Page 44 of Apple of My Eye

“I need you, Knox.”

“Yeah? Say that again. I like hearing you ask for me.”

“Need you. Now. Please?”

I shoved boots, jeans and boxers away and stood tall for her heated gaze as it raked down my body.

When I finally stretched out over her, skin to skin, her leg hooked over the back of mine, pulling me closer, I pressed my forehead to hers and held still for one moment. Just to feel the full weight of finally being here, with her, after all of it.

She tipped her face up and kissed me softly.

It nearly wrecked me.

“Knox,” she whispered against my mouth.

“Still here.”

“I know.” A breath. “I know you are. Always here for me.”

There was an entire conversation in those four words that we did not have out loud, and I heard every word.

“Always, sweetheart.”

I moved down her body, mapping her with my tongue and storing it all away for later use. By the time I got to her innerthighs, she was making demands with both hands and her hips that I was more than happy to comply with. I dragged my thumb slowly through her folds, just to watch her squirm. I put my mouth on her clit and she came off the bed with a sharp, breathless sound that I decided immediately was my new favorite sound in the known world.

“Oh, God, Knox?—”

I pressed my calloused hand on her lower stomach to calm her, and dragged my tongue across her clit, flicking, teasing, and pleasing her. Had her thighs shaking and her hands fisted in the sheets before she pulled me back up by the arm with the specific urgency of a woman who was very done waiting.

“Now, Knox, please,” she begged.

“Please, what?”

“Give me all of you.”

“Yes, sweetheart.”

I grinned and reached for my jeans on the floor and pulled a condom out.

“Do the honors?” I placed the little package between her teeth and yanked, ripping it open. She added a purr to it that I didn’t hate.

I took her hand in mine and together we smoothed the extra-large condom onto my cock.

“Are you sure it’ll fit?” Her worry was cute.

“We’re gonna make it fit. And you’re gonna feel exactly why I’ve been so damn patient for this perfect moment right here.”

I settled between her thighs. She peered up at me with her eyes dark blue and direct, her red hair spread across the pillow and her cheeks flushed. I kissed her slowly before I pushed in, an inch at a time. Mm, the moan she made as I stretched hertight walls until fully seated, was enough to make me come before I was ready if I wasn’t careful.

I held still, jaw clicking tight, giving us a moment to breathe while every nerve ending I possessed staged an argument for moving immediately. She shifted under me, adjusting her knees a little higher, her hands pressing flat against my back.

I moved at last. There was nothing in the world but this. Her eyes locked on mine, as if she needed to see me right there with her. This wasn’t only about losing herself in the moment—but trusting me to be the one she lost herself with.

The press of her body beneath mine fueled the rhythm we found together without negotiating it. Her sounds she made as I built the pace, quiet at first, then less so, spurred me on. And her head tipping back against the pillow, throat exposed, ruined me completely.

I had earned this with her.

Her nails dragged down my back like claws, and I did not mind one bit. I growled. “Claw me up, draw blood, take me like good girl.”