“I’ve knocked out here a few times.” Locke kissed my neck. “I don’t really remember.”
Because he’d been broken, in the past and in more recent memory, and Folk had brought him home to put him back together. “I’m glad you had him—hadthem—to help you when we couldn’t.”
Locke turned me around and cupped my face with both hands. “You have nothing to be fuckin’ sorry for. Take a breath, Nash. Everything’s okay.”
He’d had to say that to me a lot over the past few months. Around everyone else, I was better at hiding the anxiety that wasn’t going to shift until our babies made it earth-side and Orla survived the journey. Around Locke, I’d stopped trying and grown to depend on the steady comfort he offered at every turn. Ibelievedhim. I loved him.
I fucking needed him.
We fell into the kind of kiss that had only one ending. The kind that shed our borrowed clothes and left us bare to the toasty heat of the fire. To the birds who were the only creatures with a chance of seeing us.
Locke held me close, so solid and warm. He held my gaze and drew me to the bed, laying me down and covering me with his body, knowing what I needed.
AndhowI needed it.
He wasn’t gentle. He overpowered me, and I let him. I gave myself up to it, emptying my crowded mind with every rough touch. Every bruising kiss. Every calloused palm Locke passed over my aching dick.
My lungs descended into chaos, snatched breaths going nowhere. I arched my back, legs widening to make room for Locke.
He smirked and rolled me over, dumping me on my stomach, and I was here for it—I lived for it. Cos that daddy kink Rubes liked to ream me about?
It was fucking real.
Locke found lube from somewhere and slid that big dick into me while I gripped the edge of the mattress in front of me. Hewasgentle with this part, and I was grateful. As much as I believed I’d been made for him, I needed a minute, and he gave it to me.
Then hegave it to me. Fucking me. Loving me. Chasing every stress and worry away with every deep drive of his cock inside me.
I was a mess for him, muffling my groans in sheets that smelled of fresh air and the ocean, gripping that mattress so hard it was a fucking wonder I didn’t rip it in two.
This feeling, this pleasure, there was nothing like it. It took me to another goddamn realm, and I came before I really knew it was happening.
Locke slowed his pace, still rock hard, of course, even though I’d felt him come too, heard him groan my name. Of us all, Locke was the one who truly had the stamina for two lovers.
He eased out of me and rolled me over, using a towel he’d magicked up from somewhere to wipe my hand.
My breathing was still fucked.
So was his.
We weren’t done.
Locke tossed the towel and loomed over me, the caged bird on his chest rising and falling with every laboured breath, a flush staining the few swathes of his skin that weren’t stained with ink.
He dropped a fist by my head and curved his other hand over my hip, lifting my pelvis from the bed, notching us together,slowlyedging inside me again.
Can’t lie, it burned, but I liked it, and new heat bloomed in the pit of my belly, spreading lower as Locke set a grinding rhythm I had no hope of resisting.
He fucked me hard again, his gaze never leaving mine, that sea-green intensifying as every driving thrust drew us closer, in every sense of the word.
I didn’t touch my dick. Forgot about it, in a weird way, cos this didn’t feel like fucking. One shaky hand slid from Locke’s jaw to the nape of his neck, fingers tangling in the sweat-damp hair I found there. The other ghosted down his spine, dancing over the scars there, some healed, some that still, even now, caused him enough pain to keep him up at night.
Pushing that fuckery aside was tough, but the second release brewing inside me took no fucking prisoners.
Locke kissed me, momentum building in his powerful body, sweet tension straining his muscles. “I fuckin’ love you.”
“I love you—damn.” Pleasure bolted through me, my good leg tightening around Locke’s hips, the mashed one sprawled at an angle I’d pay for later. “I’m gonna come again.”
How, I had no clue, but my body didn’t give much of a fuck. Or it gave lots of fucks. Whatever. Didn’t matter. Nothing did, except the raw love in Locke’s deep gaze as he emptied inside me a second time, and the heat of it booted me over the edge of something I didn’t come back from for a while.