Page 107 of Delicate Escape

Shep’s hand slid up between my breasts and along my sternum to the place where my jaw met my neck. “Don’t hide that beauty from me. I want to see all of it. Everything.”

My eyes flew open. Because I didn’t want to hide from Shep. I wanted us to share it all. Nothing hidden and no being ashamed. Everything out in the open.

I moved then, my hips rocking gently at first as I adjusted to his size. Then deeper, taking more of him. I saw the strain in Shep along his jaw and in his forearms. Saw how much he was holding back. But I didn’t want him to.

“All of you,” I whispered.

“Thea—”

“Please.”

Shep’s control finally snapped, and it was beautiful. He flipped me, not losing my body for a single second. “Legs around me,” he growled.

I obeyed, encircling him, my heels digging into his ass. Shep thrust into me, making me feel it all: his power and strength, the ferocity with which he wanted me, and how much every part of me yearned for him.

His body moved in powerful arcs, bending me to him as he let loose everything he’d been holding back.

My fingers gripped his shoulders, nails digging into his back. Shep thrust deeper, making tiny spots dance across my vision andmy inner walls tremble. My legs shook as I tried to hold on, and I was pretty sure I was drawing blood.

“Not. Yet,” Shep gritted out.

“Shepard.” His name curled around us both, the promise of what he was to me.

His thrusts grew faster, impossibly deeper. Shep’s face blurred in my vision, but I’d know him anywhere, even in the pitch-black. I couldn’t hold back any longer.

My body clamped down around Shep, and I cried out with the force of the first wave. But it wasn’t enough for him. His hand slipped between us, finding my clit as he drove into me again and again.

The pleasure was so intense it was just shy of pain. Shep’s thumb pressed down on my clit, sending dark flashes across my vision. The sound he made as he came had an animalistic edge, and the ferocity of it only sent me higher. The feeling of him emptying inside me had that power surging.

But it was more. It was the knowledge that we could be what each other needed, in good times and bad.

Shep rolled us, and I collapsed on top of him, still relishing the feel of him inside me and not wanting to lose it. My chest heaved like I’d just had the workout of my life, and both of us were damp with sweat.

I tipped my head back. “We might have a problem.”

Shep frowned up at me. “Problem?”

“I like when you’re angry and when you’re apologizing. At this rate, I could be starting fights left and right.”

Shep barked out a laugh, but the action had my core tightening around him. The laugh died, and Shep cursed. “Are you trying to kill me?”

I grinned down at him. “You’re the one who started it.”

He knifed up, taking my mouth in a long, slow kiss. When he pulled back, I saw something I couldn’t quite read in those amber eyes. “Thank you.”

“For what?” I whispered.

His thumb ghosted over my bottom lip. “For making me feel worthy, even at my worst.”

My heart cracked, but the pieces that splintered found their way to Shep. Right where they belonged. “Shep, your worst is only good. Because it just shows how much you care.”

I wanted to give him those three little words so badly because I knew now that I felt them with every part of me.

Shep’s thumb trailed over my jaw and down my neck, resting in the hollow there. “Thank you for seeing me.”

“Thank you for letting me in.” Because letting me see the cracks along with the perfection only made Shep more beautiful to me. And it let me give him back just a fraction of what he’d given to me.

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