I turned, and the sharp object pressed harder into my skin, but the pain didn’t register.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean for that to happen,” I told her slowly.
“You locked me up, Mass. Took away my choices. Controlled me.”
Mass?
I twisted my head to see her, needing to look into her eyes to see if what I hoped was true really was.
She stared up at me, her eyes accusing. The glare was hard to meet, and yet, at the same time, precious. Because she knew me. She really knew me.
“I didn’t know what to do—I’m sorry,” I admitted.
She sighed, her shoulders falling from their position up aroundher ears. Her hand dropped to her side, and the shard fell to the floor with a small smash.
Her face twisted slightly, her lips drawing together, and her eyes filled with tears.
“I got lost again,” she whispered, so quietly I almost couldn’t make her words out. “I got so lost in the dark again—alone.”
“You’re not lost anymore. You’ll never be lost again, and you’re not alone anymore. From now on, it’s you and me. I’ll never leave you alone in the dark again.”
A tear ran down her cheek, and then a sob that she was trying to fight slipped out. The sound was like an accusation, and I knew in that moment that I’d never let this woman cry again. She’d cried a lifetime’s worth, and she was finished with that. I’d make sure of it.
“I thought you’d gotten hurt in the fire. I thought you might have died,” she confessed, tears running freely down her cheeks now.
She started forward, and I opened my arms to catch her.
She hugged me around the middle, throwing herself into my arms, and I let her momentum spin us around, clutching her tightly to me.
Breathe. Now I could breathe again for the first time in days.
I pressed my face into her hair and inhaled deeply, filling my lungs with her. She was here. She knew me. Not alone, not anymore.
“I was so confused... I couldn’t remember you, but I knew I’d forgotten something important,” she muttered against my chest. She raised her head and looked at me. “It was you. The feeling that I’d forgotten something vitally important... It was you.”
The space where my heart used to be burned. Fuck, it hurt. Finding a kindred soul after a lifetime of loneliness wasn’t a smallfeat. For a man like me, it was a miracle. I was unlovable, and yet... she loved me.
I couldn’t put any of that into words. All I could do was show her how much I’d missed her.
I leaned in and kissed her, and she kissed me back. Her hunger stole my heart even more. Soon there’d be nothing left of me, and only her inside me.
I pulled her more firmly into my arms and turned us around, kicking the door shut and heading for the bed. I carried her to the edge and then sank down on it, holding her carefully so she wouldn’t fall.
I settled my weight just off her, so she wouldn’t be crushed, and then deepened the kiss. My tongue sliding along hers, my hand cupping her jaw, then circling her neck. Thrusting against her soft, pliable body, needing more. Always more. I needed all of it. Every single inch of her.
My hands moved to her clothes. An old sweater of mine, and her panties. In seconds, they were on the floor. My own clothes followed. Her eyes widened as I lowered my naked body over hers. Her hard nipples pushed into my chest, and I could feel her heat between her legs, so fucking close it was all I could do not to sink inside her that very second.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Taking another of my firsts,” I continued, sliding my hand down from her neck, between her breasts, and over her hips, and stroking her cunt. “First time I fuck you in my bed...ourbed.”
She shivered, biting her lip and trying not to cry out. My cock poked at the soft skin of her inner thighs as I ground myself on her. Her knee rose, and I guided it around my hips. I angled my aching cock just right and nudged inside.
It was like hitting a damn wall. She was so tight.
“Fuck,” I let out in a rush.
“I don’t think that’s going to fit this time,” she murmured, and then laughed.