Page 93 of Midnight Confessions

I push my jeans down enough to release my granite cock. Winter licks her lips on instinct and I grab her ass and lift her up, crushing her between me and the wall behind her. I waste no time sinking her down onto my cock, growling when her walls clench around me immediately.

“I’m going to miss you, Aleck,” she pants into my ear.

Invisible fingers clamp around my throat, squeezing, stealing my air at the thought of her moving on after me. Afterus.

“The memory of you will be like a dream I can’t wake up from…” she adds, tightening the vise.

I thrust into her harder, anger-fucking the thought from my reality. “Don’t think about that, baby,” I growl into her lips. “We’re here now. You’re mine and I’m yours.” I hold Winter up with one hand and splay my hand against the tiled wall behind us as I fuck the realization of her words away.

For a moment, I consider not letting us go. We’re happy, why not explore thisafterthe wedding?

Then I remember I’m only the idea of Aleck Fox to Winter. I’m the playful, sexy, charming billionaire she fell for immediately. We’ll be happy at first. We’ll give each other tours of each other’s lives outside of this bubble, and we’ll like it. The newness ofuswill keep both of us charged for a while.

Then she’ll experience one of my nightmares, maybe two or three. And my relationship with Hayden will get in the way enough for her to start asking questions, just like my mom and dad did growing up. She’ll wonder if I don’t trust her enough to tell her, until needing to know who I truly am, needing to know Aleck Barlow, consumes her. I’ll tell her so she’ll finally stop asking, then feel the weight of knowing she seeshiminstead ofme. Or I’ll deflect her questions until she resents me. She’ll become distant. Then my interest in fucking other women will return when I inevitably become bored with her cold shoulder.

She deserves the love she reads about in books and I, in the end, don’t believe love exists. I’m engulfed in her, sure. I’m craving her entirely, of course. But it won’t last. It’ll fade and she doesn’t deserve that.

I can’t let that happen to her. Tous.

So this bubble is where we’ll exist—fucking in bathrooms, sneaking glances and silly text conversations at lunch with her friends. Late night ice cream dates and midnight confessions.Here, we’re fucking perfect.Here, we’re awe,and she giggles about that while I’m mysteriously confident and proud of it.

Buthereis where we’ll leave us.

Winter’s fingers dig into my shoulders like claws as her release finds her. I grunt, my cock jerking inside her as I find mine as well, nearly spitting into her neck from the intensity as I come inside her.

I take a moment to catch my breath. Keeping my dick inside her, I press Winter into the wall with my body and pull her face into my hands, peppering sloppy kisses all over her gorgeous features. Her cheeks, her eyelids, her nose, and chin. She giggles and I kiss her smiling lips, too.

Here, she’s mine.

This is the best life will ever get and I know it. Winter Sommers is the best life will ever reward me with, and she’s fading.

“Agree to text the nerd when we get back to the table, Winter,” I pant into her lips, finally pulling myself out of her, and backing away when she stands on her own.

She laughs, grabbing some tissues on the counter next to us to clean herself up with. “I’ll call him later, Aleck. That will have to be a good enough answer for you. I’m not cruel, and he was kind.” She smooths her dress out. Her cheeks rosy, alive, and display a just-been-fucked glow. “But make no mistake about it, Aleck Rexford Fox, I am one hundred percent yours. Those are my terms. Take them or leave them.”

A pleased smile curls my lips as I button my jeans then run my fingers through my hair. “I’ll take them. I’ll take them all day, baby.”

TWENTY-FOUR

ALECK

Pulling my all-black Tesla Roadster into my usual parking spot at my parents’ beach house, I put it in park and turn the engine off. I look over at Winter in the passenger seat while her eyes take in the house. It’s one of many my family owns, but this one is my favorite. It’s one of our more modest properties, and the view is the best therapy on the planet.

The front of the house gives the illusion that it’s a small ranch-style home. But the main floor is just that, themainfloor. There are three floors below street level that are carved into the rocks and earth it’s built on. The true view is seen from the backside where every floor is visible. But to see it from there, you’d have to be in the water.

Around eight hundred of the house’s square footage is given to the wrap-around deck. Which surprisingly, given its size, doesn’t obstruct the view of the white-water oceans. When I’ve come here in the past to get away from the city, I spend most of my time on the deck where the air is thick with sea mist and the waves crashing below lull even the most tortured mind to rest.

I remove my seatbelt and lean back, observing the way Winter takes in her surroundings. She removes her seatbelt and smooths her skirt, swiping her palms down her thighs more times than necessary. She dips her head so she can see the top of the house and whispers something under her breath I can’t decipher, then straightens her spine, letting out a deep, nervous breath.

I’ve seen many Winters, but nervous Winter is adorable. Adorable and mine.

“Winter…” I say quietly, making her jump as if she’s forgotten I was here. “There’s no reason to be nervous. They’re going to love you, and you’re going to love them. It’s just an evening with my parents. They’ll ask you some questions, answer them. I’ll be right next to you.”

She scans my face, then looks down at her fidgety hands. “Will Hayden be here?”

I tilt my head, dipping my brows. I’m a bit taken aback by her question. Ishewhat she’s most worried about?

“Would that make you uncomfortable?”

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