Page 88 of Rupture

On his next thrust, her cry of release shattered the air as she clenched around him. The moment stripped him bare. Every wall, every defense crumbled. His heart, his mind, everything he was lay open for her to read. To own. There could never be anyone else after this.

Two more desperate thrusts and he lost himself, hisorgasm blazing through him like a supernova as he spilled his heat inside her.

He sagged, waiting for coherent thought to return, for the world to stop spinning on its axis. When he could move again, he gathered her into his arms and sank into the warm water, turning them in a lazy circle. The two of them locked as a tiny satellite in a universe gone mad.

“Mmm... I could get used to this,” she mumbled against his shoulder, arms draped around his neck.

“The hot sex?”

Her giggle vibrated against his skin, the simple joy of it making his heart clench. “No. Baths.”

He nipped her ear. “Ah. Good job I have a hard skin.”

She wriggled against him, arching a brow with wicked intent. “Hard something.”

A deep laugh expanded in his chest as he lifted her, bundling her in a towel. “Menace.” He carried her to the bed and tucked her under sheets scented with a hint of soapy laundry detergent, of cotton dried in the sun’s warmth.

Exhaustion dragged at his limbs, the events of the past few days finally catching up with him. But he wasn’t ready to sleep. Not yet. Not when having her here felt like some kind of dream.

He curled around her, molding his body to hers like a shield against the world. She nestled closer as he pressed a kiss to her damp hair, fitting herself into the spaces he hadn’t known were empty.

The walls he’d built after prison had been his armor, his survival. Keeping everyone at arm’s length had become second nature, as automatic as breathing.

But this woman? She’d slipped past every defense. Demolished his carefully constructed control until he wasstripped bare, brought to his knees by the simple truth of her.

An unexpected tendril of panic unfurled in his chest at how effortlessly she’d breached those walls, at how completely she’d undone him.

Finn let it wash through him and when he exhaled, it wasn’t fear that settled inside him.

It was hope.

50

Sunlight piercedRose’s eyes as a desert breeze stirred the gauzy muslin draped across the open balcony doors.

For a moment, disorientation gripped her. She was no longer in the eternal darkness of the Io with its perpetual hum of life support systems and recycled air. Instead, she was back in the dry heat of the Kalahari, where the morning air held the promise of scorching temperatures to come.

Finn had lowered fine mesh mosquito netting around their bed as she slept, creating a diaphanous cocoon. Its gentle sway cast shifting shadows across the bed.

His solid warmth pressed against her back, his arm locked around her like an anchor. She nestled deeper into his embrace, soaking up the sense of safety he gave her. He’d become more than just protection. So much more than she’d ever allowed herself to want.

All her careful walls constructed after Thea’s betrayal, had fallen away under his touch. Last night had stripped away her last defenses.

The electric slide of his hands on her skin, the connection that blazed between them.

It was too late to rebuild those walls. But she no longer wanted to try.

“Hey, sleepy head.” His palm curved over her breast, thumb and forefinger teasing her nipple into a tight peak. She pressed back into his touch, a soft sigh on her lips. Her skin tingled where his callused fingers traced patterns, each stroke firing sparks within her.

She threaded her hands through the soft mess of his hair. “Hey, you.”

He lifted the sheet from her shoulder, his lips finding the curve where neck met shoulder. Each kiss branded her skin as his hand splayed across her belly, the possessive stroke of his fingers making her breath skip.

“Finn.”

“Hmm?” His teeth grazed her neck, lifting her hair. A slow, deliberate nip sent tremors skating down her spine.

God.

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