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That he was about to be everything.

He moved down, kissing her neck, down her collarbone, all the way to one tightened nipple. He drew it into his mouth, sucking hard. She arched her back up off the mattress. “Daughtry!” she shouted.

“That’s right,” he growled. “Tell me how much you like it.”

“I love it,” she said. “I love it so much. I love it more than the first night I was here and I saw all that food, and you let me eat everything. I love it more than that.” She was incoherent. She was babbling. As he licked and kissed his way down her body. Over her skin. She cursed and cried out. And when he reached the center of her need, his breath hot against her desire there, she whimpered. She lifted her hips in helpless entreaty, in desperate need of his lips, his tongue.

He put his face between her thighs and licked her. He ate her like she was a glorious delicacy.

She whimpered, throwing her arm over her eyes, moving her hips in time with the rhythm of his movements.

He shifted, pushing a finger inside of her, and the world exploded behind her eyes.

She screamed, gripping the bedspread, a shattering release immobilizing her as her internal muscles pulsed around that finger.

“Holy shit,” she said. “I didn’t... I had no idea... I...”

“I’m not done,” he growled against her slick flesh. Then he continued to pleasure her that way, adding a second finger and moving them in and out of her body. She grabbed his shoulders, his hair. Her fingernails pierced his skin. She wrapped her legs around his back, opening herself even more to him as he licked deeper and deeper.

A second climaxed rocked her. Shook her. Her body was so hungry for this. For release it had never known before.

For pleasure it had always been denied.

She didn’t give herself things like this.

She held every good thing back. Because she didn’t trust it. She never had.

Tears were streaming down her cheeks. And she was shaking. Lord how she wanted this. Him. He was everything. And this had changed her.

Because now she knew what her body was capable of. The heights. The glory.

Now she knew.

She looked down and watched him, his tongue sliding over her slick flesh. And she felt herself tremble, shatter again, not as drastically this time, but an aftershock, a wave of arousal that overtook her when she watched him take his pleasure by tasting her.

“Daughtry,” she said, her voice thin and thready. She felt hollow. She needed him.

“I have to be sure you’re ready,” he said, his speech slurred. He pushed a third finger into her, and she froze, the stretch of her untried body painful as he worked them in and out of her channel.

Gradually, she adjusted to the feel of him. And when he felt her relax, he withdrew. He moved away from her and straightened, up on his knees. He was fiercely aroused, standing thick and proud away from his body.

She was struck by the sheer physical beauty of him. The hard masculine lines.

And much in the same way she had appreciated her own femininity, her own delicacy, moments before, she appreciated his strength. His masculinity.

Something that had seemed like a threat most days, seemed like a glorious thing now.

Another gift.

The gifts from Daughtry were endless. It didn’t need to be forever to matter.

“Please,” she whispered.

She felt restless and edgy, needy in spite of the fact that she’d had three climaxes. He reached into the side table drawer and took out the condoms. And she smiled. He opened the box and tore a plastic packet off the strip. She watched with rapt attention as he rolled the latex protection over his length. He was beautiful. She hated that he had to cover himself. To put a barrier between them. But she loved that he’d done it. Because he was keeping them both safe. Because she knew that the consequences for her could be devastating. Particularly on the verge of her freedom. Of her new life.

He moved to her, kissing her mouth as he positioned himself against the entrance to her body. He kissed her deep as he began to move slowly inside her. Filling her. Inch by agonizing inch.

It was almost too much. But at the same time... it wasn’t enough. It almost never could be. She lifted her hips, encouraging him to go deeper. He moved his hand around to cup her ass, then thrust hard.