Page 128 of The Vagabond

His lips brush my cheek, a ghost of a touch.

We stay like that — two broken bodies, in a wooden box, in the middle of nowhere. The storm outside has passed. But inside us? It rages quietly. And maybe that’s what love really is — the silence between our scars.

52

SAXON

She touches me first.

Just a brush — the barest graze of her fingers across my jaw, soft and trembling — but it shatters something inside me.

I’ve been careful. I’ve beengood. Or at least, I’ve tried. But there’s nothing good in the way I want her. There never was.

And when she whispers,“I still want you”— in that voice, thin as a thread, shaking with hurt and hunger, sounding like confession, like surrender, like a desperate, aching prayer — I come undone.

The leash snaps. The lines blur. And I kiss her like she’s always been mine. Like she was alwaysmeantto be mine.

Her lips part on a gasp and I take it—take her—like it’s my last breath, like I’m finally feeding the hunger I’ve been harboring for years. My hands grip her waist, hard, greedy, unforgiving. She doesn’t pull away.

She claws at my shirt, fisting the fabric, dragging me down onto the mattress like she wants to bruise me with her need. This isn’t soft or slow. It’s warfare.

Her thighs part beneath me and I settle between them with agroan that sounds more like a growl, one hand buried in her hair, the other hiking her shirt up, desperate for skin. When my fingers meet the bruises along her ribs, I freeze.

She doesn’t. She surges up, bites my lip, dares me to keep going. And I do. Because she’s fire and fury and I’m sick with the need to consume her. I rip my shirt over my head. Her nails rake down my chest. I shove my sweats low enough to be out of the way, then do the same to hers. She’s soaked. Ready. She wraps a leg around my waist and yanks me forward.

“Don’t be gentle,” she pants.

I press my forehead to hers, breathing her in. “I missed you so damn much.”

And then I thrust. Hard. She gasps. Clutches me. Digs her nails into my back like she’s holding on to the only real thing left in the world.

I don’t move at first. I just stay buried inside her, jaw clenched, trying not to come undone too fast. Because she’s perfect. Tight. Hot. Wrapped around me like we were made to fit like this—in rage, in ruin, in love. And then we move. Fast. Brutal. Messy.

She kisses like she wants to hurt me. Moans like a war cry. I fuck her like I need to mark her from the inside out—like I can erase every touch that came before me. Every hurt, every pain, every wound.

Every thrust is a vow.Mine. Mine. Mine.Her name leaves my mouth like a curse and a benediction all at once.Max. Maxine. Fuck, baby.

She arches beneath me, mouth open in a soundless cry as her climax hits her—violent and raw. Her body tightens, pulses around me, and I can’t hold back any longer.

I groan into her neck, press my mouth to her skin as I empty into her, shaking, breathing fast, falling apart inside her like thisis the only way I know how to show her I love her without ruining it.

We collapse. Still tangled. Breathless. I don’t move. Our bodies are slick with sweat, our chests pressed together, hearts hammering in perfect sync.

We lie in silence. In the quiet that comes after the storm. The kind that settles into your bones when there’s nothing left to fight.

I brush the hair from her damp forehead. She’s already drifting, curled into me like she’s found the only place she trusts. And maybe she has. MaybeI’mit. I press a kiss to her temple. So soft she doesn’t stir. Then I whisper it. The truth I’ve never dared say until now.

“I love you.”

Her breath catches, even in sleep. And I know she hears me.

The water runs hot,curling down our skin in rivulets, steam thick in the narrow glass walls around us.

I kneel in front of her — head bowed, chest tight, heart thrumming like a war drum in my ribs. I press my mouth to the bruises scattered along her ribs, the split on her hip, the scraped skin on her shoulder.

Every kiss feels like a fucking apology. Every kiss feels like a failure. If I could press hard enough, love hard enough, maybe the marks would disappear. Maybe the ghosts would fade. Maybe I could erase the hands that hurt her, carve my own name over every inch they touched.

My lips trace the yellowed bruise on her thigh. The dark smear across her ribs. The angry bite of the zip ties on her wrists.

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