I try. I focus on his voice, his touch. Let myself be held in it. Another finger joins the first, stretching me further. I gasp and grip the sheets, my heart hammering. It’s too much. It’s not enough. I don’t know.
 
 But when he curls those fingers, brushes something inside me…
 
 Fuck.
 
 My hips jerk. My cock twitches, untouched.
 
 “Good,” he says, smiling against my thigh. “There. Again.”
 
 He keeps rubbing that spot, slow and rhythmic, until I’m panting, flushed and hard again, my fear drowned in the hot swirl of pleasure. His fingers scissor inside me, stretching me open. I moan before I can stop it.
 
 Then he withdraws, and I feel suddenly empty. Needy.
 
 “Tahl…” I whisper, surprised at the sound of his name in my throat.
 
 He kisses me again, then lines the head of his cock up to me.
 
 “This is the part I go slowest,” he says, cupping my face. “Breathe. You are ready.”
 
 I nod, pressing my heels into the bed to brace myself.
 
 The head of his cock presses in. Wide. Hot. Unforgiving.
 
 I grit my teeth and try to breathe, but fuck. It’s too much. My body tries to push him out, but he strokes my cheek and whispers, “Let me in. You can take me.”
 
 I exhale. Shake. Let go.
 
 And he slides deeper.
 
 Each inch stretches me more than I thought possible. My eyes blur with tears, not from pain but from the overwhelming fullness, the sheer intimacy of it. He pauses halfway, letting me adjust, his thumb brushing over my cheekbone.
 
 “You are doing beautifully.”
 
 I nod again, unable to speak. I feel everything. Every ridge, every beat of his cock pulsing inside me. And when he bottoms out, buried to the base, his pelvis flush against mine. I let out a strangled sound. Half a sob. Half a moan.
 
 He’s in. All the way.
 
 Tahl stills, just holding me like that, cradling me with his body.
 
 I didn’t know sex could feel like this. So vulnerable. So close. Like he’s inside not just my body, but something deeper. Something I didn’t want anyone to see.
 
 Then he moves.
 
 A slow draw out. Then back in.
 
 I cry out, arching under him. My cock leaks against my stomach, untouched, dripping with every slow thrust. He fucks me like he’s savoring me. Like he’s learning me one stroke at a time.
 
 The ridges along his cock drag over my insides, and every time he hits that spot—that spot—I nearly see stars.
 
 I’m moaning openly now, hips rolling to meet him. Every fear drowned under the rhythm of him moving inside me, stretching me open again and again. My legs wrap around his waist without thinking, pulling him in deeper.
 
 “Please,” I gasp. “Don’t stop.”
 
 He doesn’t. He fucks me slow but deep, voice a low rumble as he praises me between thrusts. “So tight… so good for me… taking me so well…”
 
 I lose track of everything. My name. My past. My old life.
 
 All I know is this moment. This bed. This man. This cock inside me, making me feel things I didn’t know I could feel. Things Ineverthought I’d want.