Page 88 of Always

So hard that I’ll leave marks.

My marks.

My marks on my woman.

My submissive.

For a timeless moment, we remain locked together. One being. One heart. One soul.

Until I open my eyes and pull away from her.

“Stay put,” I say. “I’ll be right back.”

I head to the bathroom, wash myself, and then run a clean washcloth under lukewarm water, squeeze it out, and take it back to Skye.

Her eyes are still closed when I glide the warm cloth over her intimate parts. She opens her eyes, a dreamy look sweeping across her delicate features.

“You may speak now.” My voice is husky, dark, sated.

She opens her mouth, but all that comes out is a soft sigh.

“Tell me what you’re thinking,” I say.

“It was… It was… Unbelievable.”

“For me as well. I want to be the only man who ever goes inside that ass, Skye. The only man.”

A surge of feral possessiveness floods my veins.

My heart thunders, pounding like a relentless war drum. Every cell, every fiber of my being screams with a primal urge to protect what is mine. I feel like an untamed beast stirring from its slumber, claws out and teeth bared.

Does she understand?

Is she willing?

I breathe in, calming the beast inside me.

I need to be thinking of Skye, of what I just put her body through.

I rise from the bed and release her bindings. She rubs her wrists absently.

“Okay? Any chafing?” I ask.

“No.”

“How about your arms? Any pain from the stretch?”

“No,” she says again.

“Good.” I rake my gaze over her. “I love you, Skye.”

“I love you, too, Braden. So much.”

“Thank you for sharing that part of yourself with me.”

“Thank you, too,” she says. “Thank you for everything, Braden.”

Chapter Thirty-Four