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“Hmm?” This time the mumble lifted like a wordless question.

She poked at his shoulder. Not gently. “Jude.”

“Eve?”

Thank God, he sounded more awake.

“Yeah. I wanted to make sure you were awake,” she explained, trying to hold herself still instead of humping him from below. “And that you wanted this.”

He froze for a few seconds. Then he let out a husky moan and kissed her, mumbling over her lips, “Oh fuck, angel. Of course I want this.”

She whimpered in relief and wrapped her arms around him. They kissed with clumsy urgency for a minute until he reached between their bodies and pulled his erection out from his loose pants.

She wasn’t wearing any panties under her gown, so she was good to go. She made a few helpless sounds of effort as she parted her legs and shifted her hips in an attempt to get into position more quickly.

Then he was pushing into her, stretching and filling her so much she let out a loud, ragged groan. It didn’t sound like her at all.

“All right?” he mumbled, nuzzling her hair and her ear.

“Yeah. Good. So good.”

He made a humming sound as he started to thrust. “Good. Fuck, so good.”

She bent her legs and braced her feet on the mattress so she could pump her hips up into his thrusts. They’d had no foreplay, but they didn’t need it. She was already wet and ready, so turned on she couldn’t possibly lie still.

They both gasped and grunted as they fucked urgently with a kind of base, carnal need that was deeper than language.

She came quickly with a sharp, surprised cry, and then another orgasm started to build as he kept thrusting.

His grunting was starting to take the form of words. “Fuck. Angel. Fuck. So good. Need you. So much.”

She made a silly, stretched sound in response, her muscles tightening again in preparation for a second climax. “Jude.Yes. Jude.” That was all she was capable of articulating at the moment.

“Eve.” His thrusts accelerated, shaking the bed with a shameless banging sound against the wall. He was almost at the end of his control. “Fuck. Need you. Need you. Love you.”

She choked on a loud exclamation as the words hit her at the same time as her orgasm. She shook and cried her way through the contractions, aware enough to recognize that Jude was coming too.

He released inside her with a series of loud grunts and hard jerks. Then he fell on top of her as if he’d spent all the energy he possessed.

She wrapped him in her arms and held him, gasping and still occasionally making a silly moaning sound.

She wondered if he even knew what he’d said.

She wondered if he’d meant it.

Men sometimes said things they didn’t mean when they were on the cusp of climax. It would be foolish of her to read too much into it.

But still…

It had felt like he meant it. It had filled her heart to overflowing.

Even now he was pressing soft, clumsy kisses against her jaw and her throat, occasionally rasping outEveorangel.

And it was then that the final truth hit her, despite all her attempts to keep herself safe.

He was relaxed and heavy above her. Sated and sleepy. So incredibly warm—both his body and his heart. He was brilliant and complicated and deeper than anyone else she’d ever known.

And he was sick. He’d keep getting sicker. He would never get better.

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