Page 237 of Money Reigns

War

Her words detonate in my chest.I don’t want to be free.

For a beat, I can only stare. Green silk, sheer and reckless, drapes over curves I’ve beenstarvingfor.

I had seen her pull both pieces of lingerie out of her suitcase. I had hoped to watch her slip one on.

I’m glad she chose the green.

My throat goes tight. My pulse slams.

Then I snap.

I crash my mouth down on hers, swallowing the breath she stole from me. She tastes like defiance, like surrender, likemine. My hands drag over her hips, gripping, owning, pulling her flush to me as if I could fuse us together and never let her slip away again.

Inside, a single thought roars, over and over. Finally.Finally.She’s mine for good. She’s never leaving me again.

I walk her backward, lips locked, teeth clashing, until her knees bump the bed. She gasps into my mouth, but I don’t give her air—I don’t give her escape. One push, and she falls back against the mattress, silk riding high on her thighs.

The towel slips from my hips as I follow her down, climbing over her, bracing my weight on my hands so I don’t crush her with the force of everything tearing through me.

My lips drag from her mouth to her jaw, her throat, her collarbone. She arches, shivering beneath me, and I growl against her skin.

“I don’t know whether to punish you for leaving,” I rasp, voice jagged, “or worship you for coming back to me.”

Her nails rake into my shoulders, desperate. “Don’t ever set me free again,” she whispers, fierce and trembling all at once.

I lift my head, pin her with the full burn of my gaze. “Never.” The word is a vow, guttural, absolute.

I seal my mouth over hers, devouring her. My tongue thrusts past her lips, rough, desperate, tasting every shiver, every gasp, every inch of what I almost lost. Her thighs part beneath me, the green silk riding higher, teasing me with flashes of bare skin.

I drag my hand down, fisting the slip, tearing it up to her waist. She arches, whimpering into my kiss, and I groan, low and savage, at the feel of her pussy through the last flimsy scrap of fabric.

“Fuck, Olivia…” My voice breaks against her mouth. “Mine.Always mine.”

She writhes beneath me, her nails scraping down my back, hips bucking into mine like she can’t stand the space between us. I grind into her, hard and aching, my cock sliding against her through the thin barrier. She cries out, and the sound nearly destroys me.

My cock throbs at the feel of her panties already damp. I rip them aside, don’t give a fuck if they tear, and push my fingers deep into her pussy.

Hot. Wet. Mine.

She arches off the bed, gasping into my mouth, her nails digging into my shoulders. I pump my fingers, curling them until she moans, until her thighs start to shake.

“Yes,” she whimpers, eyes wide and shining. “War, please.”

I bare my teethagainst her throat, biting down just enough to make her cry out. “I should make you beg. Make youfuckingcrawl for leaving me. But I can’t, because Ineed youtoo much.”

I pull my fingers from her, fist my cock, and line up in one desperate motion. No warning. No mercy. I drive into her in a single thrust that rips a scream from her throat.

“Fuck,” I groan, forehead pressed to hers, “so wet,alwaysso fucking perfect.”

Her pussy clenches around me, dragging me deeper. I slam into her again, hard, punishing, the bedframe rattling under us. She cries out, wrapping her legs around my waist, pulling me in like she’d die if I pulled out.

Every thrust is a brand. A vow.She’s mine.

She claws at me, moaning, breaking under me, and I can’t stop,won’t stop,until she knows. Until every inch of her knows.

“Never letting you go,” I snarl into her mouth.“You hear me, Olivia? Never.”