Page 89 of Steel Rain

He thrust inside me in one go, and I groaned in satisfaction, feeling the pressure of him all over. I opened to him, my body welcoming his intrusion, and tightening with every heartbeat, needing him to stay. Needing more of him.

“I love you too, Sinead.” He kissed me, gentle and soft.

I had never been like this. I had never felt it this way, in a bed, with gentle, kind, attentive lips coaxing the pleasure from me. It felt like I was being seduced into a warm cloud, my body relaxing to the sweet, beautiful, inevitable pleasure that my husband was delivering. Even his hips moved in a gentle, soothing rhythm. But that didn’t stop the building of sweet tension in my lower belly. It didn’t stop me from flying high, slowly tumbling into sweet bliss as the orgasm tingled from where we were joined to every cell of my eager body. Heat, and something else. Something that made every part of me scream in sweet, heavenly ecstasy.

“I love you,” I groaned. It was the most natural thing in the world to say in that moment as I crested over the wave of pleasure that slowly overtook my entire being.

“I love you.” He responded, as I felt his eyes searching my face as he thrust deep inside, filling me with his climax. “You are not broken. You are whole. And you are loved.”

He kissed me right as I felt myself descending back to reality. I wrapped my arms around his neck, kissing him harder, because his lips could slow the fall. Instead of crashing, he could help me land as lightly as a bird on a gentle breeze.

Without a word, and without stopping our kiss, he slowly pulled out of me, and righted my jeans over my waist. He turned us so we were both on our side, facing each other, holding each other on the bed. He was still stroking my skin with his sweet, calloused hands, as if he was holding my soul in his palms and massaging it back to life.

This must have been what I dreamed about when I was starry-eyed and shiny. When I had envisioned a loving husband, and being someone’s princess … this was what I wanted it to feel like.

“Are you okay?” His hand grazed my cheek, pushing away a drop of moisture. I realized I was crying.

“Happy,” I admitted. “I didn’t think I could be.”

I placed my hand over his until his palm flattened against my cheek, and I nuzzled against it, taking in his scent.

“But …” I started, unsure what I wanted to say.

“But?” He coaxed again, still ever the seductive leader, making me bend to him.

“I want Sibby to live with us.” I realized my desires just as I was saying them. But I could be that way with Ajax. I could feel my way to the answers. I could take my time. He would coach me through it. “But I don’t want to live in this haunted house. Not with all of these ghosts and demons around every shadowed corner. I don’t want her to grow up into this life either.”

His thumb caressed my cheekbone, and I shut my eyes.

“Eoghan wants to stop the illegal stuff after he destroys the Italians,” he said, softly. “Did you know that?”

My eyes opened, and my lips pursed. “No, I didn’t know that.”

“He wants Green Fields Enterprises to be a real business, with real jobs for everyone who has worked for him before. But he can’t until he’s stopped the violence.”

“He told you this?”

“Not in so many words, but yes.”

I waited. Wondering if he had a point. He probably did. In fact, healwaysdid. I just didn’t always understand it.

“After the war, would you still want to leave? After there’s peace, and calm with the Greens?”

I thought about that. While I had some decent memories with Dairo and Eoghan …

“Yes, I would still want to leave. You would never be happy here.” I reached out and touched his cheeks, holding him the way he was holding me. “You need to train people again. You need to start your own gym. You need …”

“You.” He leaned forward and nuzzled our noses. “I need you, wherever that might be.”

“I can bend where you bow,” I whispered. “We can be rigid, and we can compromise.” I was trying to turn his words back to him. “Let’s leave this place together and start a home where no one knows us. Where we can start fresh, and just be the people next door. Not mafia. Not soldiers. Not anything but ourselves.”

He gave me another kiss. I was becoming quite addicted to them. “As you wish.”

He leaned back and smiled at me, then he ran his fingers through my hair. I used to hate it when people touched my hair. But it seemed that even that was fading into a far off memory, now that I had buried my demon in the dirt.

“The only question I have left is …”

His voice trailed off as he stared down at me, a small smile forming on his lips.

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