Page 42 of Afraid to Hope

“More, sweetheart?” Bane grinned wickedly, groaning loudly as his finger, then two, slipped into her slick, silky heat, working her slowly, his eyes glittering with lust as he watched Natasha.

She was so close. “Yes.”

“Bottoms off, sweetheart. I want to see all of you.” Bane pulled his fingers out, putting them in his mouth and sucking slowly, watching transfixed as she untied the drawstring and let her moist pajama shorts drop to the deck before kicking them toward the pile. “Christ. You’re so fucking wet for me. I want to bathe in you.”

Natasha felt her knees start to buckle as he inserted his fingers into her again. She moaned loudly and rocked against him, gasping as he stroked her with his fingers and then his tongue. She cupped the crown of his head with both hands and held on, breathing heavily. Waves of his dark hair spiked between her fingers, soft, glossy, and thick.

Bane kissed her thighs before rising. “I could come just tasting you, watching you watch me as I taste you. But—” He hooked his thumbs into his sweats and shoved them down over his lean hips. Commando. He was as naked as she was.

Natasha stopped moving and just stared, her mouth partially open, her breath stuttering, her body quaking for him.

“Nat.”

Holy hell. She just stared, rendered speechless by his beauty. Bane was a masterpiece. Gifted. Gorgeous. His long, thick erection strained toward her. He exuded patience and power.

He guided her hands to him, the tension snapping and crackling between them. “I want to fill you. I want to feel you shatter while I move inside you.”

Natasha’s heart galloped in her throat, making it difficult for her to speak. “Yes,” she cried, hoarsely.Oh my god, yes.

Bane grabbed one of the throws off the divan before pulling her to the deck with him and tucking it under her. They kissed each other passionately, sipping at each other’s mouths, their tongues mirroring his movement as he pushed into her fully, stretching her to the point of pleasurable pain.

Natasha wrapped her arms and legs around Bane, urging him deeper, out of her mind with the heat that built deep inside her. “Bane!” she cried out as her body clenched and bucked. She arched and exploded against him, and Bane thrust home, grunting as his powerful release rippled through both of them.

To fish in troubled water.

Chapter 21

“Bane!” Natasha called from the atrium. She was just about to call again when he appeared at the top of the stairs in front of her bedroom, now their bedroom.

“Yes?” His deep voice rumbled as he came to look down at her from the balcony. He was fresh from a shower—one she had passed on because she’d showered earlier while he slept and had been intent on making him breakfast.

The image of him naked in the shower turned her limbs rubbery, so she leaned against the wall, trying to look casual. What would it have felt like to run her hands over the hard wetness of him? She blinked, willing away the image, sucking in oxygen and speaking more forcefully than she’d meant to. The matter at hand was far more important. “Can you come down here?”

Natasha lost her train of thought as Bane trotted down the stairs and sauntered toward her, smiling as if he had discovered a secret, a white bath towel snugly secured around his lean hips, setting off his olive-toned skin and tats. His scruff was trimmed back, shadowing the dimples she had seen hints of so often when he talked, smiled, or laughed. Natasha flushed; she had some tender areas from where his whiskers had grazed her last night and early this morning.

Bane pulled her against his dewy, sculpted chest and buried his nose in her hair, which was still damp. “Good morning, beauty. You wore me out after that very-early-morning cup of coffee, but I can be had.” He untucked the patterned, sleeveless top from the linen skirt she wore and slid his hands inside her panties, massaging her ass. “Both of us are going to need some shut-eye later. Fuck, you feel good,” he murmured against her head, nesting his hips against her.

Her senses filled with sandalwood and spice, and his attentiveness to her ass sent her heart skittering, her entire body thrumming on overdrive. In all honesty, she would prefer to go back to bed with him. She kissed him and stepped back, cocking her head. “Come with me?”

He lifted his head and his eyes narrowed at her serious tone, but he followed her into theriad’s office.

“Whoa. Am I in trouble?” He grinned at her.

“Um, no,” she responded, standing in front a massive inlaid wood desk.

The beautiful room, awash with rich color and a well-appointed rug and Moroccan furniture, was a mess. Papers, note cards, and folders littered the carpet. He did a double take. “What are you doing? We have to be in Emmet’s office by nine o’clock.” He glanced at his watch. “Simon will be here in roughly an hour to pick us up. Are you packed and ready?”

“I am. Have you been in here?”

“Huh?”

“Have you been in here?” She repeated herself with a little edge.

“Hey, easy.”

She inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly. “I’m sorry. You didn’t deserve that.”

“No, I haven’t been in here except when you showed it to me. Why? What’s with the mess?”

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