I could feel the remorse in his massive body. I could feel the way his regret and anger made his muscles tight. But honestly, I cared more about whether he’d stay once I revealed what I’d been planning for that Glock than I did that he wasn’t there to protect me from Zero. I rubbed my cheek against the roughness of his, held him close to me so that our hearts jumped and leaped to touch one another through our chests, and told him, “I can take care of myself and take care of you, Titus. No one should underestimate me.”

He sighed into my ear and it made my hair flutter. He curled his arms underneath my shoulders and shifted so that his lean hips settled into the cradle of my own. We were touching as much as two people could touch. I had never felt so much a part of another human being in my life. It seemed like I would die if he were ever to be torn away from me. So much of Titus was now woven into the fabric of who I was and who I knew I deserved to be.

He lifted his hips and let them drop back down, rubbing his erection between my swollen and sensitive folds. It was a breathlessly sexy tease that had me pulling my legs up along his sides and lifting my own hips to follow his movements.

“I never underestimated you. I overestimated myself. I thought I could play this game, let you risk everything for the end goal, but I was wrong. You are more than more to me, Reeve. You are everything right now.”

If his light caresses and reverent touches hadn’t been enough to make the tears spill over again, those words and the way they were growled at me out of the man and the beast’s mouth were. They were both staking their claim and I couldn’t have been happier.

“I’m embarrassed to admit how long you’ve been everything for me, Titus. Any risk was worth it to end me up right where I am with you right now.” And God willing it was enough to keep us together like this after the truth came out.

He slid along the crevice again. Making sure the tip of his cock hit my clit with each thrust and retreat. It was enough to have me tugging at him impatiently to just get inside. Sex with Titus had always been a full-contact sport, and while I liked the soft and sexy stimulation, I was needy and really wanted that sense of fullness and being owned that came with him entering into my ready heat. He was making an effort to be nice and thoughtful, considering what I had been through the night before, but I didn’t want the reminder. I didn’t want any of that to ever have a place here between us, so I locked my legs around his lower back, dug my ankles into the rock-hard globes of his ass, and impaled myself on his turgid cock.

The way my body devoured him made us both gasp. I clawed at him with my fingernails and threw my head back so that I could look up at him. His eyes were luminous with silver heat, and a high red flush decorated his cheeks.

“You already made it all better and kissed all my boo-boos. It was sweet, but now I need you to fuck me like you normally do, please.” I batted my eyelashes at him and nudged him again with my ankles, hoping he would get the hint.

His eyebrows dipped over his glowing eyes and white flashed on his face as he grinned at me. “Did you just ask me to please fuck you?”

“Yes. Now, will you move?” I wiggled my hips impatiently, which made his dick twitch inside of me. I squeezed it back and he muttered a dirty word.

“Well, since you were so polite about it . . .” He shifted his leg just a little so that my hips tilted upward and then began to ride me the way I was practically begging for. Our hips ground together. My breasts were flattened against his chest. Our breath mingled as we breathed each other in and out instead of kissing. His hands pulled on my shoulders, which would hurt after the tumble I took earlier, but I loved it. I needed it. I craved this sort of wild and unhinged kind of give-and-take with him. It was mine. I was the only one he gave it to, so there was no way I was going to let him hold it back from me.

He growled some more, pushed my legs up even higher along his ribs, and grabbed a pillow that was next to my head. He shoved it under my backside, forcing my hips to lift up even more off the bed and then got to his knees as he continued to pound into me. He watched me from his elevated position. His eyes locked on mine and he drove us both closer and closer to the edge of orgasm. I loved the way he started to sweat, started to glimmer like a polished statue all hard and strong. It was an unbelievable turn-on, so I couldn’t help but rake my hands over my nipples. I stopped to play for a second, which made him move even faster and his eyes shine even brighter. When I felt his fingers dig deeper into the skin of my hips, I knew he was close.

Since I was still reeling from the gifts he bestowed earlier with his mouth, I was further behind. I brushed the tips of my fingers over my abdomen, stopped to circle my belly button, loving the way he watched me the entire time. It felt nice to touch myself but it felt even better to know that when I did it, it made Titus lose his mind. He was breathing like he was running a marathon and his steady rhythm had turned slightly desperate and frantic. I paused at the apex where we were joined, let him brush against the tips of my fingers as he thrust in and out.

He groaned loudly and demanded, “Touch yourself. Let me see it.” So I did. I smiled up at him. Scooted around a little bit so I could get my fingers on my own little center of pleasure. I made sure the angle was right for him to see the way I circled the little nub. The way I tapped it. The way I brushed it in time to his motions. It felt so good, and as soon as he barked my name and collapsed on top of me, I followed him over the edge and fell with a much softer landing. It was perfect. He was perfect. We were perfect.

I massaged his spine as he pulled the pillow out from under me. He finally gave me a kiss and then locked his arm around me and rolled so that he was on the bottom and I was sprawled across the top of him. My knee hit a very obvious wet spot on the sheets and I had a moment of panic. We weren’t careful again, and this time I wasn’t sure he was going it be all in once he heard what I had to tell him. I took a deep breath and talked to his heart since that was here my head was at.

“When I came back to the Point I was planning on killing Conner. I knew you would keep me safe and I needed to stay alive long enough to get close enough to have a shot at him. He’s a monster, Titus, and he’s smart. He’ll never see the inside of a jail, and we both know that. I was hoping you would agree to my plan so that I could be the one to pull the trigger. From the beginning I knew it was jail or a shallow grave, and I figured jail for righting such a major wrong all those years ago was a fair trade-off. I knew you would never approve, so I didn’t tell you that I had Booker get me a gun or what I was planning. I didn’t want you attached to yet another crime. I lied. I lied from the very start, and I’m so sorry, but after you told me you were all in with me in the car, I knew I couldn’t risk it, or you. I knew I needed to be better, do better, so I was fully intending to let Booker take the gun back and let Nassir or even Race do the dirty work. Please try and see why I made the choices that I made.”