I slipped my hands up his hard arms and over his shoulders and wrapped around his neck.

His eyes blinked open, and he focused on me as if through a haze.

“I’m here,” I whispered, my hand curving on his cheek. “Make love to me.”

“Always,” he said and withdrew agonizingly slowly before sliding back in. The pressure and fullness of him had me gasping. He did it again, his eyes having trouble focusing. “I love you, Josephine.” His forehead creased, sweat beading. He thrust into me again, slower, harder. And dragged out. “I love you so much. My heart began beating again from the moment I met you. Even before you knew. But this will kill me, I know it.”

My eyes burned with tears, and I stroked my thumb down toward his lips, brushing across them. “No. No it won’t. I won’t hurt you.”

“Love me, Josephine. Please.” He thrust and withdrew and thrust again. “This is me begging. Love me.” He shifted his weight to one arm and used the other to slip down my side and bring my leg up, pressing me even farther open.

I groaned. “I do. I do love you.” In seconds I was back at the edge. My muscles strained tight, my breath caught in my chest and prickles racing across my skin. “God, Xavier. You feel so good.”

He picked up speed, his arm trembling, his jaw tensed tight, his eyes flashing. Words in French I didn’t understand fell fast and desperate from his lips.

Then his body was on mine, his hips moving, his mouth devouring my lips, my chest. Somehow in my arching up, he managed to suck a nipple hard into his mouth as his pubic bone ground into me.

That was it. I snapped and soared.

His hand was across my mouth, and I screamed into it, my body convulsing and dissolving.

His hips slammed into me, taking the movement of my hips bucking involuntarily and using it to his advantage. It was brutal, almost violent. Then he froze, buried so deep, I was pinned, immobile, and probably bruised but quaking with the beauty of it. I blinked my eyes open. The hand across my mouth fell away to support him and leaving me gasping. I watched as the agony of his ecstasy ripped across his face, his head thrown back, teeth bared and tendons in his neck straining as he poured himself into me. I’d never seen anything so arousing or more beautiful. This man was mine. Mine to keep and hold and love and protect. I’d never hurt him or allow anyone to either. I’d protect his heart no matter what. Forever.