Page 44 of Sugar (Gilded #1)

He surged upward, filling me to bursting with one powerful thrust.

I cried out, throaty and raw.

Easton dropped his head to nip my neck. “Quiet, pretty guppy. You know those noises are only for me. All of you is. Only. For. Me.”

If he wanted me to be silent, he was going about it all wrong.

His fingertips dug in as he moved me up and down his length.

Slamming me harder. Faster. I couldn’t move or rock my hips or do anything to be an active participant.

I had no choice but to clutch his shoulder and the headrest as he brutally fucked me.

Easton took me like I was his to take.

And I let him because I was.

His pace remained relentless until I broke.

Exploded.

Shattered.

I had the teeniest bit of foresight to drop my mouth to his shoulder, muffling my scream when I cried his name.

“Good girl,” he bit out harshly in my ear. “I know you have one more for me. So fucking needy and perfect. Made for me.”

Even if I wasn’t a coil of pent-up tension after his night of sexual manipulation, the way he talked would’ve easily drawn another orgasm from my overwrought body.

But I was a coil of pent-up tension, so one orgasm rolled right into another detonation of blinding bliss.

He continued to thrust upward. Savagely using me until his own groan filled the small space.

Until I was no longer empty.

Not in any sense of the word.

I tried to fall to the side, but he didn’t let me. That was fine by me. I wrapped my arms around his neck and caught my breath in his hold.

My body loosened.

My mind quieted.

I relaxed.

He did that for me.

When one of my brain cells sparked back to life enough for me to speak, I shifted backward. His banded arms around me squeezed like he thought I was going to try to separate our bodies.

I had no interest in that.

I used the nominal distance he’d allowed to smile at him. “Can we go back to Gilded soon?”

A wide grin split his handsome face. One filled with lust and warmth and adoration. That reaction would’ve been good enough, but Easton sweetened it by cupping the back of my head. “Fuck, I love you.”

The world stopped. It had to. Everything outside of that moment ceased to exist to me.

“W-what?” I stammered.

“I love you, Madeline. So damn much.”

My chest felt so full, it was a wonder it didn’t burst. I did everything I could to sear that moment in my brain with the others that I wanted to revisit on my deathbed.

It was going to be a long list.

My silence must’ve stretched longer than Easton was willing to give me. Because he ordered, “Say it, Madeline.”

I might’ve been tempted to extend the torment as payback for my night of it, but I couldn’t hold the words in.

I grinned up at him and gave him the truth. “I love you, too. Also so damn much.”

In Easton’s bed a short time later, I was still riding the high of him. His dick. The night. The orgasms. His love.

Everything .

It was made better because I was in his arms with my body half on his. A smile curved my mouth even as my lids grew heavy, but I wouldn’t be able to sleep.

Not until I told him something.

“You get me.”

“What?” he asked. Unlike me, there was no sleepiness in his alert voice.

“You’re the first person in my whole life who gets me.

Who understands those dark desires that I didn’t even really understand before you.

Any time I brought it up with someone, it ended in frustration, cringe, or both.

After a while, I stopped trying and just ignored that part of me.

With you, I didn’t have to ask for anything.

You gave me what I was looking for without me saying a single word. ”

“Madeline—”

I pressed my fingers to his mouth. “Hold on. Beyond what you do for me so effortlessly, you’re brilliant.

You have a dry wit and a self-deprecating sense of humor that I find insanely endearing.

You’re generous with your time, energy, attention, and dick.

And you might be older than me, but that’s not a bad thing.

I think we can be honest about how many times you’ve caught me checking you out because you’re sexy. And all of that is why I’m with you.”

I let out a squeak as he rolled us suddenly so his body covered mine, but I still didn’t move my fingers or stop explaining.

“Well, that and you told me—not asked me—to be there tonight. But none of that is Chase Majors’ business.

It was easier to let his hot air run out.

Not to mention, if I was going to cause a scene every time a guy doesn’t take no as a complete sentence, I’d get nothing done.

The guy was a creep. Spoiler alert, a lot of men are.

Which is why every woman learns way too young that the safest thing to do is not respond to arrogant men.

Not because I agreed with him or liked it or?—”

“Enough, Madeline.”

I pressed my lips closed.

“You don’t owe me an explanation,” he said. “But I owe you an apology. I let my jealousy get to me, and I took it out on you.”

“I liked how you did that once we got to Gilded,” I interjected.

And I had. Unlike other guys I’d dated, Easton didn’t turn the fight into a full hissy fit. He hadn’t spitefully lashed out by making me watch at Gilded while he flirted—or did more—with other women to remind me that he had other options, too. All he’d wanted was me.

Me on my knees and handcuffed to his chair, but still…

Me.

“Hush.” He paused. “But noted. Hearing what he said to you… Seeing his hands on you… But I should’ve done my job to keep you safe, not get wrapped in my own bullshit. It won’t happen again.”

He dropped down to kiss me. Unlike the urgent, fervent ones earlier, that one was slow. Tender. Savoring.

Beautiful.

He pulled back just far enough to rest his forehead on mine. His minty breath fanned across my face. “I get you because you’re mine. And you get me because I’m just as much yours.”