Page 9 of The Hitman's Secret Baby
I rub fast, desperate circles as he pounds into me.
It doesn't take long.
I break around him with a strangled cry, my body spasming as my orgasm hits like a snap, hard and blinding.
I feel myself clamp down around him, and he groans my name against my skin, his hips jerking once, then again, before he drives in deep and stays there.
He pulses inside me, thick and hot, even through the condom.
The sound he makes is raw, almost desperate, like he's being dragged under.
We stay like that, bodies tangled, breathing hard.
He doesn't pull out.
He keeps his hand at my jaw and his mouth pressed to my throat like he needs the contact as much as the release.
When he finally pulls out, it's slow, reluctant, dragging one last moan from my throat as the emptiness sets in like a second skin.
I feel the rush of wetness between my thighs, feel the ache blooming deep in my core, but more than anything, I feel the absence of him like a wound I don't know how to name.
His hands fall away from me, and for a long moment, he doesn't move, doesn't speak, just breathes hard, his forehead brushing my temple.
Then, without a word, he steps back.
No kiss.
No lingering look.
No soft nothing.
He cleans up and refastens his belt with methodical grace, his face unreadable in the half-light, his body already retreating into that dangerous calm I'm starting to understand is his armor.
I pull down my dress in silence, smoothing the torn lace against my thighs, trembling fingers shaking through ruined silk.
He walks to the gazebo gate and opens it, pausing just once.
And then he's gone.
I don't cry.
I don't breathe.
I don't even think.
I just walk back toward the house, heels scraping over stone, throat tight and hands clenched at my sides.
I pass through the halls like a ghost, unseen.
Unspoken for.
By the time I reach my room, I am unraveling into a tangle of confusion and heat and pride that feels like it's caught in my throat.
I shower in silence, the water too hot, too sharp, scrubbing at skin that still burns with the echo of his touch.
I curl into my sheets after, but sleep doesn't come.
And then, close to midnight, my phone lights up.
