Page 10 of His Wife

Deep. Inside. Her.

Because…I’m keeping this stray…and I’d cross a thousand lines to do it.

ChapterFive

LEANDRA

My eyes open, and I’m drenched, the torn shirt clinging to my sweaty skin. I glance over my shoulder to find Alexius sleeping behind me, clutching me tight. His warm breath weaves through my hair and caresses the back of my neck, his presence wrapped around me like a shield, and I don’t think I’ve ever felt this safe before.

Taking a deep breath, I let his familiar scent fill my lungs and soothe my bones. I allow it to infect my reality so I can linger longer in this dream. A dream where it’s just us. No deal or arrangement. No Dark Sovereign. Just us.

I run my hand down his arm that’s snaked around my middle, my fingertips brushing along solid muscle, sending an electric current through my chest that inflames and licks the back of my neck. I close my eyes and savor the moment, the silence, and I relive every second of last night.

Waking up in the middle of the night with his fingers between my legs and his stiff cock in his hand would be disturbing to some. But not to me. It instantly drove me wild, like a magnetic pulse passing between us, charging my body and leaving me aching for release. The attraction, chemistry, and tension are always there, burning, throbbing, yearning. I want him all the time. Every time. If only we could lock ourselves in this room forever and only exist within each other.

But that’s wishful thinking on the largest scale. Whatever this is between us has so many variables it’s hard to figure out if this is real or just a distraction while we wait for our time to run out. And it will run out. Time is our enemy, and it won’t stop. It will never stop. My heart is a throbbing mess just thinking about the day I walk out of here with my insides torn to pieces because I know I’ll never feel his touch again. Never experience the high of being with him. Why did I let it go this far? Why did I allow myself to fall so deep when I knew the terms of our bargain?Oh, that’s right.I didn’t let it go that far. I didn’t allow anything. It just. Fucking. Happened. Now, there’s no stopping it. I’m addicted. An addict who will keep on being my own worst enemy for as long as I’m able to get my fix of him. It’s too late to save myself from heartbreak and a river of tears I know will soon come.

It’s the first time he spent the night in my room, our naked bodies entwined together, holding each other. We fell asleep soon after, sated and exhausted. We didn’t speak. We didn’t need words, not while our bodies communicated so effortlessly in a rhythm that is uniquely ours.

I look up at the bedside clock. Usually, Alexius would be in his study or out on business at this time of the morning. And it fills my heart with something warm and fuzzy, affection fluttering in my belly, that he’s still here…with me. But it scares me too. I’m scared of the feelings dwelling beneath all the lust and desire that so easily consume us. I’m afraid of how my heart beats faster when I’m with him, how my pulse races, my blood drowning in adrenaline when he makes his wicked intentions known. I’m terrified of breaking the moment he lets me go.

His hold around my waist tightens, and he nuzzles into my nape, inhaling deeply. “I love smelling you when I wake up.”

My heart stammers. “We overslept.”

“Does waking up early and thinking the world can go fuck itself before I let you out of my arms count as overslept?”

I stop breathing, his voice, his words turning my insides to liquid. “You shouldn’t do that.”

“Do what?” He inhales my scent again.

“Say things like that.”

“Why not?”

“I like it too much.” My heart hurts like it’s suddenly too big for my chest. “I might expect you to say things like that to me every day.”

“And that would be bad?”

“Very. For me, at least.”

Alexius places his hand on my hip and guides me to my back. His black strands are messy, and his irises have swallowed the brilliance of every sapphire in the world—his chiseled jaw capable of cutting glass. “What if I want to say it to you every day?”

I grab the sheet and pull it over my mouth. “Then I’m screwed.”

“What are you doing?” He frowns, lifting himself slightly.

“Morning breath.”

“Morning breath, my ass.” He grips the sheet and pulls it away from my face, and I reach to grab it again.

“Exactly. Morning breath smells like ass.”

He snickers and rolls on his back. “Mine doesn’t.”

“You might be one wealthy son of a bitch with a huge gold family heirloom around your finger, Mr. Del Rossa, but your morning breath smells just like the rest of ours.”

He tosses a pillow at me as I get up, and I chuckle, catching it and throwing it back at him. “I need to freshen up.”

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