.”

“For what?” I yawned. “The best sex you’ve ever had?”

There was no laughter or mockery. He pressed a kiss against my hair. “Yes, but it’s more than that.”

“Was it?” I was already drifting, struggling to remain conscious after the two body-shaking orgasms. I couldn’t remember anything except the carnal pleasure of his body against mine.

“You opened up to me,” he breathed against me. “I’m going to do the same. Just…just not tonight.”

I’ll be waiting, I meant to say, but the words—if I spoke them—were soft and dreamy.

“I know, carina. I know.”

Chapter 14 – Rosetta

“We have to do the Shelf Elves. Our helper is out of town tonight,” Nonna informed me as we washed the breakfast dishes.

He’s…gone? A plate slipped from my fingers. It clattered against the counter but mercifully didn’t break.

“Rosetta!”

I gulped. My grandmother was going to suspect something. I needed to pull myself together. I needed to act like this was no big deal.

It was a big freaking deal.

“Sorry!” I said with a wince.