Page 119 of As the World Falls

“I have you. Just keep taking all of me, baby. Just like that.” He slams into me once. Twice. The third time, I’m screaming and clawing at his shoulders as I come the hardest I ever have in my life.

“Fuck,” he growls, coming inside me, filling me, and making me his.

“That was…oh my god,” I murmur at a loss for words as he stands off the bed. He tugs his sweats back up over him and disappears into the bathroom. A second later, he returns with a warm wet rag and gently glides it across my sex, cleaning me. I watch him, amazed. “Definitely never had this done before either.”

“You apparently have never been with a proper man then because they should’ve licked your pussy and cleaned you up afterward.” I gasp at his crudeness, and he chuckles. “Although I’m very much okay with being your first. No complaints here.”

“Such a man,” I joke, pulling his covers up and sliding underneath them. “Mhmm,” I hum in the warmth.

He watches me in amusement and kicks up the bottom of the blanket, pulling my heels off my feet. “Tired?”

“After this night? I could sleep for eternity.” He’s about to sit on the bed next to me when I shoot up and scare him into standing straight. “Oh my gosh, your date! James, you had adate at the ball. We just left her. What if she’s hurt? What if she’s?—”

“She’s fine,” he cuts me off, his voice gentle and calm. I try to settle my racing nerves as I lean back into the bed. “I made sure she got home safely,” he adds.

“Oh, well…how did you do that?”

“Stef.”

“I see. You know, I uh…I met him tonight.”

“I’m aware.”

“He reminds me of Batman.”

That gets a laugh out of him. “I don’t think he’s ever gotten that comparison before.”

“Well, he showed up like a dark broody angel of vengeance, therefore…”

“Batman.”

“Batman,” I agree.

“I’ll be sure to tell him that.”

“So, he took your…date…home?” I ask, barely able to choke the word out. Date. Ugh. I really hated that he had a date with someone else, and I hated how good-looking she was, too.

James smiled and walked around the bed, sitting beside me on the edge as his hand found my cheek. He caressed it softly as his eyes danced over my face with a mixture of amusement and adoration. How he looked at me was enough to calm the fiery jealousy burning inside me.

“Milana, my date, is his sister. She was doing me a favor. She’s my publicist and a very favored one at that.”

Just when I think he can’t scramble my brain any further, he adds another egg and whisks it up. I never knew Stefano had a sister. “Does that mean you two are close, too? Like siblings?” I ask.

He shakes his head. “No. I’m not close to her. She’s younger and lived with her mother in the city while Stef and I were raisedin Boston away from the family chaos until we were closer to eighteen.”

“Why wouldn’t she be raised with her brother?”

“Her mother was an affair that their father was having, so she was raised a bit of an outcast until Stef brought her in once he was of age.”

“Wow,” I say in shock. “He sounds like he has a big heart.”

“Once you get past all the bolts and chains, yes.”

I press my lips together in a flat smile. “Sounds like someone else I know.”

“Yes, well, they didn’t stand a chance against you. Your will is that of a hacksaw.”

I laugh at the comparison. “That’s fine with me, just as long as you're not letting anyone else try to break the chains.”

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