Page 32 of Beneath His Robes

“You have no idea how long I’ve waited for this…” he whispered against my skin, his voice dark and rough with hunger. “To feel you like this again. To have you.”

I swallowed hard, my heart pounding in my chest. The words—those simple, primal words—were enough to make my blood run hot.

My chest tightened as I pressed closer, the feeling of him so real beneath my fingertips that it felt impossible. It was like I could drown in him, in this moment where nothing else mattered, where I didn’t have to be the man I had trained myself to be.

Here, in his arms, I was just Elias. Just a man who had been lost to him for far too long.

“Ronan…” I breathed, and my voice cracked, betraying me. “We can’t…”

He didn’t let me finish.

His lips were on mine again, fierce, demanding, as if he could taste the doubt in my words and wanted to drown it with every touch. His hands slid under my shirt, burning a path across my stomach and sending shivers of pleasure through me. He was a man who knew exactly what he wanted, and it was clear now that he wanted me.

His body moved against mine, pressing me back into the snow-dusted trees, his hands pulling me closer until nothing separated us, no space between us. My breath caught as his heat seeped through the layers of our clothing.

His lips were everywhere—my lips, my neck, my jaw—moving with an intensity that made everything else fade into the background. There was nothing but him, nothing but the rush of desire, the pull between us that had always been there, simmering just beneath the surface.

“You’re so beautiful,” Ronan murmured, the words husky, almost reverent, as if he were worshipping me with his touch.

His fingers moved down the line of my side, tracing the curves of my body like he couldn’t get enough of me. His mouth, hot and insistent, brushed against my collarbone, the sensation sending a shiver of pleasure down my spine.

“Ronan, please,” I gasped, my hands gripping the back of his cloak as if I were holding on to my last shred of control.

His name came from my lips like a prayer, like a plea, but it wasn’t one I wanted to fight anymore.

Ronan’s lips found mine again, his kiss deep and bruising, as if he were trying to claim every part of me—heart, body, and soul. His hands slid lower, pressing against my hips, urging me forward.

I could feel the heat of his body, the firmness of his muscles, the strength that was both comforting and overwhelming. He was everywhere, and I could no longer tell where he began and I ended.

My chest tightened as I felt his hands slipping to the hem of my shirt, pushing it up, his fingers brushing over the skin of my stomach with aching slowness as if he were savoring each inch.

He kissed me harder, and it was as if he were burning away every last vestige of resistance I had left. His hands moved up to my chest, pushing me back into the cold of the tree, but the chill didn’t matter.

The world didn’t matter.

It was just Ronan, his mouth, his hands, his body moving against mine, pulling me deeper into a place where everything was us.

“You feel it too, don’t you?” Ronan whispered between kisses, his voice thick with desire. “I’ve always felt it. Every moment we were apart, every moment you fought me, I felt it. You’ve never stopped wanting me.”

I couldn’t answer him. My lips parted in a silent gasp, my hands desperately pulling at his shirt, wanting to feel more of him, needing to feel the warmth of his skin under my fingertips.

His kisses, his touch—they were all-consuming, and I wanted to drown in them.

And then, his hands—his beautiful, insistent hands—found the line of my trousers, pushing them down slowly, teasing me with a control that made my pulse race even faster. I was responding before I even knew what was happening, my body betraying me in the most delicious of ways.

“No more fighting,” he said, his voice low, almost a growl, as he pulled me into him with a force that left no space between us, his chest rising and falling in time with my own frantic breaths. “I’m not letting you go again, Elias. Not now. Not after everything.”

I couldn’t speak.

I could barely breathe, the sensation of him so overwhelming that I was lost to it, lost to him.

Every touch, every kiss, every breath was a thread pulling me deeper into something I had never truly wanted to escape, even as I had tried to for years.

But now, with him in my arms, I didn’t want to leave. I didn’t want to fight anymore.

And as his lips claimed mine once more, I gave into the undeniable truth that had always been there, hidden beneath the surface, waiting for the right moment to break free.

Ronan was the only thing I had ever truly needed.

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