He stops himself dead in his tracks before he goes any further, as though he can tell that I don’t need him beating himself up in this moment. I reach my hand for his cheek and rest it there for a second, brushing my fingertips along his jaw.

“Guess you’ve been doing a lot of that lately, huh?” I say.

“What?”

“Blaming yourself.”

He sighs and glances away from me. “Yeah, you can’t blame me for that,” he mutters. “If I had never met you, none of this would have happened. If I?—”

But before he can go any further down this path, I lean up and plant my lips against his. That seems to silence him for a second, and when I pull back, he looks surprised.

“What are you…?”

“I didn’t know who you were then,” I confess, stroking my hand through his silver hair. “But I know who you are now. And right now, all that matters is that I want you.”

He seems to understand—this isn’t about what comes next, this is about here, now, this moment, the feel of his hands on my body, his fingertips digging into my skin. He moves on top of me, leaning down over me as our legs tangle, and his tongue slips into my mouth as we finally finish the talking and get to the good stuff.

I arch my back to push into him, and I can already feel that he’s starting to get hard. All the emotion of the last few days is rising up inside me, faster than I can control it, and I kiss him back even harder. It feels as though I can’t get enough of him, as though I will never get enough of him. My body is moving against his, my legs pressing him closer to me, and he groans against my mouth, a sure sign that he wants this just as much as I do.

“I need you inside of me,” I breathe against his mouth, my words so quiet I’m not sure if he can even hear them—but then, as though on cue, he reaches down to his pants and unzips them, taking himself in his hand as he grins down at me.

“I don’t think I’m ever going to get tired of hearing you say that,” he murmurs as he reaches down to pull off the sweatpants I changed into after my shower. I kick them off, along with my panties, unable to think about anything other than giving myself to him. This man has risked so much to come to my aid—and I need to show him just how thankful I am.

I hook my ankles around him and draw him down to me, reaching out so I can guide his cock toward my pussy. He watches as I lower him into me, letting out a deep growl ofpleasure as he feels me envelop him for the first time in what feels like forever.

“Oh, fuck,” he moans, and he lets himself down on top of me, wrapping his arms around me and pulling me against him with a desperate neediness. He begins to thrust into me at once, not holding back, and I knew he feels everything I do right now—the pleasure, the intensity of it, the need for each other that seems to overwhelm everything else.

I catch his face in my hands so I can look into his eyes as he fucks me, and he gazes back, clear-eyed and steady. I can see the pleasure starting to rise in him, the veins in his neck beginning to stand out as he finds himself going closer and closer to the edge, but he slows himself, making sure not to go over before I’m entirely ready for him.

And for a while, he just grinds into me—hitting that perfect spot that allows him to massage my clit while he’s in me, the pleasure throbbing through every inch of my body at once. My thighs begin to tense and twitch on either side of him, and I know it’s not going to be long till I reach my own release.

He moves his mouth to my neck, grazing his lips along me hungrily. I can feel his teeth against me again, that flash of danger that reminds me just who I’m dealing with, but in this heightened state, it translates only into another tingling wave of pleasure.

“Oh God,” I whimper, and he pushes into me deep, one last time—and I finish, right there on his cock, filled to the brim with his length as he holds me close. I can feel his heart pounding against mine, almost in time with the pulsations of my pussy, and my body rocks against his as I draw him in deeper, craving every inch of him I can take.

A few moments later, he goes over the edge inside of me, as though he’s been holding off for my orgasm all this time. I can feel the warmth of him within me, the two of us bound together like this as though we were made for each other.

And he just holds me there for a long moment, neither of us willing to pull back. The last time we hooked up, I was kidnapped just a few hours later, and some of that fear still lingers, as irrational as I know it to be.

When he finally draws back, his eyes are nearly black in the dim light. He kisses me one more time, and then pulls me up into his lap, nuzzling into my neck as the two of us catch our breath once more.

He leans into me, his grip tightening around my waist. I know he doesn’t want to let me go—and God, in this moment, I don’t want him to either. I just need to feel safe in his arms right now, need the promise that nothing bad is going to happen again.

“You should get to bed,” he remarks softly, brushing his lips against my ear. I yawn, my body utterly spent from everything that has happened, and then that incredible orgasm on top of it.

“I want to check on Polly one last time before I go to bed,” I reply.

“She’s fine,” he assures me.

“I know,” I reply. “I just want to make sure. For my own peace of mind.”

He sighs, but he unravels himself from me, perhaps sensing that I really need to do this, no matter how silly it might seem from his point of view. I’m sure this whole thing seems bizarre to him,when Polly is just in the next room, but it’s going to be a long time before I can truly relax around my daughter again.

But she’s fine, fast asleep in her crib, as though nothing at all is wrong. I smile as I lean in the doorway, and feel him move in behind me, planting a kiss on the back of my neck.

“Satisfied?” he asks, and I nod.

“For now,” I reply. “Come on, let’s go to bed. I’m exhausted.”