It’ssomuch more than that.

It’s in that moment that I realize I love him.

Maybe it’s too fast or too soon, but it’s the truth.

“I’m sorry I left. I just … I didn’t think you would’ve let me leave if I waited for you. And it scared me.”

“You’re right,” he says, surprising me with his confession. “I wouldn’t have let you leave. Even if I had, I would have followed you to the ends of the world.”

“I know. There’s a part of me that wanted you to, I just … You don’t know me.”

“I don’t need to,” he rasps, brushing his calloused hand tenderly over my bare shoulder. “All I know is nothing is the same since I met you and I don’t want to lose you.”

“I’ve thought about you every day since I left,” I confess. The words turn to a gasp when his hand drops to my breast, brushing his knuckles over my nipple through my clothes. “The big feelings were scary but what’s scarier is not having you in my life.

“I want you, Lara. Only you. I’ll do whatever it takes to make you happy?”

I can’t help the laugh that tumbles from my lips. It’s so obvious to me that saying it to him feels like pointing out the obvious, but I do it anyway. “Youmake me happy.”

His hand freezes as his body goes stiff. His dark eyes are wide with surprise. “Really?”

“Yes,” I reply. “Really.”

Suddenly, my feet are off the ground and I’m pressed against a wall. He moved so fast I can barely comprehend it, even as his mouth claims mine.

“If you ever leave me like that again, I’m going to spank your ass red,” he growls as he nips at my bottom lip.

My entire body throbs, my center clenching around nothing. That thought probably shouldn’t excite me like it does, and yet … “What if I want you to?” I pant as his hands press into the flesh of my thighs, parting my legs.

Knox pulls back to look at me. His face is flushed, his shoulders heaving as he tries to control his breathing. “You just have to push my buttons, don’t you?”

He runs a hands up to my throat and I gasp when he closes his fingers loosely around it. As he presses his hips to mine, I can feel how hard he’s become.

“No more running, not for now,” he growls. “You’re mine. I’m going to fuck a baby into you, put a ring on that little finger of yours, show the whole world who you belong to.”

“Yours,” I whimper as I feel his other hand start to pull at my panties under my dress. “Show me I’m yours.”

His fingers slip under the fabric and he groans when he feels how wet I’ve become for him. His needful noise makes me ache. I’m desperate to have him inside me.

He chuckles when I start to rut my hips against his fingers. “Needy little pussy.”

Abruptly, my feet are on the floor again as Knox spins me around to face the wall. A hand on my back presses forward to make me bend and present my ass to him. Before I can ask what he’s doing, I feel his hands pushing at the skirt of my dress to get to my underwear. Then, a loud tearing sound. My panties fall away to who knows whereas he chuckles darkly.

“God, look at you.” He palms my ass before giving the cheek a little slap. My breath catches as he says, “I’m going to fuck this pussy. I won’t be gentle, but I don’t think you want gentle, do you, little girl?”

When I feel the head of his cock start to tease my entrance, I cry out, “No, I don’t! Knox, please—”

And suddenly, he snaps his hips forward, sheathing himself inside me. Words fail me as he starts to fuck me at a relentless pace, his groans mixing in with my whimpers, making the entire studio echo with the sounds of our ecstasy.

He slips a hand up to my breast and pinches my nipple, making me tighten around his cock as he pounds it into me. “Fuck, your pussy is so fucking tight!”

I drop my forehead to the wall with a moan as he thrusts into me, hitting spots I didn’t even know I had inside me.

How did I ever think I could live without this connection we have?

My body begins to tremble when his hand drops between my legs to start rubbing carefully at my clit as his hips snap into mine. My knees buckle as my climax hits me suddenly, but instead of falling to the floor, he holds me carefully to him as he ruts me through my orgasm. Tears run down my cheeks as I cry out his name, the only word my mouth can form at the moment.

“I’m going to fill this pussy with my seed, fill you so good you’ll bed for more,” he growls deeply, thrusting faster and harder into my eager sex.