He licks slow rings around me. Every pass brings him closer and closer, gets me wetter and wetter, so that when he finally slides a finger inside me, it goes in without the tiniest bit of resistance. He crooks it up toward his face and I see stars.

His tongue descends on my clit. Two fingers. Three. The ball is squishy and wobbly beneath me as I buck and writhe while Sasha licks me to a drooling orgasm.

I’m still pinwheeling when he stands up, his cock hard and ready. He grabs a support rope and wraps it around my wrists, securing me to him like a leash.

I’m at his mercy now.

He bumps the ball back and forth so I bounce and flail around. I laugh, the sound coming out breathy and needy. He smiles, eyes dark. “You want more, Ari?”

I nod. He leans down, his cock rubbing against my entrance. I want to touch him so fucking badly, but he’s got my wrists bound with the rope.

“St-stop… teasing…”

“Who, me?” he asks innocently. His face goes dark as he starts to slowly drag the tip of his dick up and down my pussy. Never entering, just a taunt graze. “No, Ariel, I won’t stop teasing. I’m going to do this… and this… and this… until you’re dripping and pleading for me to finally go in. You can moan all you want, but it won’t make me go one second faster. In fact, that sound is music to my ears—so I might just go a little slower, and a little slower than that. You’ll be half-crazed by the time I’m done, won’t you? You’ll have eyes rolling back in your hand and you’ll bite your lip raw. And then I’m going to tease you one… more… time… That’ll be the one that breaks you. But it’s only then that I’ll finally slideinto you, Ariel. It’s only when you’re truly about to lose your mind that I’ll give you everything you want.”

It’s like he’s casting a spell on me. Every sentence is underscored with that delicious, unbearable friction as he toys with my clit. I’m everything he swore I would be: dripping, pleading, needy, desperate. There’s no limit to the things I would do to have him all the way inside me.

I look up at him, tears filling my eyes. “Sasha… please.”

He smirks, hair falling over his forehead. He’s the devil I always thought he was. But he’smydevil now.

“I knew you were a good girl, Ariel. Show me just how good.”

Then he pushes inside me, filling me completely, and as always, that first stroke steals every last bit of my breath away.

I cry out. He muffles it with a heavy kiss.

He starts to move, his hips thrusting against mine. The rope chafes at my wrists, but I’m grateful for it, because it tethers me to reality, when everything else feels like it’s melting into oblivion. The ball rolls back and forth, squishing and rocking and squeaking, and I’m moaning, he’s panting, we’re fucking like this is the first time or the last time, I can’t tell which.

But then his smile fades. His eyes blacken. He leans down, his mouth finding mine again with more intent than ever before, as he says the only thing that could possibly bring me any higher than he’s already brought me:

“I love you, Ariel Ward. I fucking love you.”

I’d say it back if I could, but then he fucks into me so hard that it doesn’t matter what I say, because my body is saying it for me with every clench and squeeze and wordless moan.

I come.

He comes.

We both fall into each other, boundaries blurring, breath mingling, worlds colliding.

He helps me dress afterward, rolling my leggings back on and hiking them up over my swelling hips. His touch is gentle, littered with kisses everywhere—my neck, my shoulder blades, the curve of my spine.

I don’t return the favor—I’m too greedy for that, and watching Sasha dress is one of my guilty pleasures. So I just sit back and enjoy the show.

He drags his pants back up over his toned butt and fastens his belt. His abs disappear, one row at a time, as he hikes his shirt back on and buttons it. He’s always so precise about his appearance. Cuffs get rolled perfectly, hair smoothed down. As if anyone who sees us walking out of here won’t know exactly what we’ve been doing.

I let out a mournful sigh when his body is hidden from view again. It’s almost a shame that he’s not required to stand on a pedestal in a busy intersection all day long. People should get to look at him. He’s an international treasure.

On the other hand, I don’t mind that he’s all mine.

We’re almost out the door when he says, “Almost forgot this.” I stand and watch as he jogs back to retrieve the journal he filled with notes today.

“Gonna add to that now?” I tease. “‘Ariel likes the three-fingers plus clit combo. Note for next time: consider optimal perineum involvement.’“

But instead of laughing or joking back, his face goes serious. “I want to be ready,” he says quietly. “To help you. When the time comes.”

That steals my breath more effectively than any of his kisses. In that moment, it’s so easy to glimpse the future stretching out before us: Sasha beside me in the delivery room, those strong hands that deal death so easily now cradling new life instead. A pair of glistening pink babies resting on his bare chest.