Page 225 of The Rules
Here, in this bed, with their bodies joined and moving as one, Katherine found something she hadn't realized she'd been searching for.
She felt the shift of his body beneath her, the way his muscles tensed as he sat back on the mattress. Without hesitation, she followed, her body moving instinctively to match his. Her thighs settled around his hips, her arms finding their place around his shoulders as if they'd done this a thousand times before.
The heat between them hadn't faded—it had transformed into something deeper, something that wrapped around them both like a slow-burning current. His skin against hers felt essential now, not just desired. She could feel his heartbeat against her chest, slightly too fast, slightly too hard.
When his hand slid up her spine, she shivered from the tenderness in his touch. His other hand cradled the back of her head, fingers tangling in her hair, holding her close as if afraid she might pull away.
She had no intention of moving. Not now. Not when everything felt so fragile and perfect.
His forehead pressed against hers, and Katherine found herself caught in his gaze. His eyes, usually so controlled and unreadable, now held something rawer—an edge of fear, the quiet ache of someone bracing for loss. He was looking at her like she held something essential of his—something he couldn't afford to lose.
"Tell me I'm not losing you," he said, his voice rough and frayed around the edges.
Her breath caught in her throat. The rawness in his tone, the slight tremor beneath his words—it was so unlike the Ben she knew. The Ben who calculated every move, who never revealed more than necessary.
His fingers curled into her skin, not painfully, but desperately.
"Tell me you're not pulling away."
She wanted to speak, but the words stuck in her throat.
His vulnerability was contagious, terrifying in its honesty.
"Tell me there's still something here," he continued, his voice dropping to barely above a whisper. "That I didn't fuck this up beyond saving."
Her heart pounded so violently she was certain he could feel it where their bodies pressed together. His eyes burned into hers, searching, almost pleading.
Katherine watched the vulnerability flash across Ben's face, a raw need that made her chest tighten. She had never seen him like this—so open, so unguarded, asking for reassurance with his whole body. This man who controlled everything, who calculated every move, was now looking at her like she held his entire world in her hands.
She brushed her thumb over his cheekbone, gentle and grounding.
"Ben," she whispered. "I'm right here."
He exhaled like he'd been underwater too long, the tension in his shoulders releasing slightly under her touch.
She leaned in, kissed him—slow, sweet, steady. A promise sealed with the press of her lips against his.
"I'm not going anywhere."
Her lips ghosted against his again, breath soft. "You haven't lost me."
The way he looked at her then—his pupils blown, his whole bodybarely holding back—it hit her deep in the chest. Like she had just cracked something wide open inside him, unleashing something he'd kept locked away for far too long.
And heneededto show her.
His mouth crashed into hers, heat flooding back between them like a fuse lit from within. This time, it wasn't gentle.
It was still careful—but it washungry.
Katherine rocked against him, gasping as he thrust up into her, deeper, harder. The new angle dragged him along everynerve ending inside her, and her nails dug into his back, marking him as pleasure spiraled through her body.
His hand remained at her spine, holding her against him as he moved—slow but powerful, like he wanted her to feel him for hours.
She did.
Every inch. Every grind. Every unspoken emotion his body tried to confess in motion—in the way he touched her, in the way he moved inside her, like each thrust was a sentence he couldn't quite say aloud.
Her hands cupped his face as she rode him, their foreheads brushing, moans tangled between open mouths. The intimacy of it—of being this close, of seeing every flicker of emotion cross his face—was almost too much to bear.
