Page 63 of Midnight Wishes

Each time he bottomed out, it brought another gasp from her, getting louder when she started lifting her body, meeting him thrust for thrust.

It was raw and carnal and devastatingly intimate, their eyes locked centimetres apart and their breathing synced.

‘You’re perfect,’ Alex murmured, weaving his fingers through her hair again. It increased the strain on his body, one arm holding him just away from crushing her, and he didn’t care one bit. What was all the strength training for if he couldn’t use it like this? ‘I want you to get one more. What do you need?’

‘I don’t need— Alex!’ She gasped as he rocked backwards and scraped his teeth over a nipple.

He wondered if she could feel his whole body throbbing at her outburst. It wasn’t hearing that name from her. Not really. It was knowing that she had to be completely losing control to forego using the name she put so much effort into teasing him with.

‘I don’t need another one,’ she whimpered, when he let her breathe again.

‘Maybe I do.’ His thumb curled against her throat, pressing into her pulse point, which was fluttering wildly. ‘MaybeIneed to get you there again.’

‘Why?’ She grabbed the sheet next to her stomach, and he slid his hand out of her hair to curl his fingers over hers.

‘Just do.’I need you to feel good. And I need to know I did it.‘Please, Princess.’ He’d never begged in bed before, not even when she’d had him in handcuffs.

‘Touch me then,’ she whispered, moving their joined hands to the space where their hips met.

Within minutes she was scratching at his back, moaning his name, clenching around him, and the combination had him following her over the edge.

They lay there for a few minutes after, laboured breaths syncing in the moonlight. When Sarah disappeared into the bathroom, Alex padded off to the kitchen to pour a glass of waterfor her, taking a moment to drink his own as he willed his heart to stop racing.

Celine was vigorously attacking a chew toy, swiftly abandoned when Alex knelt to scratch behind her ears. ‘Are you going to look after her for me?’ he asked. Her response was a gentle whine. ‘Good girl. Come on.’

Sarah was under the covers when he got back, and finished half the glass of water he offered in two gulps. ‘Where are you going?’ she asked, voice slightly hoarse, when he stepped towards the door.

‘I told you I’d sleep in my office,’ Alex said. ‘Don’t worry, Princess; Celine will keep you safe.’

‘And if I want you to stay?’ Her eyes were soft, half fluttering shut already.

It had been a long time since he had slept—actually slept—with someone. He didn’t, as a rule, though there’d been one or two women after Leah who had overstayed their welcome. But the idea of sharing his bed with Sarah felt nothing short of luxurious.

So he climbed under the covers and pulled her into his arms. Celine leapt onto the bed, curling up beside Sarah. He’d think her a traitor, if her devotion didn’t so neatly mirror his. When Sarah had stopped wriggling, he whispered, for the second time that night, ‘Drunk confession?’

‘Yeah?’ Her voice was barely there, then replaced almost instantly with deep, even breaths.

Alex sighed into her hair and tightened his arms around her sleeping body. ‘I wish we hadn’t put an expiry date on this.’

***

When Alex wokeup, the part of him that wanted to stay wrapped up in Sarah warred with the part of him desperate to show her how good their lives could be together.

He didn’t know how he was supposed to give this up in a week. The sex, sure, but…her. Her laugh and her eyes and the way she had absolutely zero time for his bullshit. The way he felt like a whole person around her, instead of a fragile shell padding itself with charm and nonchalance.

But maybe, if he could be good enough, appealing enough, he could convince her to stay. In his bed, with him holding her close on one side and his dog sprawled on her other. He’d melted when Celine jumped onto the bed moments before Sarah passed out, and her hand had slid across Celine’s side, heavy with tiredness.

With one more kiss to Sarah’s hair, wild across his pillows, Alex slid out of bed, pulled on a pair of joggers, and walked downstairs to start his coffee machine and mix a batch of pancakes.

Alex didn’t hear her quiet footsteps coming down the stairs, but even the bare traces of perfume still clinging to her filled his nose when she entered the kitchen.

Faint surprise registered on her face as he looked up at her. She was wearing a white t-shirt, the one he’d handed to her before heading to the shower. Before she’d fallen asleep surrounded by him instead. The sight landed only marginally below the experience of seeing her in nothing.

‘You’re wearing glasses,’ she said, but her voice sounded off. Slightly hollow and distant.

‘I haven’t put my contacts in yet.’ Even at home, he rarely wore the bulky black frames, instead stumbling blurry-eyed into the bathroom first thing in the morning to find his lenses.

‘And your hair is…curly.’

---