Page 94 of The Souls We Claim

“My pleasure.”

Maybe the first three strokes are warm-up strokes, but after that, it’s all power. I slam into her so hard, I move up the bed with every thrust.

Her nails drag along my skin. Over my shoulders. Down my sides. Across my back. Too fucking right. I’ll take my shirt off in the yard later to get some sun and not give a fuck I’m covered in marks from my woman.

With no effort, I move us so she ends up sitting across my lap, her legs around my waist and my legs stretched out beneath her.

I’m buried so deep inside her, but I gently cup her cheeks and kiss her. It’s a soft and sweet moment in the middle of the onslaught. “Anybody ever tell you that you have the sweetest fucking pussy?”

She shakes her head, but the smile she gives me in return is so fucking beautiful, my heart explodes. I wrap my arms tightly around her, pulling our sweating bodies so close.

“Don’t want to do this without you. I don’t want to raise Lola without you. Not because I’m scared of doing it alone, because I’m not anymore. But because it will be better to do it with you. It’ll be better to go for long rides with you on the back of my bike. It’ll be better to come to things like this with my brothers and their families because I’ll be with you. It’ll be better to come home at the end of a long and harrowing trip because I know you’ll be there, and the house will smell like chicken casserole or apple pie. And you’ll make everything better by being you. By being soft. But I’ve got a lead on a small house, and I’m going to buy it for you.”

Ari fights to break free of my arms. “No,” she cries out. “That’s not?—”

“Shh, kitten,” I say, restricting her movement against me.

“You don’t get to say all those beautiful things then push me away to some house you bought.”

My cock aches inside her. “Not pushing you away. I’m giving you a parachute.”

She stops wiggling on my lap. “A what?”

“A parachute. I’m going to give you a house in your name. We’ll fix it up together. And you can do what you want with it. Leave it empty. Rent it out. Sell it and cash in. I just want you to know you have options that are not tied to me. I’m giving you a safety net, so you never feel trapped again.”

She cups my cheeks as tears spill over her lashes. “Jackson.”

I kiss her again. “The only way I can have you stay, is knowing you feel like you can leave.”

“I don’t want to. I want to stay with you forever.”

I release her and put my hands on her ass. “What I don’t get is why you want to stay with me when you could be with someone your own age.”

“Oh, Jax. I get you and the adventure of our lives together. I get to raise Lola knowing she has a strong father figure in her life. We’ll get to see her grow up together. And I get to create a home for someone who appreciates what that means. I get to cook and decorate and nurture you and Lola. I get love, and affection, and fantastic sex from a man who cares about me. And I get the safety I crave because I know that you’ll never let anything happen to me. I get to create the family I wish I’d had as a child.”

Not sure my ribs are up to the task of containing the way my heart feels right now. “Good. Grind on me, kitten. I want to watch your face when you come.”

She does as I instruct. My fingers dig into her hips, encouraging her to move quickly and then slowly. To circle her hips as well as simply grind. Each move feels different as I challenge her to find what she wants.

Even now, when she told me to not hold back, I encourage her to put her own needs first. Each time she gets close to coming, I grip her tightly and hold her still against my cock.

I feel her throb and shake with need as I edge her.

Each time I take her a little closer. Each time I stop her.

“Jax,” she cries when I do it a fourth time. This time she bites down on my shoulder hard enough that pain and arousal mix. It’s heady.

She’s going to have bruises on her hips in the morning. She’s not safe-worded, but we’ll talk more about what it means to engage in sex like this. Sex that is less vanilla than she’s used to.

Tears spill over her cheeks. Heightened emotions. Desperate need.

It takes a moment for her orgasm to build again this time. After being close four times already, I bet it feels like too much. Like an elastic stretched too far, it snaps when it lets go. I’m so desperate for her to come all over me, my body primed.

“Shit, Halo.” She grinds on me mercilessly, trying to find what will tip her over the edge.

I cup her cheeks, forcing her to look at me. “It’s okay, Ari. I’ve got you. Let go and give it to me. Be a good girl and come for me, Arianne.”

She doesn’t blink and barely makes a sound. It’s as though every sensation has been sucked inward before she comes on a cry.