Page 23 of His to Command

"You," she breathes, reaching for me. "Just you."

I shed my clothes quickly, efficiently, need overriding any desire for a show. When I cover her body with mine, skin to skin with nothing between us, we both groan at the contact. Perfect. Like two pieces of a puzzle finally aligned.

But I don't enter her yet. Instead, I work my way down her body, kissing, tasting, savoring. When I reach the junction of her thighs, I look up to find her watching me, lips parted, eyes heavy with desire.

"Mine," I growl against her inner thigh before licking a slow stripe through her center.

Her cry of pleasure is the sweetest sound I've ever heard. I devour her like a starving man, using tongue and lips and fingers to drive her higher, to prove with every touch that I worship her completely.

"Hudson!" she cries, hands fisting in my hair as she comes against my mouth. I don't let up, working her through the orgasm and immediately building toward another.

"That's it," I encourage as she writhes beneath me. "Let go. Show me."

Her second release is even more powerful than the first, her entire body arching off the bed, my name a broken chant on her lips. Only then do I move back up her body, positioning myself at her entrance.

"Look at me," I command softly.

Those remarkable eyes meet mine, hazy with pleasure but clear with certainty.

"If you walk away after this," I tell her, voice rough with emotion, "it will break me. Do you understand? You have that power."

Vulnerability has never come easily to me. Has never come at all, if I'm honest. But Robin needs to know. Needs to understand what she's doing to me.

Her hands come up to frame my face, mirroring how I held her earlier. "I'm not walking away," she whispers.

The sincerity in her eyes undoes me. I push into her in one long, deep thrust, both of us gasping at the sensation. She's tight, hot, perfect around me. Made for me. I establish a steady rhythm, deep and controlled, watching her face for every flicker of pleasure.

"You feel what this is," I say against her lips, punctuating each word with a thrust. "How right. How necessary."

"Yes," she agrees, legs wrapping around my waist, taking me deeper. "Yes, Hudson."

My name in her mouth is a benediction. I increase my pace, driven by a need that transcends the physical. Her fingernails dig into my back, marking me as I've marked her. Good. Let us both carry evidence of this claiming.

"Mine," I growl, the word a vow, a prayer, a declaration of war against anything that tries to separate us.

"Yours," she gasps, and something primitive in me roars in satisfaction.

I reach between us, finding the spot that makes her cry out, rubbing in time with my thrusts. Her inner muscles clench around me as her third orgasm builds. I'm close too, control fraying with each meeting of our bodies.

"Together," I demand, holding back my release through sheer willpower. "Come with me."

Her eyes lock with mine as pleasure overtakes her. The sight of her coming undone shatters my last restraint. I thrust once, twice more, then empty myself inside her with a guttural sound that barely sounds human.

For long moments, we remain joined, breathing hard, sweat-slick skin pressed together. I should move, should worry about crushing her beneath my weight. Instead, I bury my face in her neck, inhaling her scent, imprinting this moment in my memory.

"Hudson?" Her voice is soft, questioning.

I lift my head to find her watching me with something like wonder. "Yes?"

"You meant what you said? About...breaking you?"

The vulnerability in her question makes something in my chest constrict painfully. I consider lying—falling back on the impenetrable facade I've cultivated for decades. But Robin deserves truth. Only truth.

"Yes." I brush damp hair from her forehead. "You're the first person who's ever had that power over me. The only one."

She studies my face, searching for deception, finding none. "That's a lot of responsibility."

"It's not a burden I give you lightly." I ease off her, pulling her against my side. "But it's yours nonetheless."

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