Page 77 of To the Chase

And again.

And again.

It was never-ending. Tongue, fingers, lips—he used everything. It seemed impossible, like I was stuck in the best dream I’d ever had, but the quivering tightness in my muscles and rawness in my throat from screaming proved how very real this was.

Finally,finally,I tugged on his hair and whimpered, “No more.”

Not because it didn’t feel incredible. It did.Sogood. But he’d wrung me out, and I was spent. I wouldn’t be able to leave my bed in the morning if he kept going. As it was, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to climb the stairs to get into bed in the first place.

Tore crawled over me. Lips slick, eyes fever bright, he looked like he was returning from conquering several villages, pumped up and victorious.

I was fine with being the treasure he’d looted.

Was I delirious? Probably.

He eased down beside me, pulling me against him. His mouth hovered over mine, hot and wet from me. His exhale was a gust of desert wind against my lips, and his erection pressed thick and insistent at my hip.

“Tore,” I rasped, rolling to my side to face him.

He reached around me, palming my ass to hold me in place. “Stay just like this.”

I pressed my face into his throat, inhaling his clean, musky scent. “If you give me a minute to catch my breath, I’ll take care of you.”

“Not tonight,” he murmured as his lips grazed my temple. “This is all I need.”

“But…” My protest was weak, barely there, but I meant it. I couldn’t send him home like this after he’d made me come so many times I’d lost count.

“This isn’t transactional,” he stated. “You don’t owe me a single thing. I got what I wanted. I’m completely satisfied.”

“But…” I tried again, but my thoughts were too murky to even attempt to reason with him. “I want you.”

“I want you too.” He rubbed his face in my hair, sighing. “Always. But not tonight, okay?”

“Of course,” I rushed out, tipping my head back to meet his gaze. “If you’re sure.”

His mouth curved into a smirk that made my belly clench. “I am. What we just did was a singular experience that can stand all on its own. I want it to so I can look back on tonight and think of only your taste, the sounds you made, and what your pussy felt like on my mouth.”

“Tore,” I choked out. “You can’t talk like that. I have no more bones, and my muscles are hanging on by a thread. If you melt me anymore, I’ll be nothing but sludge, and that won’t be pretty.”

He laughed softly, taking my face in the palm of his hand. “I disagree. There’s no form you could take that would make me not think you were the most gorgeous woman I’ve ever laid eyes on.”

“Even as sludge?”

“Even as sludge,” he confirmed.

“Wow. You really like me, don’t you?” I’d intended to make him laugh, but my tone was too earnest to pass as a joke.

“I do, Beatrice. Have I not made that clear enough?”

“You have, but it’s always nice to hear it.”

“I like you,” he whispered. “Very, very much.”

Normally, I would have shied away from this—revealing my inner workings, especially to a man who’d once hurt me—but I trusted him. Maybe that was dumb, especially considering the app I was almost certain I’d seen on his phone earlier, but I did.

So I dove in.

“I like you very much too, Salvatore.”