Propping on his elbows, he leaned over me and stared into my eyes. Barely breathing. Not speaking. Not moving. Just there inside me, rock hard and pulsating.

Driving me fucking insane.

The need for more tore through my chest, closed my throat, and burned behind my eyes. I squeezed them shut and fought impending tears. He filled me up so much, too much, until there wasn’t any room left for myself.

“Rule number four,” he whispered, his lips brushing my cheekbone. “Don’t ever hold back your tears.”

My lids fluttered open, allowing hot, salty drops to trickle from my eyes…allowing him to lap up my pain with a greedy tongue.

“I was dying without you,” I managed to say beyond the ache in my throat and the furious despair that dripped down my cheeks. I’d endured six months of facing the stillness of night in the midst of nightmares. He’d promised me the world, but in the end he’d turned it upside down without a thought.

“Me too, baby.” His hoarse voice traveled through my body, leaving gooseflesh in its wake. He thrust inside me with two languid slides of his cock, and that’s all he gave me before pulling out. He jerked me up by the arms, spun me around, and bent me over the mattress. I gripped the bedding in both hands, my chest heaving with each inhale and exhale, colliding with the sound of his shallow breaths at my ear.

“Do you trust me?”

I wouldn’t have hesitated before he’d left, but now all I offered was a nod. A lie.

I wanted to trust him.

“Don’t move,” he said, his tone commanding obedience.

“Wh-what are you doing?”

“Need lube for this. I don’t wanna hurt you.”

“You don’t have condoms, but you’ve got lube?”

He brushed my hair to the side, and his lips trailed down my spine. “Sweetheart, I didn’t need condoms because you’re it for me. I’ve had six months of nothing but lube, my fucking hand, and a shitload of vulgar fantasies all starring you.” He pushed away from the bed, and his confession of celibacy heated me from the inside out. I was relieved yet terrified because I could already tell how worked up he was.

My ass was on the line. Literally. And he’d already said I wasn’t allowed to tell him no.

There was no no.

Rafe had finally claimed me. My body, my will, my life.

My everything.

5. Elixir - Rafe

5. ELIXIR - RAFE

I was a man obsessed, a man on the brink, and Alex would suffer for it. Even knowing this, I couldn’t go back. I’d finally done what I’d thought about doing since I parted ways with Jax amidst the inferno of our destruction.