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Her delicate fingers wrap around me and when she takes me in her mouth, I forget how to fucking breathe. Every breath I manage feels like glass in my lungs, but I don’t stop her. I can’t.

She gives me no time to adjust as she takes me in deep, her tongue teasing the tip of my cock. It’s so fucking good, and even though pain rips through my side when I move too fast, I’m not going to tell her.

“Savannah,” I rasp, threading my fingers through her hair. I’m trying and failing to hold on, to keep from coming too fast, but she knows exactly what she’s doing. She drags her mouth up slow, her tongue swirling around the tip. Then she sinks back down, deeper this time and I see stars.

White-hot, soul-leaving-my-body kind of stars.

But I don’t want to come like this. Not with her on her knees and me barely holding on. So I grit my teeth, slide my hands under her arms, and haul her up into my lap.

“Cade! Henry said you need to rest.”

“Don’t care,” I growl, grabbing her hips, and place her on my lap so she’s straddling me. “I want you to ride me, Pretty Girl.”

Her breath catches, her body instinctively leaning into mine as my hands slide beneath the hem of her shirt, slow and deliberate, and I drag the fabric up her body, exposing inch after inch of flawless skin until she lifts her arms and lets me strip it off her completely.

My knuckles graze her ribs, her breath hitches, and I try to memorize every inch of the person I saved tonight.

I reach around and unhook her bra, revealing her tight, pebbled nipples.

I lean in, sucking one into my mouth, slow and deep, teasing it with my tongue as she arches into me with a gasp.

I palm her other breast, squeezing gently, then switching sides, letting my teeth graze the sensitive skin just to hear her moan my name.

“Fuck, Cade,” she whispers, her hands tangling in my hair, pulling me closer.

She lifts herself just enough to tug her shorts down, rocking back to one knee so she can push them over her thighs, taking her panties along with them.

My breath catches as she reaches between us and frees my cock, brushing the head against her soaked center like she’s teasing both of us on purpose.

Then she sinks onto me, inch by inch, and my entire body tenses. She’s hot, slick, tight, and perfect. I groan into her neck as she starts to grind against me slowly. Torturously.

Pain pulses throughout my body with every roll of her hips, but I ignore it. I’m too focused on Savannah’s pleasure and the way she moans my name as her nails dig into my shoulders.

I grip her ass, meeting her every thrust even though my body’s screaming. None of it matters. Not when she clenches around me and when her breath hitches as she calls out my name.

“I love you like this,” I pant, dragging my mouth along her jaw, lips brushing her ear. “It reminds me of the first time I saw you fall apart. When you took what you wanted. Wanna take it all again?”

She whimpers and I can feel her body trembling. “Only if you come with me this time.”

It’s all I need to hear as I feel her clenching around me. I follow right behind her, coming hard while buried deep inside her.

We’re still tangled together, her body warm and flushed against mine, both of us breathless and wrecked. She stays straddling me, her chest pressed to mine, our skin damp and sticky with sweat, but neither of us moves.

She doesn’t rush to get up. I don’t ask her to.

My hands stay on her hips, thumbs tracing slow, lazy circles into her skin like I’m reminding myself she’s real.

She leans into me, forehead resting against mine, her fingers buried in my hair, gently brushing it back from my face like I’m something fragile.

Like I didn’t just fall apart inside her.

I close my eyes for a second, and just feel .

Her heartbeat still racing against my chest. Her breath is soft and warm on my lips. Her body is still wrapped around me, like she doesn’t want to let go yet either.

Maybe ever.

“You okay?” she whispers, her voice barely more than a breath.

I nod, my throat too tight to say what I’m actually thinking. That I’ve never felt more fucking alive in my entire life than I do right now, bruised ribs and all.

“I love you,” I murmur instead. “I know I’ve said it before, but… this? You? There’s no coming back from it, Sav.”

Her eyes find mine, wide and glistening. “Good,” she says, a quiet smile playing at her lips. “Because I don’t want you to.”

I slide one hand up her spine, pulling her in tighter, our foreheads still pressed together. “Promise me something.”

“What?”

“That you’ll always come back to me. No matter what. Even when I’m a stubborn asshole. Even if I mess things up, or there’s a ten-foot-fighter declaring his love for you. Promise you’ll always be mine.”

She cups my face, her thumbs brushing under my eyes. “Always.”

And fuck me, if that doesn’t just ruin me all over again.

We sit there in the stillness, no words needed. Just heartbeats and skin and everything we’ve ever been to each other. When she finally backs away, she says, “There’s something else I needed to tell you, but I wanted to wait until you were feeling better.

“What?” I grip her hips. “Tell me.”

Her breath catches, and then she blurts it out. “Ivy got us a court date for Adley’s adoption hearing.”

For a second, I don’t react. The words hang in the air between us, too big, too important. Then it hits me like a freight train.

“Savannah,” I exhale, and she just laughs as I wrap my arms around her, holding her tight against me. “Cade,” she says, her voice muffled against my shoulder.

I pull back just enough to look at her, my hands framing her face. “It’s happening,” I say, grinning like an idiot. “You’re gonna bring her home.”

Her eyes well with tears, but she doesn’t let them fall. Instead, she nods, biting her lip like she’s trying to contain all the emotions threatening to spill over.

“I can’t believe it,” she whispers.

I press a kiss to her forehead, lingering there. “You better believe it, Pretty Girl. You fought for this. And you won.”

She exhales shakily, her fingers curling into the fabric of my shirt, sighing into me, relieved.

I feel it too, because this is it.

This is the start of everything.