Page 153 of Handsome Devil

Kiss.

“I’ll buy you the fucking sun, Apricity.”

Kiss.

He hooked his hand around the back of my right knee, slinging my leg over his shoulder, kissing the inside of my ankle while maintaining eye contact with me, his pupils blazing with heat. I shuddered when he swirled his tongue along the sensitivespot of my medial malleolus. He brushed his fingers gently over my outer thigh, leaving tingling sensations everywhere.

I shook uncontrollably as his thrusts grew deeper and more erratic. He hit my G-spot again and again. It felt different. Not as chaotic and depraved but no less intense. The way we stared at each other, with hunger and anger, with cloying desperation, felt like we were conceiving something new and whole that made us intertwined forever.

The climax climbed up my body like a vine, gripping me by the toes, all the way to the crown of my head. Our bodies melted into one another, and it was exactly what I needed. This skin-to-skin reminder of my own mortality—and the vibrancy of my existence.

I can smell.

I can see.

I can hear.

I can touch.

I canfeel.

Tate dipped his mouth to meet mine, catching my bottom lip between his teeth.

“My real name is Gabriel,” he croaked, his silken voice coming from the depth of his soul.

My heart stopped.

“Gabriel Doe. And he—I—welove you. We’ve loved you from the first moment we saw you.”

Sweet, tantalizing delirium seized me. I was a flame, soaring up in the air, dancing in the wind, climbing impossible heights.

Gabriel.

My body tightened, my breath catching. My climax felt different this time. Not like a tsunami thrashing me into the deep sea but like gentle waves rocking me to sleep. I could feel all of my husband now. The vein throbbing in his cock as he spilledhis seed into me. The sweat gluing our bodies together like two pages in a book.

The pleasure was unbearable. I tried wriggling away. He pinned me down with his entire weight, forcing me to ride the orgasm until the end, kissing my lashes, the tip of my nose, my pulse thrumming in my neck.

“I love you so fucking much,” he said. Sadly. Dejectedly. Like he’d fought a war and lost it. “Itsickensme.” He ripped himself away from me at once, scurrying to the end of the bed like I’d caught on fire. His back was to me, bare and moving wildly with his breaths. He gripped his hair, elbows pressed against his knees. “I can’t stand it. When I love someone, I lose them. I can’t lose you.”

“Youwon’tlose me.” I flattened my palm to his damp back. “I mean…you will, eventually, to death, I suppose.”

“Don’t be so sure,” he muttered. “You’d be surprised at the sum I’m willing to pay to make sure you’re immortal.”

His words spread across my body, warming my bones.

“Tate?” I asked.

“Apricity?” His back was still to me.

“How do you know it’s love and not obsession?” I perched my chin on his shoulder, peering into his face. “What’s the difference?”

“Because I used to put my happiness before yours and thought I’d never let you go. I am now willing to let you go if it’s what makes you happy.” His head hung between his shoulders. “Your happiness comes before mine. You can leave if it suits you. I won’t stop you. I’ll sign the papers.”

It felt like I was choking on my own heart, I was so overwhelmed with emotions.

I felt his cum drip down my inner thigh as I kissed his shoulder. I wrapped my arms around his neck. His eyes met mine.

“I love you.” I held his jaw in my hands, enunciating each word slowly. “I’ve always loved you. You are my White Rabbit. I’ll follow you to the ends of the earth and back, no matter how terrible and awful the world you led me to is. I think there’s something wrong with me. Because even when I tried to convince myself I hated you, I never could walk away.”