Page 65 of Confession
“I fucking love you.”
“Stop.”
“I fucking love you.”
He completely shatters. His whole body starts shaking. He pulls away from me so damn hard that he’s out of the bed before I can react, but I’m right behind him as he falls to the floor, hunched in on himself and shaking with sobs that he refuses to let out.
I force my arms into the curled-up space of his body, grabbing him around the middle and hauling him back into the bed.
“Please,” I beg because I’m crying now too. “Please, Quinn.”
I don’t even know exactly what I’m asking for, but he’s gives it to me anyway. He rolls over in my arms and wraps his around me. His body fully entwines with mine. His face buries against my throat, like he finally believes me, like he finally trusts me. And he finally cries like I think he’s needed to for years.
And so do I.
TWENTY-ONE
Quinn
I lie heavily in Vitali’s bed, his arms still around me, his chest against my back, as light brightens along the edges of the curtains. My mind is empty, like it’s been too overwhelmed to hold thoughts anymore. But there’s still emotion.
I feel raw. Exposed and bare. It scares me, god it does, but I feel like, maybe, I can handle it.
Vitali murmurs behind me, half waking. His hand flexes on my stomach. I close my eyes as my low-simmering arousal flares hotter.
His dick stiffens against my ass as he wakes. His fingers idly stroke my abs. His breathing deepens. When he kisses the back of my neck, I take his hand and move it to my hard cock.
“Mmm,” he hums appreciatively. He strokes me lightly for a moment before moving his hand to my lower belly and saying, “We don’t have to have sex, you know.”
“I want to.”
His thumb brushes my navel while his pinky lightly teases the base of my cock.
“We’re gonna talk about it first,” he tells me. “The sex.”
I sigh wearily.
He props himself up on one elbow to look down at me. “Ineed to talk about it, Quinn.”
I roll onto my back. In the low light, I can’t see his face perfectly, but I can feel that he’s troubled. I’ve put him through a lot lately.
“Okay,” I say.
At my compliance, he smiles slightly. But his smile fades as he thinks about what he wants to discuss. It’s not hard to guess.
“I don’t like what I did to you last time.”
“Vitali—”
“Let me finish. I don’t care that it was consensual. I don’t care that it made us both come. And the problem isn’t that it was violent. The problem is that it was done in anger, and we can never do that again, not like that.”
“Sometimes I need that.”
“I don’t know, Quinn. I think what you actually need is to understand that you’re safe—please don’t look away from me.”
I have to close my eyes for a second, but I force them back open. I don’t look away. He starts rubbing my chest because I’m having trouble breathing.
Memories from last night flash up. The way I broke down. The way he wouldn’t let me do it alone. Even now, he just stays with me until I get through it.
