When she quickened around him, when her muscles tensed, he thanked the gods for this woman, this fucking miracle.

He wanted to erase every memory of terror she had. Wanted to replace it with a new memory. Of what happened when she trusted him with her body, her heart, her soul. He’d take away the pain and the fear one kiss, one fuck at a time.

“Brick!” she whimpered. “You’re making me—”

Her entire body seized around him. His cock was locked inside her as thousands of tiny muscles gripped and clutched. Biting his lip until he tasted blood, he held on as her pussy rippled up and down his shaft. She was shaking as her release rolled on. He couldn’t see. Couldn’t hear. Could only feel Remi’s body accepting what he gave it.

And when she was done, trembling and loose, when his own release was scorching its way up his shaft, he pulled out. Gripping his dick, he gave it two savage pumps with his fist and came violently on her back, her ass, her thighs. His shout scorched his throat as his semen branded her on the outside. Over and over again, he fucked into his fist until every last drop was hers. Until his balls were empty, his heart full.

Until he’d given his woman what she needed and she’d rewarded him for it.

* * *

He cleaned them both up then carried her back to the living room. Not ready to be apart, he settled her in his lap and sat against the couch, legs stretching toward the fireplace.

“How are you still hard?” she whispered, shimmying over his unflagging erection.

“Fourteen years of not being inside you,” he told her, pulling a blanket off the back of the couch and wrapping it around her.

“I don’t feel close enough,” she murmured, reaching between their bodies and guiding his cock between her legs.

“Baby, you’ve got to be sore,” he cautioned, stroking a hand through her wild hair.

“We don’t have to move,” she said as she slowly lowered herself onto it. “I just feel empty without you.”

He couldn’t argue with that logic. Not when he could hold her and stay where he most wanted to be, buried deep inside her.

She sighed, pressing her face into his neck, and he let himself trail his fingers up and down her back.

“Are you cold?” he whispered, pressing a kiss to her temple when goose bumps erupted on her skin.

She shook her head. “Nope.”

He smiled against her hair. Breathed in the scent of her shampoo. There was something happening in his chest. And it wasn’t a heart attack. It was much, much worse.

He was in love with Remi Ford. He always had been. And someone wanted to take her away from him.

He stared into the fire and tried to focus on where their bodies were joined instead of the rising panic.

She sighed into his shoulder, and her tongue darted out to taste his skin there. His half-hard cock flexed inside her.