She shouted his name as the cymbals crashed at the end of the piece, sending her out in a blaze of sensory glory.

Her sounds of pleasure mingled with his as he stroked her clit furiously and fucked her ass lovingly, bringing out a shattering orgasm that made her feel as if the very world around her had been blasted apart and then stitched back together on her cries. It was bliss, it was sweet agony—it was exquisite, soul-shattering fucking.

Even though somewhere in the dark reaches of her mind, the parts that she’d tried to shut down, she hoped that it was love. That even at its dirtiest and basest, it could be love.

The physical didn’t lie. Even this kind of sex with Jack felt like love. She wished she could get that notion out of her head, but she didn’t want to let go of it, either. She wanted both. She wanted it all. She wanted everything with him. And she couldn’t deny that she felt the flicker of hope that he wanted it all too.

“Oh God, I’m going to come, too,” he groaned. “Can I come in you?”

“Yes,” she told him, loving that he asked her permission before he released himself into a new part of her body.

Some point later, after he’d cleaned her with the towel, he drew a warm bath. He carried her to the tub, then washed her all over, dried her and brought her back to bed.

“Thank you,” he murmured as he kissed her neck.

“Thank you?”

“For giving me all of you,” he said, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her close. Then he brushed her hair from her ear.

She wished he were whispering in her ear right now. Telling her he felt the same way she did. God, it was so fucking pathetic to want to be loved this badly.

But there was only silence. A silence she wanted to fill with all she felt for him.

She could taste the words she wanted to say. She could feel them take shape on her tongue. They were longing to escape her lips.

I want you to have all of me. I’m in love with you.

She’d tried. She’d tried so fucking hard to put the genie back into the bottle. She’d worked so hard to treat this only as sex. But it was impossible. The heart wanted what the heart wanted, and that was him. All of him for all of her. She swallowed thickly, trying desperately to get rid of that lump in her throat. But then an errant tear slipped from the corner of her eye, landing on the sheets.

He watched it fall, then kissed her eyelids. “Does it hurt?”

“Yes,” she said, because it was true.

She wished she could slide Jack back into the slot she’d reserved for him. But she’d fallen in love with a man who didn’t love her back. She had no one to blame but herself.