Page 69 of Release Me

I love Luca, but there are few things in the world he takes seriously and I won’t have what happened with me and Nadia be diminished by his humor, whittled down to nothing more than a punchline for one of his jokes. The censure in my tone gives him pause.

“Chill, Seb. I wasn’t even about to talk shit. I’m actually happy for you.”

The sincerity coating his words is the only reason I don’t hang up on him. “Thanks, but how did you even know?”

“I mean technically, I didn’t know. Zoe told me about the two of you kissing in her office when me and her went to the movies last night, and I just filled in the blanks for myself.”

“Don’t you two have anything better to do than sit around talking about my love life?”

“Love life? Oh, you in love now?”

“Fuck off, Luca.”

His knowing laughter is the last thing I hear before I hang up the phone and toss it onto the nightstand. It lands with a loud thump that causes Nadia to groan. She cracks one sleepy eye open and squints at me. I run my hand down her back and place a kiss on her forehead.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you.”

“Then you should have left the room.”

I can’t stop the smile that curves my lips or the familiar spark of joy that rushes through me every time I learn something new about Nadia. It doesn’t matter if it’s a big something, like how old she was when she lost her parents, or a small something, like the fact that she’s a grump in the morning, it’s all valuable information to me.

“But that would have meant leaving you,” I reply, letting my fingers skate over the light smattering of hair at the small of her back I never would known existed if last night didn’t happen.

She rolls her eyes. “Don’t make me want to kiss you when I have morning breath.”

“You can kiss me anytime you want, precious. Even when you have morning breath.”

“Oh, Goddd. Please don’t tell me you’re a morning person.”

With a dramatic sigh, she flings herself onto her back, and I follow her, settling my weight between her legs as I bury my face in her neck. She smells like me. Like my sweat and my cum and the last remnants of my cologne. It’s not the first time I’ve noticed how perfectly our chosen scents blend together, but it is the first time I’ve gotten to revel in it. Nadia cards her fingers through my hair and starts to massage my scalp.

“I’m a you person.”

I lay a kiss on her jaw and flex my hips, letting the tip of my dick sink into the moisture gathered between her thighs. It’s a mixture of me and her, a silken representation of a repeated lack of control on her part and mine.

“We didn’t use condoms,” Nadia says, her mind clearly in the same place as mine.

“No, we didn’t.” I push forward, loving the feel of her muscles clenching around me. “Is that a problem for you?”

“No,” she whimpers, trying to focus despite the fact that I’m teasing her with shallow strokes designed specifically to make her lose her train of thought. “I’m on birth control, and you know I’m clean.”

She’s right. She had to submit a clean bill of health to get a guest pass to Ludus. If she wasn’t clean, she wouldn’t have been allowed to interact with members.

“I’d die before I put you at risk, so trust me when I say, I’m clean.”

I pull back and drive back in with a thrust so hard it causes her breasts to bounce. Nadia brings her knees up until they’re pushing against my elbows, giving me the space I need to go deeper.

Her nails dig into my back as she moans her response. “I trust you, Sebastian.”

It’s all I’ve ever wanted. Her trust. Her openness. Soft eyes on my face and lush curves in my hands. The chance to cherish her in a way she hasn’t been in years. It’ll last beyond this moment, my endeavor to lavish her with affection. I’ll be at it for years if she’ll allow me, decades, a lifetime.

Forever.

That’s what I want with her, that’s where we’ll end up. She wanted me to say that last night when we were buying groceries for a meal we never got to eat, but she wasn’t ready to hear it. She’s not ready now, either, and that’s okay because we have time.

Time to heal.

Time to trust.

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