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And so was she.

He planted his hands on the cabinet above her head, leaned in and kissed her mouth savagely as he continued to thrust, then he gripped her hips and pulled her against him even as he slammed home.

She could feel him beginning to unravel. With one strong arm around her waist, he lifted her up off the counter, and she clung to him, locking her ankles behind his back.

He was still buried deep inside her, and he carried her into his bedroom, laying her down on the mattress, thrusting harder, deeper, as he guided her legs up over his shoulders so he could drive himself in until she wasn’t sure where he began and she ended.

Until they might as well have been one body.

Until they might as well have been one soul.

The savagery of her need was shocking. But she didn’t want it to stop.

Didn’t want this to end.

She felt, in that moment, that this might be the truest example of who she could’ve been if she hadn’t been an object of ridicule. If her father hadn’t left. If her mother hadn’t left. If she had never been bullied at that frat party.

Would she have been this Rory all along? Brave and full of abandon, absolutely fearless when it came to the pursuit of her own pleasure. When it came to claiming what she wanted.

Maybe. But she couldn’t regret it, couldn’t spend time worrying about it, because right now she was that version of herself. Right now, it was like she was suddenly walking a whole different path. One she might’ve been on if only things had been different.

But she could taste it now. Test it now.

With his heat and strength above her, and their cries of pleasure mixing, their need and desire tangling together.

How she wanted him.

And she had him, and still, somehow it didn’t feel like enough. He was so deep inside her she could barely breathe, and it still didn’t feel like enough.

She turned her head and bit his neck, and he growled, pinning her hands down to the mattress as their climaxes reached a blazing finish at the same time. As he roared his satisfaction while she cried out her own.

“Dammit,” he cursed, kissing her shoulder. “That was... That was crazy.”

“I’m not complaining,” she said.

“It wasn’t too rough for you?”

She sniffed. “I’m capable of letting you know if something is too much.” She smiled. “I hear safe words are a thing.”

“Thanks for not shoutingsnowy ploverin the middle of that,” he said, lying on his back and throwing his arm over his eyes.

“I told Fia I was spending the night with Lydia.”

He shifted his arm and looked at her with one eye. “Really?”

“I made sure Lydia knew what I was doing.”

“Wow. My sister is willing to lie for you?”

“On the off chance that Fia texts her, yes.” She rolled over onto her side and put her hand on his chest. “Fia means well, but she’s very protective. And she gets very weird when any of us is with somebody. I don’t know if that’s because of her experiences, her heartbreak or what. But it’s not something that I want to deal with right now. Because we only have a few weeks. Three weeks. I don’t need to spend any of that time getting warned about my own feelings by my sister.”

“Fair enough.”

“I’m not ashamed of it.”

“I didn’t think you were.”

A smile touched her face. “Of course you didn’t. Everybody brags about sleeping with you, don’t they?”