Page 152 of Intense
It isn’t nerves.
It’s something worse.
Because I’m expecting the same thing I’ve already experienced with Finn. Fast, rough, no room to breathe, or being left on the edge of frustration. The kind of sex that feels like a fight we both lose and win at the same time.
But when I unlock the door and step aside, he doesn’t touch me.
He looks.
His gaze moves across every inch of my living space, lingering on the things I never thought twice about. My mismatched coffee mugs left on the table, the pile of medical journals on the counter, and the old blanket draped over the couch.
“This is… you,” he says finally.
I can’t read his tone.
“Nothing special.” I shrug.
It’s not that I don’t have the money, because I do. I just don’t want a lavish lifestyle. I work long enough hours to kill me.
This is simply a place to sleep. It’s not a home.
I’ve never truly had one of those.
He tips my chin up to him.
“You simply have no idea, do you?” he whispers.
My body tingles against his touch.
“About what?” I ask, my voice breaking as I suck in a breath.
“There isn’t a single soul more special than yours, temptress.”
I try to look away, but he keeps me in place. This is too raw, too vulnerable. What if he leaves? Who will be there to pick up the fractured pieces of my heart then?
“Want a drink?” I ask, taking a step toward the kitchen.
He catches my hand before I get two steps in.
“Later.”
That one word, it’s quiet but loaded, and it roots me to the spot.
He walks me backward, slow enough that my heart has time to speed up with every step, until the backs of my knees hit the couch. His hand comes up, not to grab my jaw or wrap around my throat like I expected, but to tip my chin up with the gentlest pressure.
“You’ve never done this before,” he says, almost to confirm it as a fact.
“And you have?” I challenge.
The corner of his mouth curves. “No. I haven’t.”
“I’ve never had sex where the woman hasn’t been restrained. I’ve never had them facing me, looking into my soul. I’ve never trusted anyone to give even the smallest piece of me to them. There is no other word for my past encounters than simply “a fuck”. But you’re different. I want to change that, for you.”
I bite down on my lip. I want to kill whoever hurt him enough to make him this closed off. I thought I was bad, but he is really, deeply in pain.
“You can trust me, Finn. I won’t hurt you. I’m yours.”
He blinks at me and grins.
