Page 47 of Cinderella's Secret Baby

They skimmed away their clothes, and he pressed her to the mattress beneath his naked heat. She opened her legs in welcome, but he only guided himself against her wet folds, teasing and readying both of them before he slowly entered her.

They both released shaken sighs as he sank deep and held himself there.

Now the urgency subsided. They were where they needed to be. She looked at him through vision that was hazed by love and lust. His green-gray eyes were equally glazed by passion, and his kiss was soft again. Tasting of benediction.

Now they existed in a place of pleasure and profound connection. Love. She loved him so much. And he was hers. Forever. She stroked her hands possessively across his shoulders and traced her fingers down his spine, smiling when she caused him to draw a breath of delight. She rolled her thumb across his nipple and slid her hand to where they were joined, making him growl as she played her hand there, pleasuring them both.

“You’ll make me lose it before you’re even close,” he warned, dragging her hands up beside her head.

She would love to. Just once. “Would that be so bad?”

A shadow moved behind his glittering gaze, just enough to tell her that it would be. For him. She didn’t understand that reservation in him. Weren’t they surrendering to each other right now? Didn’t he trust her as completely as she trusted him?

She would have cupped his jaw, but he kissed her and began to move with more purpose. She groaned, luxuriating in the powerful way he thrust and withdrew, driving both of them toward the pinnacle.

This was all she needed in life, this man moving within her, making her feel exalted as he sent shuddering reverberations of pure joy through her nerves and muscles and blood.

“Hunter,” she gasped, arching in the throes.

“Let go, angel. Come so I can.”

As if she could hold back. She was there, clinging to him as her vision turned to gold and her skin caught fire and her inner being melded with his.

“I love you,” she cried as the world fell away and orgasm crashed onto her like a hundred-foot wave. “I love you. I love you.”

His answer was a tortured noise of agony and a crushing embrace as he pinned his hips to hers and his whole body shuddered in his own defeat.

CHAPTER TWELVE

HUNTER’SHEARTCOULDN’Tseem to settle back into his chest. As the thunder of climax subsided, his heartbeat shifted into an uneven, more suffocating rhythm.

Amelia came back from the bathroom and slipped on her nightgown before she slid into bed.

Most nights he was sorry for that thin barrier between them. She wore it so she could rise and go to Peyton if needed. Tonight, it was a necessary layer in the wall he was trying to shore up between them as she snuggled close into his side, resting her bent knee across his thigh. She settled her arm across his tense abdomen. Her head found the hollow of his shoulder and fine hairs caught against the stubble coming in on his jaw, exactly as it always did.

He smoothed it with his free hand, letting his other arm curl around her.

But he wouldn’t fall into a dead sleep the way he usually did. An underlying tension ate at his core.

I love you.

She wasn’t as boneless as she usually was, either. She didn’t sigh and drift off. He felt the blink of her lashes tickling his skin.

I love you.

From the very beginning, he had sensed she could wield untold power over him if he wasn’t careful. The very fact that they’d wound up in bed that first night when he’d had no intention of taking her to his room had warned him that he had a weakness where she was concerned. That’s why he continued to fight the depth of passion she was able to wring out of him. That’s why he held on to his control every single time they came together physically. He never let go until it was on his terms, not hers.

His fear had always been that if she gained the upper hand sexually, she would exact something from him—concessions and indulgence like his father had offered to Irina time and again. Hunter didn’t want to be humiliated by his wife. He didn’t want to be controlled by her.

Slowly, he had begun to believe Amelia would never ask anything from him that he wasn’t prepared to give, but now he realized she would. Had. She wanted his heart.

Once he gave that up, there would be nothing left of himself. She would own him completely.

“Should we talk about it?” she asked with soft apprehension.

He could have pretended he was asleep, but that would have been the coward’s way out. And it only would have prolonged a conversation that would have to happen regardless.

Trouble was, he didn’t know what to say.

---