Page 70 of Covenant

I shrug. “Well, I don’t know about you, but not having sex for the next year sounds pretty shit.”

Now he’s not the only one with a hand on his throat. Sparks flash in Matthias’s eyes as he flips us. I let him, landing back against the wall with a grunt.

“I told you—no sleeping with anyone else,” Matthias thunders. Something in me expands as he shows me the first emotion I understand since the night of the gala. “I won’t have you cheating on me. You fucking got that?”

My lips curl up in a smirk, drawing a growl from Matthias. I let it grow until I’m grinning at him widely. “Who said anything about sleeping with other people?”

Honestly, it’s comical watching Matthias process that. I can almost hear the screech of his brain coming to a halt.

His hand loosens around my throat, making me scowl.

No, put it back. I want it there. I want it tighter, damnit.

“What?”

I roll my eyes. “Do I need to spell it out for you? You are gay, right? You know how this works between two men?”

My antagonizing words work, a groan spilling from me as his grip retightens. “My sexuality isn’t the one we should be discussing. You are straight, right?”

See, he might think that mocking tone will annoy me, but it doesn’t. It’s a sign I’m getting to him. That I’m as under his skin as he is under mine. “Seems I’m not as straight as I thought. Or your mouth is just that good. Because right now, I have no issue moving forward. Doing more withyou.”

His lips pop open and I can’t help myself. I latch on to him and shove my tongue inside. There’s a salty taste that takes me a second to place.

It’s you. That’s what you’re tasting. Your cum.

I moan into Matthias’s mouth, my hands going into his hair. He’s still frozen, letting me just plunder him. I pull away in frustration when he doesn’t give me what I want. “Come on. You want me. Well, here I am. What are you going to do with me?”

My words detonate something inside him. He snaps, hauling me away from the wall and spinning me. I’m being marched backward, my thighs hitting something soft before I’m shoved down on a bed.

Matthias covers my body with his, his mouth lowering to mine. Before our lips meet, he cringes. “Shit.”

I sit up as he scrambles backward. “What? Don’t start running again. I’ve chased you down once, I’ll do it again.”

“It’s not that,” he mutters, tugging on the crotch of his boxers as his cheeks turn a cute shade of pink. “I forgot I’ve come once already. These are fucking uncomfortable. I think my pubes are fused together.”

He looks so chagrined, so mournful that he’s had to pause, that it stirs something in me. A reaction I haven’t had in a long time.

It starts as a snort.

Builds into a chuckle.

Before I know it, laughter is roaring out of me.

Matthias’s lips quirk. “Something funny?”

That sends me over the edge. Tears streak down my face as I clutch my stomach. I don’t know what it is. That Matthias is uncomfortable in the boxers I made him come in. That his normally perfectly styled hair is stuck against his head from where I’d yanked him into the pool. That I got him into bed, only for him to need to immediately get back out again.

Or is it the fact that I want him in bed in the first place? That somehow, despite hating him for all these years, Iwanthim?Perhaps it’s just this whole situation. A few weeks ago, I was broke, single, straight, and miserable as fuck.

Now, I have more money than I know what to do with and a husband. And judging by the number of orgasms that have resulted because of said husband, we can knock straight off the list too.

And…I’m laughing. I’mlaughing.I don’t remember the last time this happened. Not like this. My breath is wheezing in and out of my chest as I blink away tears. The black cloud that’s followed me for so long…it’s lifting. Maybe not completely, but enough for me to feel.

When the fuck did that happen? And why? Why is it him that makes me feel alive after all this time?

It’s always been him.

You were miserable without him, even when you hated him.

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