Page 79 of The Front Runner
The statement is like an anvil to my chest. It feels an awful lot like that’s true. Like we were made for each other.
I peer over my shoulder at him. The air between us is thick. I can feel it, the way it vibrates, the way it heats as his eyes scour my body. Bright and sparking with…
Love?
“I need to get a condom. I’ll be back. Don’t move.”
I swallow audibly and nod, body humming with anticipation.
He leaves, and I do as he asked. I feel myself getting wetter and more worked up with each passing second I wait for him. The longer he’s gone, the more I want him. When he returns, his control has frayed beyond being patient. The jangle of his belt blends into the rip of the condom wrapper.
He steps up behind my bare ass and drags himself between my cheeks. “Next time you need to fix an assignment, I’m going to take you here.”
My body trembles with need. I’m at the point where I don’t care where he takes me. I just want him inside me.
Now.
“Okay,” I murmur, looking over my shoulder again as he notches himself at my slippery entrance.
We lock eyes for only a moment, and I feel like the look we share says it all. It answers every question I’ve been wrestling with for the past forty-eight hours. A promise is made in that look, and then he impales me with one rough thrust and sends me reeling. His hands grip my hips hard enough I’m certain there will be bruises tomorrow. And I bask in the raw passion. The intense need. I love the way we bring out each other’s most base instincts. The way we’re both so proper in public, and so improper behind closed doors.
“Take it like a good girl, Miss Thorne,” he says, before his control snaps completely and his voice becomes a harsh growl. “Every. Inch.”
The wet slapping noises of Stefan taking me forcefully fill the room, mingling only with his heavy breaths and my quiet, desperate moans. He eventually leans over my body and reaches beneath me, finding my clit with his fingers.
He rubs firmly while continuing to drive into me wildly, panting in my ear. “If there was any uncertainty in your mind about where we stand, let me clear that up for you now.” He slows his thrusts, pulling out and then driving in hard, rattling my body with the force of his claim. “You are mine.” My hands slip on the desk, and my legs shake. “And I am yours.”
And as I fall apart beneath his firm body, feeling him move inside of me, I know I’m exactly where I need to be.
There’s no uncertainty now.
27
Stefan
I’m sittingat the kitchen island staring off into space, trying to pull all the thoughts running through my head together. Trying to pullmyselftogether.
I wanted to go for another round. I wanted Mira upstairs, spread out on my bed, begging for more. I wanted my skin on hers and her moans in my ear. I wanted to live between her thighs.
Unfortunately, she had other plans. Something with Hank, their farm manager over at Gold Rush Ranch. So, I let her go, as bad as I wanted to beg her to stay. Her independence is one of my favorite things about her. She’s not clingy or obsessed, despite how she might feel right now. She’s just excited, and I am, too. This thing between us feels new—like it’s going somewhere. I don’t have to worry about cramming our time together in because we have all the time in the world.
I have a feeling about her.
A smile tugs at the corner of my lips, and I lean my elbows onto the counter before me. Getting lost in the dark lines weaving across the marbled stone countertop, I replay our conversation. The one that took place almost immediately after I’d bent her over my desk and claimed her the way she needed.
Tugging her pants up over her deliciously round ass she asked me quietly if we were exclusive now. Vulnerability written all over her beautiful body.
I pulled her into my arms and assured her.Absolutely.
Are we dating? What do you call this?
I laughed. She scowled.
I don’t give a fuck what you call it so long as you’re mine.
That’s what I’d told her. And I’d meant it. Because it was all so obvious to me.
Sitting here now, it hits me that I’m putting it all on the line for her. Pushing past all my fears about caring too much for another person. Trying to let go of my deep-rooted fear of betrayal. Ignoring the fact that the people I’ve loved the most in life have been ripped away from me. Acknowledging I have a terrible track record for protecting those very people.
