There’s no objection. When we’re together, connected, making each other feel like this, there is no other way for us. She encases my face with her palms, scans my eyes, swallows as I watch her, and drops her mouth to mine on a moan.

“Jesse,” she mumbles. “I’m going—”

“Control it, baby.”

“I can’t.” She bites my lip, and I yell, the pain hitting me hard in my cock.

And there it is. My release. I’m on my knees fast, rearing back and thundering into her, holding her against my chest as I explode on a yell that instantly makes my throat sore. “Jesus, Ava,” I garble mindlessly, my eyes clenching shut. “What am I going to do with you?”

I’m useless, quaking, my body completely out of control. Weak. Helpless.

Alive.

In hell but in heaven.

She hugs me fiercely, as if she senses I need help to stop my violent shakes. I do. “You’re shaking.”

“You make me so happy,” I whisper, my voice ragged, my heart hurting.

“I thought I made you crazy.”

I smile sadly and face her. “You make me crazy happy.” I push away the hair sticking to her perfectly wet face, kissing the tip of her perfect nose. “You also make me crazy mad.” My eyebrows lift without instruction.

“I prefer you when you’re crazy happy,” she tells me. “You’re scary when you’re crazy mad.”

Yes, I know. I scare myself, but . . . “Then stop doing things to make me crazy mad.”

She has the nerve to appear outraged. Don’t tell me she wanted that dress today. She didn’t. Don’t tell me she enjoyed downing that whole glass of wine the night I wrestled her into a jumper. She didn’t. I’m all for her holding on to her free will, but not at the expense of my sanity. She’ll learn. But, more importantly, will I learn to deal with my newfound intense reactions? Or better still, control them? I can try. Honestly, though, I don’t have much faith in myself. Ava O’Shea brings out the best in me while bringing out the worst. Strangely, the worst is a side I never knew I had, and I’m fucked if I know how to handle it. A little like she doesn’t know how to handle it. We’re in this together. Navigating these foreign waters together.

“I would never hurt you intentionally, Ava,” I say without much thought. I’m being provoked by the unknown. The unknown is how she’ll deal with the truth.