Page 323 of Blackwood

He lifts a brow, the corner of his mouth twitching. “Baby if you say the drafting table, I’m gonna need a cigarette.”

“No, after that. After we messed up all your blueprints and I was laying on your sweatshirt on the floor, hair a mess, mascara halfway down my face…”

His voice drops into a hush. “You said you felt like the world finally made sense.”

I nod. “Because it did.”

Lex swallows hard.

“I remember how you looked at me that night,” I say, voice soft. “Like I was the last piece of a puzzle you didn’t even know you were trying to put together.”

He doesn’t answer. Just pulls my hand up and presses a kiss to my wrist, just below the edge of my bracelet. A kiss so tender, it feels like it rewrites the rage inside him. Like it melts it.

“I’ve been spinning all night,” he admits. “That duet, the trio, Roman, fucking everything. But you…” his forehead presses to mine. “You bring me back, malyshka. Always.”

“That’s what love is supposed to do, Lex. So you see,” I say, brushing my fingers against his cheek, “we may not have years of remember whens, but we’ve got a ton of really good ones that matter just as much.”

He’s quiet. Then, softly, “Yeah. We really do.”

I nudge his chest. “Now get it together, Hollow King.”

His smirk returns, slow and wicked, the kind that curls with smoke and danger. In a blink of an eye, his mouth is on me, hot and unrelenting. His hands drag me backward toward the door, slamming the lock with one swift flick before he presses me against the cool marble counter. It’s too fast, too hungry, but that’s us. Fire with nowhere to go.

Lex grips my thighs, lifts me like nothing, and sets me down hard on the counter. The silk of my dress slides up in waves as he steps between my legs, hands rough, hungry, already searching—

And then he freezes. His fingers halt mid-motion.

His eyes flick up to mine, dark and electric. “Where the fuck are your panties?”

“In this dress? There’s no way I could possibly hide a panty line.”

The sound he makes isn’t human. A low, vicious growl rips from his chest like it physically hurt him not to know that sooner.

“Fuck, malyshka.”

His hands grip my thighs harder, like he doesn’t know whether to drop to his knees and feast, or bend me over right now and ruin us both.

“You’ve been walking around all night with nothing under this?” he rasps, voice shredded with disbelief and lust. “Sitting next to Cade. To Roman. Like this?”

“I wore it for you, baby. The dress, it’s all for you.”

“Fuck,” he groans, already sinking to his knees. “Look at you.”

“Lex—”

His mouth is on me before I can finish. His tongue, his fingers, all of it demanding and unrelenting. It’s messy and hot and perfect. My hands slam back against the mirror, head tipping as he devours me like it’s the only way to make it through the night.

I gasp, legs shaking. “You…. are insane. Oh!”

He grins against me. “You love it.”

My release hits sharp and sudden, shattering through me as I grind down on his mouth, fingers curling in his hair like lifelines.

He stands, wipes his mouth with the back of his hand, eyes dark as sin. Then he’s undoing his belt, fast and impatient. He grabs me by the hips and yanks me forward, lined up, breathing hard.

I pull him in with a fistful of his shirt and kiss him as he sinks into me with one punishing thrust. We both moan. The rhythm starts hard and stays harder. The sound of skin, the slam of hips, the scrape of my heels against the counter. His hand cups the back of my neck. Mine claw at his back. His forehead presses to mine.

“Mine,” he growls. “Say it.”