Page 34 of Defended By Love

But goddammit it if I’m going down quitting.

Like a drunk, newborn horse, I stand on shaking legs and limp towards the next flight of stairs. I’m not even remotely surprised when I collapse and fall down the next flight of stairs as well. My body rag dolls down the steps as I lose the frantic adrenaline rush and get flooded with a sort of calm acceptance.

As I ricochet off the steps while the building gasps its last breath, the only feeling I feel is a dull surprise at the sound of screams echoing off the walls.

Funny. I don’t feel like I’m screaming. I just feel something akin to peace that I’m going out after giving it my all.

Besides, I always suspected that I’d die while at work. Statistically, it was just the most likely outcome.

Right before I’m crushed to death by the building coming down on my beaten body, it occurs to me that maybe expecting to die at work is a bit of a bleak thought. Maybe my life isn’t where it should be.

But then I’m dead and the thought doesn’t matter anymore.

Chapter 18

The feeling of jellied legs and swooping descent washes over me as I, once again, stand in my office foyer as the day resets. It takes me a little bit longer to regain my sense of self and bodily autonomy than usual. Most likely because of the whole, you know, dying thing.

With panting breaths that dredge the air out of the floor of my lungs, I regain control.

I’m here. I’m safe. I’m unhurt. I’m alive.

Gotta love a time loop.

In a daze, I walk over to the file room and pick out the appropriate file, zipping it in my shoulder bag. It takes a couple tries since my numbed fingers seem disconnected from the rest of me. Really, I feel disconnected from my entire body, like my brain and body are moving at two different, alternating speeds.

The piercing shatter of a window, followed by a deafening roar shock me back into myself.

This time, I don’t bother to hide. I just turn towards the door and accept my fate.

My fate charges through the door, half storming in, half flying, knocking the door clean off its hinges, hurtling off and upwards at an unnatural angle. Grant’s eyes are feral, an unbroken wild as they lock onto mine.

Despite everything I know about him and everything I suspect, I can’t help the way my heart races as my spirit calms. Even in the midst of his uncontrolled fury, he is my center.

I know that’s crazy. We’ve only known each other for a few days—or, if you’re counting linearly, we haven’t met yet, but he’s my gravity.

A little ironic that Grant starts to make me float with his powers right after I think that. As I hover several inches in the air, he bulldozes towards me. Everything that could conceivably be between us gets knocked out of the way by some unseen force, until the room is littered with crushed boxes, falling papers, and the heat bubbling between us.

We come together, impossibly magnetic with our heightened emotions, as the floor disappears farther and farther below us. Instantly, his mouth is on mine, insistent and hot. Without a second thought, aside from a brief recognition of the need coursing through my body, I wrap my legs around him when he crushes my body against his.

But being close isn’t close enough for me after what I just experienced. Reaching behind his head, I press his face even more against mine. Our teeth clash as our tongues tangle. We breathe the same air. We inhabit the same space. I feel a pulsing in my chest but I don’t know if it’s from my own heart or from feeling his against mine.

As rough as our kiss is, his hands are even more brutal. He grabs my ass as he angles my pussy against the hard length of his cock. His fingers bite into my ass cheek, bruising my soft flesh and grabbing so deeply that I moan. The sound urges him on. He rocks me against him, lighting up every single one of my nerve endings as my orgasm builds and builds.

Time ceases to matter—everything ceases to matter except for us and the way we fall into every part of each other.

At least until the building starts with its initial rumblings.

“I need to get you out of here,” Grant gasps, breaking the kiss and looking murderous for having done so.

I push my chest into him, my nipples pressing into his chest and my heart echoing with his.

“We have time.”

That’s all he needs. While we don’t feel the rumble since we’re suspended in air, grinding against each other like the world is about to end, the rest of the room erupts with the usual chaos.

Grant controls the objects to avoid us. As he moves my hips up and down against his rock-hard shaft, crashes and clamours batter the room.

Through it all, we kiss, a joining of all that we are, a raging against every moment we could’ve had together. My body’s on fire with a sweltering heat and a pulsing, delicious throb in my clit. Every time, he drags me up the entire length of his cock so that its head rubs distinctly against my clit. Again and again as the room comes down around us. It’s so perfect that I swear he’s used some of his gravitational power to get just the right angle through his spandex suit.

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