‘That’s enough!’
His roar echoed through the walls as he lunged for her, taking hold of her biceps and leaning down to her, his breath hot on her face. ‘Don’t you ever put yourself down again, do you hear me? You are worth a million Freyas. Don’t you see that? You are the most incredible, special person I have ever met in my life and it scares the hell out of me that one day I might hurt you. I felt nothing for Freya and she felt nothing for me and that was safe. You do not make me feel safe. You make me feel things I should never feel and the thought of anyone hurting a hair on your beautiful head makes me want to rip heads off bodies and that’s what I’ve been fighting against since you walked into my life because I know the biggest danger to you is me.’
If a heart could burst then hers just did.
‘Oh, Javier,’ she whispered, a tear spilling down her cheek as she put a trembling hand to his face and gazed helplessly at the eyes that swirled with more emotion than she could have ever hoped to see in them. ‘You are not your father.’
Javier stared at the beautiful, open face that haunted his every waking and sleeping moment and suddenly he was lost.
Pushing her against the wall, he kissed her with every ounce of feeling contained inside him.
Her lips parted to welcome him and then they were clinging together, her arms tight around his neck as he fed on her kisses like a condemned man taking his one last meal.
A desperation he had never felt before overcame him, a need to touch and be touched, and it hit him like a fever in his brain, the blood that had sprung to life all that time ago for this beautiful, incredible woman awake and crashing through his body, refusing to be denied or ignored any longer.
He lifted her into his arms and cradled her in them, gazing into her eyes as he carried her to the bed, marvelling with wonder at the colours and emotions he saw in their depths.
How had he never seen them before?
And she stared back with equal intensity.
Laying her on the bed, he put his palm to her cheek and caressed the satin skin his fingers always yearned to touch.
And then he kissed her again.
And then he was drowning.
Working as one as they devoured each other with their mouths, they stripped their clothes off, throwing them without a care for where they landed, the need to be naked in each other’s arms too strong to care for anything but this moment, this here, this now.
Because whatever fever had him in its grip, it was in Sophie too, there in the hunger of her kisses and the urgency of her touch.
He wanted to feel every part of her, to give this woman who sang to his heart all the passion and love that had broken free from its casing for her.
He opened his ears to her sighs and let them seep into his senses and then he opened all his senses to her.
He was helpless to do anything else.
And she opened her senses to him.
Her fingers traced lightly over his chest, exploring him, her mouth following, her nose brushing over his skin to breathe him in, touching him in a way he had never been touched before.
Every breath of her mouth to his flesh seeped deep inside him to the bones that lay beneath.
He brushed his lips over every part of her too. He inhaled the scent of her skin so deeply that it became a part of him. He kissed her breasts and felt their weight in his hands. He ran his fingers over her belly, a distant part of him awed at what lay inside it but only a distant part because this moment was not about their child, this moment was for her, for him, for them.
When he inhaled the musky heat between her legs, he almost lost himself entirely.
How had he blocked it out so well before and for so long?
It was a scent he would remember for the rest of his life.
If he could love any woman it would be this one, he thought dimly, pressing a kiss to her hip before pushing himself back up to stare into the pale blue eyes once more.
Sophie gazed into the eyes staring at her with such hunger and felt every part of her expand and contract.
She pressed a hand to his face. He rubbed his cheek against it and kissed her palm. And then he kissed her mouth with such possessiveness that her heart bloomed.
Every part of her bloomed.
Her skin was alive from the flames of his touch, everything heated, scorched, her veins lava...and that was lava reflecting back at her in the depth of his stare and she realised that for the first time she was staring right into the heart of this man she loved so much.
The sense of detachment that had always been there...gone.
This was Javier as she had dreamed, touching her and making love to her as if she were the most revered thing in his life, holding her so close their skin could become one and their hearts unite.
His eyes stayed open, boring into her when he entered and...
Oh, the sensation that erupted within her...
This was everything. Everything.
Javier had no recall of entering her; found himself buried deep inside Sophie with her arms locked around him and his hands resting against her cheeks.
The expression reflecting back at him as he made love to her, the wonder, the tenderness...
The void he’d fought against for so long welcomed him into its depths.
He submitted to it.
* * *
Javier woke with a start, opening his eyes to the darkness.
Sophie was draped over him, the delicious weight of her thigh hooked over his, her arm locked around his waist.
His heart pounded, his guts felt as if he’d been punched and for a moment it was as if he’d forgotten how to breathe.
What the hell had he done?
He’d lost all control of himself.
With Sophie.
He pinched the bridge of his nose and fought to inhale.
His movement must have disturbed her for she shifted, pressing herself closer to him; as if it was even possible for her to get any closer.
She could. She did.
He didn’t know if she was fully awake when her lips brushed against his neck and she rolled on top of him, her cheek pressed to his, her silky hair falling softly onto his face, or if she was in the midst of a dream.
It felt as if he were in a dream of his own when she sank onto his hardness, a dream that had him holding her tightly, possessively, while deep in the back of his mind came the thought that if anything happened to this woman he would want to die.
* * *
Sophie stretched a leg out and smiled before she’d even opened her eyes.
This was the start of a new day that would mark the beginning of her new life.
This was the day that marked the true start of her marriage.
The breakthrough she had so longed for had finally been reached. Javier had opened himself up to her and then he had made love to her. Truly made love to her, with his heart