Page 264 of Intense

“I quit the hospital, love.” His thumb brushes across my mouth. “You keep your job.”

The floor tilts beneath me. “Finn, you can’t?—”

“I can. I did.” His jaw is set, but his voice softens. “I’ve watched you bleed for that career. Work every shift you could grab. Fight tooth and nail for respect in a world that tried to take it from you. I’ll never be the man who steals that from you. If we want a family, and all the other things we have planned, we both can’t work here.”

Tears sting my eyes. My throat tightens.

“You don’t need to sacrifice for me, we can make it work,” I whisper.

His hand cups my cheek, rough and tender all at once. “I’m not sacrificing. I’m choosing. And I finally realized—” His voicecracks. “It was never the job I was obsessed with. It was always you.”

The words hit like a blade to the chest.

“I want children with you,” he continues. “I want nights where I’m not buried in surgeries or charts. I want mornings where the only thing I’m studying is the rise and fall of your chest while you sleep beside me. I want our family. And I don’t need this fucking hospital to prove who I am. I only need you.”

I can’t breathe. Can’t move. My hands clutch his thighs like I’m holding myself up with the last strength I have left.

“Finn…” My voice breaks. “You’d give that up for me?”

“For us,” he corrects softly, tipping my chin up until my eyes lock on his. “Because all the control, all the precision, all the power—none of it meant shit until you walked into my operating room and lit me on fire. You’re my obsession. You always were. The rest was noise.”

And then he pulls me up onto his lap and his mouth is on mine, swallowing my tears, his kiss bruising and claiming all at once.

I straddle his lap, clinging to him like he’s oxygen, and in a way, he is. He always was.

“Finn Quinn,” I murmur against his lips, “I think you just became the perfect husband.”

His smirk is wicked. “And I haven’t even fucked you over my desk yet.”

His smirk fades into something darker as I shift against his lap. His cock is still hard and pressing against my thigh like it owns me.

“Desk.” His voice is gravel.

I shake my head, clutching his jaw, my tears still wet between us. “No. I want you to look at me while you claim me, Finn.”

His breath catches, his eyes narrowing, and for a beat I think he’ll argue. But then his hands snap to my hips, dragging me closer, grinding me down over his cock through my panties.

“You’ll get every fucking part of me, temptress. You’ll take it all until you can’t move.”

I gasp as he yanks my dress up; little does he realize I only changed into this in the hopes he’d do exactly this. He tears the lace panties clean down the middle. My legs are spread wide across him.

His mouth finds mine again as I sink down on him.

“Oh, fuck,” I choke, nails clawing at his shirt. He’s so deep, my body stretching to take him, to hold him.

His forehead presses against mine, sweat beading at his temple. He isn’t in control now. His thrusts are erratic, desperate, each one harder than the last.

“You feel that?” he pants.

“That’s me. Not the surgeon. Not the psycho. Just the man who would rip the world apart to keep you.”

Tears slip down my cheeks again and he kisses them away, his hips snapping up into me so hard the desk behind us rattles even though we’re not on it.

“Finn—” My moan tears from me as my orgasm builds too quickly. “I love you. God, I love you.”

His head falls back, throat straining, and for the first time I see him let go. No control. No precision. Just wild, devastating need.

“I love you, Stephanie.” His roar vibrates against my lips as his release crashes into me, mine unraveling right after, my whole body convulsing around him.