Chapter 12: What She Said Out Loud

"I'm not grateful," I said, with my mouth still against his arm.

His breath caught. "Annika."

"I want you to hear that. I'm not grateful, and I'm not here because of the fire."

I lifted my head.

"I was in love with a story. Tonight, when I took hold of your wrist, I fell in love with a man."

He did not answer.

"The one who stood across every room from me for two years and never once looked away."

"I did look away."

"You looked at me. I just never looked back."

He cupped my face in both hands, and his thumbs were shaking.

"Say it again," he said.

"I love you, Rhys."

He kissed me hard, and I was lifted off my feet.

He carried me down the hall to his bedroom, which I had never entered.

He laid me on the bed carefully.

"Tonight I want to go slowly," he said.

"Tonight I want to see you."

I pushed him down on his back and straddled his hips.

I took off his shirt and ran my hands over the scars on his shoulder.

I felt the thick muscle of his chest.

I kissed the burn all the way from his wrist to his collarbone.

He lay under me, breathing hard, letting me.

"Take off your dress," he said.

I pulled it over my head and dropped it on the floor.

His hands came up and closed over my breasts.

I rocked against the hard ridge of his cock through his trousers.

"Fuck," he muttered. "Annika."

I opened his belt and pushed his trousers down and wrapped my hand around him.

He was thick and hot, and he jerked in my fist.

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