I can feel the tears threatening to spill, so I do the only thing that will prevent that from happening. I lean over and kiss him.

He kisses me back. Desire, delight, and despair war within me. It’s been almost a dozen months since we last kissed, but the time melts away as his tongue traces along my bottom lip. I shiver and shove my hands into his disheveled hair, rolling my weight on top of him. He grunts at the impact, wrapping his arms around me to pull me closer.

I slide my hands down along his shoulders and over the ridges of his stomach to his waist. I fumble with his belt as blind need overrides everything else.

Jace pulls away.

“Viv, we can’t…”

“I want you,” I tell him. Lust coats my words.

His eyes flare with heat, but he doesn’t move. “It’ll just make things worse.”

“How could things possibly get any worse?” I whisper. “Consider it payment for coming here.” I run my fingers enticingly through the trail of dark hair and along the sharp V just above the waistband of his suit pants.

Jace snorts. “You’re a princess, Viv, not a prostitute.”

“I’ll be whatever you want me to be. I’m yours,” I remind him.

“That’s not fair to say,” Jace replies. His expression is pained.

“I know,” I admit. “But it’s true. It will always be true.”

He surrenders, pulling my lips back to his. His fingers trail down my sternum and pass between my breasts, resting on the knot holding my robe together. He deftly unties the thin piece of fabric barely holding my silk robe together and pulls the flaps apart. He pulls back to gaze down at the set of lingerie I put on earlier in foolish hopes of this very moment.

“You always wear this to bed, Viv?” he asks, quirking an eyebrow as he surveys my scanty choice of attire.

“Only when you’re staying in the same building,” I pant before tugging his mouth back to mine.

We don’t exchange any more words after that; both too desperate for each other to draw things out. Jace removes my lacy outfit in seconds, and I unbutton his dress shirt and pull off his undershirt. Jace helpfully pulls off his pants and socks, lying before me in just his black briefs.

Suddenly he stills. “Do you have a condom?” he asks.

“No,” I tell him. “The only guy I’m interested in having sex with was in another country. You didn’t bring one?”

“No.” Jace curses. “I figured I’d be staying in a hotel.”

“I’m on birth control,” I suggest, after a pause. “I trust you.”

Jace studies my face for a moment, then pulls down his briefs.

He thrusts inside of me, and I moan at the exquisite sensation. Unlike our first time together, he doesn’t treat me like I’m fragile. He immediately starts moving, rutting into me forcefully enough that we bunch up the fabric of the comforter. I dig my fingernails into his broad shoulders, spurring him along. He nibbles and sucks along my neck and breasts. The sensation sends additional frissons of pleasure shooting through my already overstimulated body.