Page 50 of Gravel and Grit

“What are you talking about?” she breathed.

“I gave you thedassawithout your consent,” he rasped, squeezing his eyes shut as if he couldn’t stand to look at her. “I have lost my honor.”

“Zaek… ”

Mira was shocked, more than shocked, she was gutted. She thought he didn’t want her, that it was her fault, and all this time he was…

He was right. She hadn’t known, at the time, the implications of having sex with him, but she didn’t regret it. Not for a second.

“Zaek, I-”

He shook his head, cutting her off, and took another step toward her, his huge hands reaching but not touching.

“Forgive me,” he pleaded, his voice low and hoarse, his eyes tortured.

Her face crumpled, and she raised her hand to touch him, opening her mouth to tell him she was never mad, but the second her skin touched his, he moaned and shuddered. He surged toward her before her words could be voiced.

Cupping her cheeks, he tilted her head up and bowed himself down until their lips were only a breath apart. The feeling of his hands on her, for the first time in days, was like coming alive.

A tremble worked its way down his muscled arms, and he closed that last inch separating them. He whispered his plea against her mouth. Mira gasped, arousal sudden and sharp, burning through her even as her chest was squeezed in a vise. As soon as her lips parted, Zaek groaned and slowly licked inside her mouth like he was helpless to resist. That taste seemed to snap his control.

With no warning and without taking his lips from hers, he grabbed her thighs and picked her up. The suddenness of the move made her heart pound and soaked her panties.

Mira moaned into his mouth and wrapped herself around him tightly, clinging to him in case he changed his mind and tried to retreat again. She wouldn’t let him, not this time. He backed her against the wall, his kiss fierce, yet tender, so full of need and pain.

She hadn’t known the depths of misery he’d been in, but she could taste it on his tongue.

She could feel it in the desperate, frantic jerk of his hands as he stripped

them both.

She could hear it in the low, hungry, urgent sounds coming from his throat.

“Forgive me.”

It was a litany, a mumbled prayer as he kissed her, a growl as he aimed his cock at her opening, a strangled roar as she tightened her legs to bring him inside her. It was a guttural demand as he touched her everywhere, as he kissed her like she was air and he was suffocating, as he surged in and out of her soaked pussy, hard and fast.

Over and over he repeated those words as he fucked her with a desperation that was almost violent. Over and over she cried yes as she took him and screamed for more.

They strained against each other, pulled the other impossibly closer, and came together, their releases perfectly in sync, in a moment that felt beautiful and raw and heartbreaking all at once.

“There was never anything to forgive,” she panted against his neck, holding him tightly with arms that shook with the effort. Sliding her cheek along his until she could look up into his eyes, she whispered against his lips.

“I love you.”

3 3

ZAEK

Zaek’s breath shuddered out of him. He tried to say something, anything, but his lips moved against hers without sound. She stared up at him with such surety in her eyes, such conviction and sincerity and tenderness, but that didn't stop shocked disbelief from being the first thing he felt.

“Mira… ”

“Did you do it on purpose?” she challenged, her brows raised expectantly, her breaths still fast from their wild coupling.

He knew what she asked—had he intentionally given her thedassawithout telling her what would happen.

“No! I would never, Mira. You must—”

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