Page 19 of Modern Romance June 2025 5-8

But then he captured the tight bundle of nerves—already so needy, already so swollen—and sucked hard.

She cried out, soaring up, the fireworks exploding from her core to cascade through her entire body.

He held her hips, worked her with his lips, demanding more. The waves of pleasure built again, too fast. Another brutal climax crashed over her, layering on top of the last, intensifying the explosion, forcing her to ride the inferno.

At last, he allowed her to collapse onto the bed, exhausted, spent.

He rose above her, his gaze fierce. Bracketing her hips, he angled her pelvis and pressed the huge erection against her core, before thrusting hard and deep to claim her completely.

The brutally stretched feeling overwhelmed her, before the sharp pinch of pain made her flinch. And gasp.

He stopped, lodged so deep inside her she couldn’t tell where she ended and he began.

He buried his face in her hair, swore in Catalan, then lifted his head to bracket her face with unsteady hands.

‘Am I your first lover, Cerys?’ he said, his voice husky with shock.

‘I… Yes,’ she whispered, positive she had never felt so exposed, so vulnerable, so taken before.

He swore again.

‘I’m sorry,’ she said, sure she had done something wrong. Why else would he look so horrified? ‘I should have said something…’ Although of course, until this moment, she hadn’t been sure…

‘Do not apologise,’ he whispered, his thumb stroking her lips, his expression devastated. ‘Does it hurt?’

‘No, not at all,’ she lied. Whatever she’d done, she didn’t want to make this even worse.

He shifted slightly and she winced before she could stop herself.

A wary smile curved his lips, the devastation gone from his eyes, to be replaced by something strained, and guarded, and a lot less revealing.

‘Did you lie to me, Cerys?’ he asked.

She tried to smile back, but emotion tightened her throat—because the moment of connection felt lost. For a second, he had looked at her as if she mattered to him, and it had felt so good to really matter to someone.

‘No… I… It’s just not super comfortable,’ she managed.

‘Then I must be gentler,’ he said, the strain in his face making her heart thump her ribs.

Stroking her hips, he drew his hand down until his thumb delved to locate the place where their bodies joined.

She moaned as he circled and caressed the tender bud, making her buck against his touch.

‘Does this help?’ he asked.

She nodded. ‘Yes… Please, do it again.’

He let out a strained chuckle. But then he caressed the perfect spot until she was panting, moving against him, forced to impale herself more on the rigid erection to find relief.

He groaned and stopped stroking her, to hold her hips. ‘I must move, Cerys, but you must tell me if I hurt you.’

‘Okay.’ She sighed, so close to the edge now, she didn’t care what he did, as long as he didsomething.

He drew out. So slowly, so carefully. Then sank back, to fill her impossibly again. She moaned, the pleasure immense, the discomfort fading, to be replaced by a delicious coil of tension deep in her sex.

‘Is it okay?’ he asked.

‘Yes, please, but move faster… I need more.’

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