Page 97 of Intense (Beneath The Blaze #3)

STEPHANIE

Song- My Demons, STARSET

B efore I open the door, he spins me around, pinning my back to the wall. One hand curls tight around my throat, the other braced beside my head, his body towering over mine.

“I need you,” he breathes, voice rough.

“I know you do. You’d be lost without me.” I smile, trying to cut the weight of the moment, but his face doesn’t soften.

His stare is serious. “How do you need me, Finn? What do you want me to do?”

“I need you to remember how much I love you. Because once I open that door, it might not seem like love. But it is. It’s my way of showing you.”

I press both hands against his chest, the erratic pounding of his heart rattling through my palms.

“You better not overdo it and die fucking me, Finn. I swear to god.”

He grins, a wicked flash of teeth. “I did say I’d die for you, love. Dying inside of you doesn’t seem so bad.”

“And you nearly did die today, psycho. I vote we shower and nap first.”

“You might change your mind when you see what I’ve done.”

He swipes the keycard and pushes the door open, pulling me in with him.

The skyline pours glitter through the windows, city lights glittering like stars.

He flicks on the lamps, bathing the room in warm gold.

A four-poster bed waits in the corner, covered in black rose petals.

A table beside it holds a plate of chocolate-dipped strawberries and an ice bucket cradling champagne.

“Oh, how romantic of you,” I tease, waltzing closer.

And then my heart slams against my ribs when my eyes land on the bed.

“The annulment?” I whisper.

Tears sting as I step closer. Both our signatures are scrawled across the page, mocking me, promising an end I can’t survive.

“You signed them?” I can’t hide my hurt.

“Not for the reason you think, love. Turn around.”

I spin around to face him, my throat burning, only to find him on one knee.

“You’re a brave man.” I shake my head, choked between a sob and a laugh. “I was about to punch you in the balls. I never want to see those papers again.”

“Me neither, love. Me neither.”

He chuckles, opening a velvet box in one hand, covering his crotch with the other. My gasp echoes through the room.

A massive diamond, twined with a black-diamond snake wrapped around the band. Deadly. Beautiful. Ours.

“Finn—”

“Stephanie Quinn.” His voice is steady. “You might have proposed first. Said you love me first. But, I want to do this properly and get down on one knee with a ring you deserve. Will you do me the absolute honor of marrying me a second time? Only this time, we both remember saying our vows?”

My head nods frantically before the words even leave me. And when he rises, I launch myself into his arms with a squeal, clinging tight.

“Is that a yes?” he asks, his voice husky against my ear.

“A million times over—yes, yes, yes. Always yes, Dr. Quinn.”

Our lips crash together, his smile pressed into mine as he drops me down on the petal-covered bed.

“Stephanie.” He brushes the back of his hand against my cheek.

“Finn.” I copy his tone.

“Our future, it might be a little messy to start with. We’re entering a war with The Preacher, I can feel it in my bones.

And I need you to know, that I will fucking die to keep you safe.

I’ll protect you until I take my last damn breath.

They got to you once, and that was a grave mistake from them. ”

I slide my hands up his chest and grab his throat.

“I want you safe too, Finn. I’ll be by your side however you need me, okay? We are a team now. And those assholes need to pay for what they’ve done.”

A slow grin spreads across his lips, his grey eyes lighting up.

“Fuck. I love you, baby. I love you so much.”

I grab the annulment papers, holding them up between us.

“I love you, Finn. More than you could ever imagine,” I whisper.

He glances down at the paper and bites his lip.

“What are we doing with these? I don’t want to end our first marriage. I think this next one is just more of a vow renewal. That first wedding—it made us,” I ask.

His brow arches, a smirk curling like sin.

“We fuck over it and then rip it up?”

A grin spreads across my lips.

“Yes.”

He yanks me toward him, bending low until his breath is hot on my shoulder, fingers dragging the zipper down the side of my dress.

“You really thought I was going to leave you? Even after I told you I loved you? That’s punishable behavior, love,” he whispers against my bare skin.

“My first reaction was that, yes. It’s what I’m used to people leaving me,” I tell him, voice breaking.

His teeth sink into me and I moan, the annulment sliding from my hand to the sheets.

“Not me, temptress. Never me.”

The papers crumple beneath me as Finn pushes me back up the bed, the sound of them crackling under my spine as he strips the dress down my body. His hands are desperate, tearing at fabric like it’s the thing standing between him and oxygen.

“Finn—” I gasp, arching into him as his mouth latches onto my throat, biting and sucking hard enough to bruise.

“You’re mine,” he growls against my skin, sliding my panties down my thighs and tossing them aside. “No annulment. No escape. You’re mine until they bury me in the fucking ground.”

I rake my nails down his chest, catching on buttons until they scatter across the floor. “Good. Because I’ll be buried right beside you.”

He leans back and unbuckles his belt, freeing his cock. He grips my hips, pinning me down on the petals and papers, his eyes burning into mine like he’s sealing this with fire.

“You want this vow, temptress?” His voice is dangerous. “Then take it.”

He slams into me, the breath ripped from my lungs as pleasure crashes through me. The annulment paper shifts under us, crinkling with every brutal thrust, ink smearing with sweat as we destroy the words meant to break us.

My nails dig into his shoulders, his name torn from my throat. “Finn—oh god, yes?—”

He hisses through his teeth, fucking me harder, deeper, until there’s nothing but the sound of our bodies colliding. He drags his thumb over my clit, watching me unravel with his cock buried inside me.

“That’s it, love. Vow to me. With your body. With your fucking soul.”

Tears sting my eyes as I cling to him, every thrust branding me with his devotion. “I’m yours forever. No papers. No games. Just us.”

He kisses me hard, swallowing my sobbed moan as my climax rips through me, soaking him, shattering me. And still he doesn’t stop. He fucks me through it, holding my gaze like he’s daring me to look away from the truth.

And I’m at one with it. He owns me.

“I love you,” he rasps, forehead pressed to mine. “I fucking love you, Stephanie Quinn. And I’ll say it every day, every time I fuck you, every time you breathe, until you never doubt it again.”

I come again at his words, my body trembling, breaking open under him. And when he finally lets go, when he spills inside me with a guttural roar, I know that every horrible thing that I’ve ever gone through was worth it because it all led me to Finn Quinn.

He collapses against me, both of us shaking, panting, clinging like we’re the last two people alive.

And maybe we are.

Because in this moment, nothing exists but him and me. No annulment. No past. No future without each other.

Just a vow written in blood, sweat, and love.

“It’s my turn to look after you, Finn,” I whisper against his lips.

He smiles softly and doesn’t fight me this time.