Page 34 of Twisted Empire

I slid my hand down his torso to the hem of his buttoned shirt and tugged it upward. When it caught on his chest, I fumbled with the buttons between increasingly wild kisses. Beckett leaned upward to let me pull the shirt right off him and then reached for my own. I swatted his hands away with a sly smile and peeled it off myself, swaying over him.

“You’re so fucking sexy,” Beckett murmured, brushing his fingertips up my bare sides. I shivered eagerly at the contact and dove back in for another kiss.

This time, I trailed my lips down his neck and over his chest. Beckett stroked his fingers over my shoulders and into my hair, across my scalp, his breaths turning more ragged by the second. I flicked my tongue across one of his nipples and then delved my hand between us to cup the hardness I’d enjoyed so much against my pussy.

Beckett mumbled a swear word, his hips arching up to meet my grasp. He pumped into my hand through his slacks. I’d swear I felt his cock twitch when I swiveled my thumb over the head.

There was something so intoxicating about seeing this powerful, controlled man unravel under me at my attentions.

I needed more. I popped open the button of his fly, but when I gripped the zipper, Beckett caught my hand. He pushed himself up on his elbows, blinking the haze of pleasure from his eyes so he could hold my gaze.

“Maddie,” he said, his voice steady if a bit rough, “I just need to know. Why does it matter so much to you to keep fighting when you don’t have to? Why is it worth the risk?”

I paused, letting the question sink in. My answer rose up in my mind without any effort at all.

Dad had believed in me so much—but I’d fallen apart when he’d died. It’d taken years to get that inner strength back, but once I had, I knew he’d have been proud of all the causes I’d championed.

It was who I’d always wanted to be. Who I was meant to be, and no one was taking that away from me.

“There are only so many people in the world who are in a position not just to look after their own needs but also to try to make the world better for other people too,” I said, measuring out the words as they came to me to make sure they felt right. “And for now, one of those people is me, so I’m going to do everything I can. Saving people who can’t save themselves was always my goal with my medical career. Taking down Doom’s Seed and stopping him from hurting any more innocents isn’t any different.”

A soft smile curled Beckett’s lips. He raised his hand to my cheek and stroked his thumb over my skin. Awe shone from his eyes.

“Every time I think I couldn’t admire you more, you prove me wrong. You absolutely can hold your own alongside me, Maddie. And I want you there. I love you.”

My pulse stuttered. He’d never said those three words before. Somehow I hadn’t expected them, even though he’d made his devotion clear in so many other ways. I hadn’t known if he’d want to admit a feeling that vulnerable.

But he was willing to offer up that much of himself to me. Only to me.

My throat tightened with a swell of affection before I propelled the words out. “I love you too. So much. For your strength, for how muchyoucare, despite the kind of world you grew up in.”

Beckett pulled me into a kiss, one that stretched on and on until my head was spinning. But I didn’t plan on letting him take over this encounter, not like that.

I intended to demonstrate my love in all kinds of ways.

This time, when I yanked down the zipper on his slacks, he didn’t move to stop me. I wiggled his pants and boxers down his hips so his rigid cock sprang free, thick and already beaded with precum. I licked my lips.

“That’s right,” Beckett said in a husky tone. “You can take all of that too. My fierce warrior.”

An eager shiver passed through my body. I wrapped my hand around the base of his shaft and sucked him into my mouth.

Beckett’s hips jerked. He gripped my hair again, pumping up to meet the movements of my mouth but holding himself back from ramming his cock right down my throat. I swiveled my tongue around him and teased my fingers over his balls, drawing a strained grunt out of him. His salty, musky flavor filled my senses.

“Fuck, Maddie,” he rasped. “The things you can do with that mouth… But I want to be inside you properly. I want to hear you come apart around me with all that strength and fierceness.”

Oh, God, I wanted that too. When he tugged at my hair, I allowed myself to lift off his cock and clamber over his body. Beckett yanked down my jeans and delved his hand between my legs. He inhaled sharply at the wetness already soaking my panties.

He twisted away from me for just a few seconds to grab a packet out of the drawer on the bedside table. I snatched it from him and ripped it open, wanting to be a part of every piece of this act.

His eyes rolled back as I slid the condom down over his length. He gripped my hips but gave me the room to sink down over him at my own speed.

“Take me however you want,” he murmured. “It’s always so fucking good with you.”

I took him in one inch at a time, whimpering at the thrilling stretch of his girth. When our hips met, I eased upward and plunged down again twice as fast.

Beckett’s fingers dug into my thighs. As I set the tempo, he bucked up into me, sweat beading across his forehead.

The stretching sensation expanded into a deep fullness, which swelled into an ache for more. I rode him with every ounce of strength I had in me, taking him deeper and deeper, gasping with the pleasure of it.

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