Page 78 of Thunder's Reckoning

“You do somethin’ to me,” he rasped, climbing over me, kissing me hard so I could taste myself on his lips. His weight pressed me down, his body trembling like he was holding back a storm. “I need you, Sable. All of you.”

Heat surged through me, and I pulled at him, desperate. “I need you too—so much.”

Something in him snapped.

He flipped me onto my stomach, dragging me up onto my knees. His hand pressed between my shoulder blades, steady, firm, and his mouth brushed my ear.

“You trust me with this?” he asked, low, almost a growl. “Trust me to give you what you need?”

“Yes,” I whispered, my heart pounding. And I meant it.

He pushed into me hard, and my cry tore through the room. For a flicker of a second, fear tried to rise—the ghost of other hands, other nights—but his grip was different. Solid. His chest pressed against my back, his voice fierce at my ear.

“I’ve never needed anyone the way I need you,” he groaned, thrusting harder, faster. “No one’s ever fucked me up like this.”

The words shattered me. This wasn’t just me chasing freedom, he was chasing it too.

I clawed at the sheets, my body on fire, every thrust breaking me open and remaking me. “Don’t stop,” I gasped. “Please, don’t stop.”

He slammed deeper, rough and relentless, his teeth scraping my shoulder. “I couldn’t stop if I tried.”

The release ripped through me, violent, tears stinging my eyes as I muffled my scream into the pillow. My body shook, clenching tight around him, and he broke right after, grinding into me with a ragged curse, his whole body shuddering like he’d been wrecked.

For a long moment, there was nothing but our harsh breathing, the weight of him heavy and grounding over me.

He eased me down slow, shifting until we were tangled in the sheets again, his chest pressed to my back, his arm locked tight around my waist.

His lips brushed the damp skin at my temple, his voice hoarse, softer now. “I don’t want anyone else, Sable. Just you.”

I closed my eyes, tears slipping hot into the pillow, but for once they weren’t from pain.

His arm stayed locked around my waist, solid and unyielding, like even in sleep he wouldn’t let me go. My bodystill hummed with the aftershocks, every nerve buzzing, my skin alive in a way it had never been.

I thought of the nightmares that always waited for me in the dark, the flames, the hands, the voice that haunted every corner of my sleep.

But curled against Zeke, my back pressed to his chest, his breath warm in my hair, they didn’t come. Not this time.

Instead, I felt the ache in my thighs, the scrape of his stubble still burning on my skin, the weight of his body imprinted into mine. And I wanted to keep it. Hold on to it. Remember that for once, I’d wanted something and I’d taken it.

Sleep crept in again, slow and heavy.

My last thought before it claimed me was simple, startling in its peace.

For the first time, I didn’t feel broken. I felt whole.

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

HER BREATH WARMEDthe center of my chest, slowand steady, her cheek pressed against me like she’d glued herself there in her sleep. Sheets were tangled round our legs, early mornin’ sun bleedin’ pale gold through the curtains.

Sable was still out cold, and I didn’t dare move.

My arm curved round her bare back, hand spread low across her spine like my body was tryin’ to memorize every damn inch of her. Maybe it was. Hell, maybe I was.

I stared up at the ceilin’, but my head was still back in the dark—her lips on mine, her nails diggin’ deep in my shoulders like she wasn’t the least bit afraid to want me. Wasn’t afraid to take what she needed.

No woman ever gotten to me like this.

Wasnt just the sex—though, Christ almighty—but the way she looked at me after. Like I was hers. Like she wasn’t scared of what it meant.