Page 23 of After Hours

The angle of the bed kept slamming into her clit when he buried himself inside her. And he kept thrusting so deep inside of her that she was faintly concerned that she was going to split in half.

And still that great wave of what must surely be disaster came for her.

This time, when it hit, she screamed so loud she thought she heard glass splintering—though that was possibly just inside of her. Better still, she heard him growl out his release, and that, too, seemed to go on and on.

She didn’t know where she was. Up or down. Out in space somewhere or here in this apartment, on this bed.

At some point Romily felt him move and before she could really register that, he was swinging her up into his arms and then carrying her as if she was little more than a feather. She told herself that she should probably wake all the way up and pay attention, but she couldn’t seem to do it. It was as if she no longer had control of her body.

She didn’t really pay attention again until she found herself sitting in a bath.

More improbably, Zachary was in that bath with her and he was washing her body with an intense expression on his face.

Romily couldn’t begin to translate what that meant, so she simply rested there against his wide chest and let him tend to her, even though that felt as strange as all the other things that he had done to her already tonight.

This bathroom was big enough to be a second bedroom, she thought, and enormous to a person who lived on a small boat. The tub itself sat on a raised dais and the rest of the bathroom was luxuriously spacious, with an enormous shower that was glassed in on one end, and looked like it had at least one bench inside.

She would have thought that was an innocuous bench earlier. But not now.

“We’re going to have to talk about testing and birth control, you and me,” Zachary said, a rumble in her ear that she could feel down the length of her back, too. It felt like heat and wonder and she felt herself relax against him even more.

“I tested myself for everything when I left my marriage, because he was an asshole and I don’t trust him,” she replied. Thinking about her marriage felt ridiculous here, in a place Joseph could never touch. It almost felt like a story she was telling. Not her life. “I haven’t touched anyone since. But I’m happy to get tested again.” She tilted her head back so she could look up at him. “I have an IUD.”

“Perfect,” he said, and she saw that gleam in his eyes that made her feel giddy. “I get tested weekly. I’ll show you where.”

Romily had no idea what time it was. She barely understood where she was. She felt suspended in space. In the warm water this tub. In his arms.

“Perfect,” she echoed in reply, and watched him smile at her.

It sent hergiddinessinto overdrive.

Then his gaze went stern again, and she felt her whole body shiver into instant awareness, though she was sure that it was really and truly physically impossible this time. Not after everything that already happened.

Sure enough, he pulled her out of the bath and dried her off—frowning as she attempted to do anything by herself—and then marched her out into the bedroom again, but not to the bed. Zachary sat in an armchair that faced another window overlooking the marina.

Romily found herself breathless.

Because he was naked. Finally. She realized this was the first time she’d seen all of him—and he lived up to every last fantasy she’d had about him over these past months. She’d seen him shirtless before—all of those muscles with tattoos spread over him, seductive and warning at once.

It was different, somehow, when she could seeallof him. Those powerful thighs, also tattooed. His strong, defined legs. And that enormous cock of his, rising hard and mouthwatering before her.

God help her, but he was the most beautiful man she’d ever seen in her life.

And now she knew how he smelled. How he tasted. What he sounded like when he came.

“Eyes up here,” he said, his voice an amused rumble.

Romily jumped, feeling absurdlyguilty,but that gleam in his eyes was soothing. She took a breath. Then waited.

Slowly—almost lazily though there was nothing the least bit lazy about this man—he lifted one hand and drew a circle in the air. An order for her to turn around, and the funniest part was that she didn’t have to think about it. Her body simply obeyed.

And the strangest part was how it made her feel almostbuoyant.

Then he had her stand there before him with her hands on top of her head as he applied a salve that smelled like sweet herbs and something more complicated to her still too sensitive butt.

He took his time rubbing the salve into her hot skin, until she was breathing a little faster and working hard to keep from shifting her hips around in reaction to a different sort of heat he was building in her.

Then Zachary pulled her to him and stood her there between his legs, assessing her with that cool blue gaze of his. Gone stern again, she noticed, as everything in her melted.

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