Page 33 of The Rook’s Obsession

When she surfaces, her hair is slicked back and water streams down her face. Her long, slow exhale seems to carry something out of her. Whatever she’s been wrestling with for hours, it starts to slip away. At least, some of it.

For a while, it’s enough to float silently with the water lapping between us. Even though she’s only an arm’s length away, I don’t reach out. Not yet.

When she does break the silence, it’s to say, “He would’ve called it sentiment. Wanting to keep me alive instead of cutting his losses. Vincenzo.” His name echoes off the tiled walls and sets my teeth on edge. “He used to say sentiment is the first thing that gets someone killed.”

She’s still trying to make sense of things. Creating excuses, or at least rationalizing his decision. I can’t blame her for it. “He was wrong.”

“He was right about some things.” She looks at me, and the way her eyes gleam in the blue light is something that will live in my heart for the rest of my life. “But he was wrong about me. He thought I would die easy.”

“He should know better. You don’t do anything easy.”

She offers the ghost of a smile; there and gone almost in the same heartbeat. But I saw it. Nothing can take that away.

She drifts closer. The distance between us shrinks from an arm’s length to a hand’s width, and then even less. Now I feel the warmth of her body through the water.

“Thank you,” she murmurs. “For tonight.”

“You don’t have to thank me.”

“I know. That’s why I’m doing it.”

She’s close enough that I can feel her breath. Close enough that I could almost count the beads of water on her eyelashes, rolling from her temples down to her jaw. The silence is charged now, the energy swelling between us. It’s full of everything we’ve survived, everything we still haven’t said.

She doesn’t wait for me to make the first move. She pushes me against the tiles; the smooth surface feels cold pressed to my skin, but that’s not what shocks me slightly. It’s her aggression that takes me by surprise. She’s taking what she wants. And I like it.

“This is different,” I say, my mouth inches from hers.

Her eyebrow raises. “Different how?”

“More aggressive,” I reveal.

“Is that a problem?” Her palms land flat against my chest with another playful shove.

Water sloshes around us as she straddles me underwater, her bare pussy grinding against my growing cock.

“No.”

“Good.” Her lips slam against me suddenly. She kisses me like she wants to consume me, tasting like sin and danger. Her nails drag down my chest and abdomen until one of her hands is fully wrapped around my cock.

“Fuck,” I groan between kisses. She strokes me, her fingers tightening around my shaft.

“I need you inside me.” She’s not asking, but telling. “Now, Nick. I want to feel you split me open.”

Without any direction, she positions herself, the head of my cock at her entrance. I grip her hips to guide her, but she doesn’t take it slow. Pulling herself closer, she takes every inch of me at once.

We both cry out, our voices echoing through the space. She’s so fucking tight, and doesn’t even give herself time to adjust before she’s moving, riding me rough, water splashing over the edge with each thrust.

“I love the way you’re taking me.” My words make her grind harder, causing me to hit deeper.

“Yes. Don’t stop,” she urges me to keep doing what I’m doing. Her hand finds mine and pulls it between her legs. “Touch me, Nick. Make me come while your cock is inside me.”

I draw tight circles, feeling her walls clench in response. She’s wild, unrecognizable. This Ivy fucks with no mercy, all instinct and aggression.

“Harder,” she demands, nails digging into my shoulders, drawing blood. “Fuck me harder. I want to feel you for days.”

I grip her hips tighter, meeting her thrust for thrust, our movements erratic. I feel her getting close. “Come for me,” I growl. “Let me feel you come.” I thrust up one last time, and her orgasm takes her over the edge, bringing me along for the ride.

I let go of a loud growl as I come… hard. Maybe harder than I have ever come. Pure bliss ripples through my body, the aftershock of my release slowly fading as I still feel her pussy pulsing around me.