Page 63 of Shadows of the Past
"You're mine, Julia. I gave you a chance to leave, and you chose to stay here. And I'll be damned if I offer you another opportunity to leave me. Because I told you. I'm not a better man. When it comes to you, I can't help but be selfish."
I know he sees on my face everything I don't have words to tell him, everything I'd like to explain so he understands that, from day one, he stole my heart and placed it next to his.
In a single movement, he enters me, and this time I'm the one who can't block a sound of pleasure from escaping.
"Max." His name on my lips is more like a prayer.
A tremor runs through his body, and a sliver of fear enters my blood.What if we've gone too far? Too fast?
I try to move from his embrace to get down and make sure he's okay.
"Don't move." His voice has that note of agony again, and it scares me.
"Max, put me down. It's okay. We'll try another time. We moved too fast."
He shakes his head, and when he opens his eyes, that pale gray has turned stormy, so dark I’d swear they’re black. His jaw clenches, and for a second, he just stares at me, breath ragged.
“Julia,” he growls, voice rough with restraint, “if you keep moving like that, I’m not going to last.”
Heat rushes through me at the sound of his words, low, desperate, almost pleading. My whole body goes still, but the ache between us is impossible to ignore. I try not to move, but I can’t help the restless shift of my hips because I’m so full, so desperate for more.Just a little more.Just an inch, a breath, anything.
He looks down between us, his gaze lingering where our bodies are joined, and the sight makes my heart stutter. There’s something possessive in the way he watches us, something raw and hungry. His thumb brushes my hip, and his eyes flick up to meet mine, dark and wild.
“Look at you,” he murmurs, voice barely more than a whisper, “taking me so damn well. You feel incredible, Juls. So hot, so tight around me. God, I could stay inside you forever.”
A shiver runs through me, my breath catching at his words. Before I can reply, he takes control, his hands gripping my waist as he rolls his hips into mine. The sensation is electric; every nerve ending in my body lights up, and I gasp, clinging to his shoulders like he’s the only thing keeping me grounded.
He doesn’t hesitate. There’s no slow build, no teasing. He thrusts into me with a hunger that leaves me breathless, and I meet him, matching his rhythm, holding on for dear life. Each movement is rougher, deeper, and I can feel him everywhere.
His mouth finds the base of my neck, and his tongue traces a slow, burning path up to my ear. When his lips close around my earlobe, a shiver races down my spine, and I instinctively tighten my thighs around him, pulling him impossibly closer.
“Fuck, Julia,” he groans against my skin, “you’re killing me.”
“Max,” I gasp, barely able to form the word. “Please, Max. I need—”
“That’s it,” he whispers, his breath hot in my ear. “Let go for me. I want to feel you lose control.”
The heat that’s been coiling in my belly starts to tremble, threatening to unravel me completely. My nails dig into his back and I know I’m leaving marks, but I can’t seem to care. For the first time, I can feel the wave building, unstoppable, and I have no idea how to hold myself together.
“God, Juls, you’re squeezing me so tight,” he groans, his voice rough and broken, and that’s all it takes to push me over the edge. Because I feel how hard he is for me, because I know what marks that monster left on him, and in this moment he’s mine. Only mine.
Pleasure crashes through me, fierce and overwhelming, and I cry out, my body arching into his. I feel him tense, his hips stuttering as something warm floods inside me, and I know he’s found his release too.
For a moment, we’re both lost in the aftershocks, breathing each other in. He presses his forehead to mine, both of us sweat slick and gasping for air, and for a heartbeat, it’s just us, caught in this perfect, private world we’ve created.
His hand comes up to cradle my cheek, his thumb gently brushing away a tear I hadn’t even realized had fallen. He smiles, soft and a little unsteady, and I know, without a doubt, that I’ll never be the same.
I can’t remember the last time life felt like it had meaning or direction or even a sliver of happiness like this. If you could measure joy in the bloodstream, I’d be overdosing right now.
“What have you done to me, Julia?” His voice is low, rough, and laced with that raw, post-sex edge that makes my cheeks flush.
I don’t know if what we just did is right. I don’t know if sex is supposed to feel like this, like the world has disappeared and nothing else matters. But right now, nothing in the world feels wrong.
We’re still joined, neither of us willing to break the connection, holding on to the moment for as long as we can. But, like all good things, it doesn’t last.
A sharp knock rattles the door, and Akim’s voice from the bedroom cuts through the haze.
“We have a problem!”
