I attempt to focus on the issue at hand and not on my screaming, weeping pussy. ‘Honey, listen to me. You have earned this with every single hour you’ve spent by a hospital bed, these past few weeks. You’ve earned all of it.’ I drop my voice to a whisper. ‘It’s just you and me here, doing what we do best. I want this. I want all of you, and I promise when you touch me down there, you’ll see exactly how much I want it.’

‘I can’t get rid of the memories, though,’ he says, shaking his head as if hoping that’ll loosen them. ‘The things I did to you that week, the way I acted—it makes me sick to my stomach.’

‘There are a lot of memories from the past couple of months that I wish I could erase forever,’ I tell him now. ‘Believe me. But they’re behind us, and we’ve both grown.’ I look into his beautiful blue eyes, as tortured as they are aroused. ‘I love you,’ I whisper. ‘I trust you. I know that if I tell you to stop, you will always, always stop. But you promised me once that if I begged you not to stop, you wouldn’t. So please, don’t stop, because I need you.’

Slowly, so slowly, he hooks his fingers into my thong and drags it to one side. I shiver at the fleeting brush of his touch where I need it. Then he holds my gaze as he slides a couple of fingers through my wetness and pushes them deep inside me. He keeps me in place with a hand clamped around the back of my neck.

‘I love you so much,’ he rasps. ‘If you need me, I won’t stop, I promise.’

I let my head fall back as he finger-fucks me good and hard, my body noisily sucking him in each time. But it’s when he presses his thumb to my clit, exactly where I need, that I spiral heavenward. It’s been too long, and I’m so in love with him, and he’s too good at this, and I don’t want to be strong or self-controlled; I just want this first orgasm to zip through me like the life force that it is. I want it to consume every cell in my body.

‘Harder,’ I beg. ‘Harder, please.’

And my beautiful man obliges. His thumb rubs decadent circles over me as his fingers thrust as deep as possible. I arch back, taking it, taking every last, filthy ounce of this pleasure he’s giving me, I douse myself in it like a rag soaked with lighter fuel.

And I allow it to set me on fire.