“Fuck,” he growled. His breathing grew rapid, but he wasn’t moving. 

“Is everything okay?” My voice was a whisper. “What do you want me to do?”

“You don’t have to do anything. I’m just trying like hell not to come right now. Feels fucking amazing.”

He held me close for a moment. I tried to relax, but I was too wound up. Too edgy. Too desperate for him to take me. I closed my eyes, acutely aware of this new possession.

He stilled and drew in breath.

“I’m going to move now, but I’m not going to last long this way. Now that I’m inside you, it’s going to be fast and a little rough.”

I nodded, drunk now only on lust and the intoxicating love and trust I felt with Blake. He could take me anywhere, do anything. I didn’t know what a limit was anymore, because everything became a step to being closer to him.

Fingering my folds, he brought the moisture that had pooled between my legs up over my clit. He started slow strokes over the firm nub. His touch was gentle but the sensation was sharp. My body clenched tightly around him, heightening the intensity of everything. I clutched the couch behind him, needing to dig my nails into something.

Blake cursed, and then he pulled out enough to thrust. He sank into me with careful thrusts that grew in strength and speed as the seconds passed. The sensation entirely new and overwhelming in the way intimacy with Blake always was.

I bit my lip, trying to focus on the pleasure over the sting.

“You okay, baby?” His cheeks were flushed, his voice breathy.

“Yeah,” I whispered.

He looked into my eyes, seeming to hear the hesitation in my voice. He slowed and lifted me enough to glide his fingers from my throbbing clit, lower to the entrance of my pussy until he was pressed deep into my tissues.

I sucked in a sharp breath. Suddenly exquisitely filled, I exhaled a small cry. My hips snapped forward, seeking more. Liquid fire burned its way through me, sliding into my veins, growing and demanding oxygen.

I felt so…taken.

“Better?” The low rumble of his voice vibrated through me.

I moaned, quivering—impossibly wet, impossibly tight around him. He was right. Neither of us would last long this way.

Our once painstaking pace ticked up to a rugged tempo as he fucked me faster and harder. I threw my head back with a wail. The friction was intense, the burn of his initial entry lingering, bringing an edge to the unexpected pleasure. I was losing my mind this way. My brain scattered, every thought disappearing in a sea of cries and prayers and “oh fucks” as he buried his cock inside of me over and over. He slid his fingers into me deeper, the heel of his hand working over my clit until I saw stars.

There was no blissful climb to the top of the cliff. The orgasm rose from a source I couldn’t place and shattered through me. Possessed and filled and stimulated in more ways than my tired mind could comprehend, I screamed. I came hard, electric pleasure shooting through every limb, down to my toes and the fingertips that ripped into the fabric behind Blake’s head.

“Oh God, baby. Just like that,” he groaned. 

I faltered, my legs weak and my senses overwhelmed. His fingers left me, and he took command of my hips, driving me down onto his slick cock the way he wanted. He used both hands and the force of his hips to impale me. Tension lined his face.

“Nothing’s ever been this tight. So fucking tight.” His voice was raw, unrestrained.

His hardened abdominal muscles came together, revealing their impressive definition. He was beautiful. He was mine. I was his, unmistakably his, in every way.

Hauling me tight against him, he unleashed a series of powerful thrusts, exploding in me with a hoarse cry.

We stayed like that, molded tightly together, quivering from the potent release. Hours could have passed before my brain started functioning again in any reasonable way.

“Oh my God,” I breathed. I opened my eyes to the world as if I’d just woken from a coma. A sex-induced, thought-obliterating coma.

He laughed, his breath cool on my damp skin.

“Good?”

“Mmm.” I hummed a lazy affirmation, gazing at him through sleepy eyes. “We should have done that sooner.”

He kissed me, a satisfied smile curving against my lips. “I told you.”

I lingered in bed the next morning while Blake caught up on work in the living room so I could rest. I was ready to slip back to sleep when my phone rang. It was Daniel. We hadn’t spoken in weeks, but I’d been waiting for him to reach out to me again.

“Hello,” I answered.

“Erica.”

“How are things?” I tried to sound cheerful, but my voice was still raw from a long night of partying and orgasms.

He was silent and my stomach tightened with anxiety.

“I need to know who’s leaking this information. The press is up my ass. They’re starting to ask about Patricia.” Frustration and determination weighted his words, which worried me even more.

I swallowed over the dryness in my throat. “They’ve been hounding me too. But I told you before, I don’t know.”

“What does Blake say?”

I tensed, not liking my fiancé’s name anywhere in my conversations with Daniel. “He doesn’t know either.”

He was silent again.

“It’s out now, Daniel. Don’t you have enough on your plate without vengeance? What’s the point of trying to hunt someone down?”

“Because I’d like to know who’s costing me this campaign. I’d like a chance to look them in the eye.”

He wanted the chance to put a bullet in them, more likely. I started to feel sick knowing that might very well be what he was after.

“Tell me.”

“I told you, I don’t know.” I struggled to keep my voice steady. I desperately wanted him to believe me.

“I can only assume it’s Blake then.” The finality in his voice sobered me on an entirely new level. I sat up straight from the bed, my heart racing with fear.

“No!” I nearly shouted. “Blake has nothing to do with this.” God, anything but having Blake back in his crosshairs.

“Then who?” he shouted back. I jumped, tensing the phone in my grasp.

“I don’t know,” I insisted. I couldn’t tell him. How could I? I couldn’t trust Daniel not to do something drastic. I hated what Richard had done to Marie and to me, but what if it cost him his life?

“I’m losing my patience, Erica. I have ways of getting information. The easiest option is for you to tell me.”