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I was never going to be the same.

There was no lightness in his regard. It was pure, unbridled devotion.

Adoration and avarice poured out of him as he looked down on me while a sheen of sweat gathered on his brow.

He leaned down and brushed his lips over mine.

“You have any idea how you feel? The feel of you wrapped so tight around me? Clutching me in this body? This has to be a dream. A fucking dream.”

“It’s not. It’s real. It’s us.”

His thick throat bobbed as he swallowed hard, then he carefully pulled almost all the way out.

I whimpered and shook, then I gripped onto the backs of his arms as he pushed back in.

His jaw clenched and his teeth ground.

“You good with that?” he asked, his voice strained.

“I want it. I want all of you. Don’t stop.”

He searched me once more before he dipped down and took my mouth in a dizzying kiss.

Soft and slow.

As soft and slow as the retreat of his body before he took me all over again.

A gush of air ripped out as he seated himself deeper. I felt as if I was being cracked wide open all while being mended.

He started to move inside me. Picking up a mesmerizing rhythm as our hearts and spirits met. As something essential weaved us together.

As we breathed one another and fell into the place that had only been created for us.

“So fucking good. Heaven,” he rumbled. “Nothing in the world could compare to the feel of you.”

His tongue played with mine and his hands held me tight, his body rippling and surging. Bowing and flexing. Hunger carved in every rugged edge of him.

I traced those edges.

Let my fingertips trail each one that I could find.

Memorized the definition of who he was.

He eased back so he could watch down on me. His nose a hairsbreadth away.

Every jutting breath from his lungs belonged to me.

Butterscotch and charred oak.

I touched his face.

His cheeks.

His lips.

His chest.

“I love you.” It wisped from his mouth and poured into mine. “Gonna love you forever. Treasure you. Adore you. I will spend my life showering you with everything that I have. It might not be much, Elena, but everything I have—everything I am—belongs to you.”