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His hips snapped
forward and her name exploded from him in a roar.
    He was lost in her; he was found in her.
    His breath came back to him in waves as he stilled
inside her body. Slowly, he pulled himself back, a smile tilting
his lips up at her whimper as they parted.
    “Stay.” Her voice trembled as she said it.
    He looked down at her; lashes fluttered low on her
cheekbones, making her look fragile and beautiful.
    “Of course.” He went to the bathroom to dispose of
the condom, then came back to find her curled up on the bed. He
spooned himself behind her, loving the way she felt in his
arms.
    “How long will you stay?” she mumbled, and he
realized she wasn’t talking about tonight.
    “As long as you want me. As long as you’re safe.” He
kissed her shoulder, his eyes drifting closed.
    He listened until her breathing grew steady. As long
as she wanted him. As long as she was safe. He wanted forever, but
he’d take what he could get. As long as she was safe.

Chapter Nine
    Romy could feel the early morning light on her
eyelids, and just like every morning since she’d learned her
blindness was permanent, she felt a brief glimmer of hope that
maybe today she’d wake up and find it was all a dream. But when her
eyes opened and nothing appeared in front of them, that hope
snuffed out again.
    This morning, the loss was all the more poignant
when she felt the warm, solid body beside her. Stephen. They’d had sex—no, made love —the night before, and she’d
asked him to stay. She rolled toward him, feeling the muscular arms
and chest beneath her fingertips. Without seeing him, she couldn’t
really comprehend the scale of the man, except that he felt huge:
brawny, muscular in a way that made her think of a lumberjack, a
man whose body was shaped and hardened by hard physical labor. His
features, when her fingers skimmed over them, felt refined,
handsome. Dear.
    She didn’t understand what exactly had happened in
the woods the night before, but she knew there was more to the
story than just bumping into a stranger. There had been a menacing
undertone to the way Stephen had talked to him.
    “What’s the matter, love?” His voice, which had
reminded her of a contra bassoon the day before, sounded even
deeper, more rumbling in the early morning.
    “Nothing.” She shook her head, leaning over him to
kiss him. The kiss was sweet, and when his hand came up to cup the
back of her head, the intensity and heat flooded her. Before she
knew it, he’d rolled her onto her back and his body was rolling
against hers, bringing it to fierce, lush life. She sighed and
opened her body to his, urging him wordlessly to take what she
offered. His huge erection pressed heavy against her thigh and more
than anything she wanted to take him inside her, let him make love
to her until everything spun out of control and she lost herself in
the riptide of orgasm. Memories of the night before buffeted her
senses and sent a shard of need piercing through her.
    “I can’t.” He pulled away, rolling off her.
    Her body ached with the sudden loss of his warmth
and the hunger that had flared between them.
    “Don’t stop, Stephen, and don’t make me beg.” She
swung a leg over him, trapping him beneath her. “Please.”
    “Romy, we need to talk before we go any further.
Last night was…special, I wouldn’t normally…”
    “I don’t care, Stephen. I’m on the pill and I’m
clean, so unless you have some sexually transmitted disease you
need to protect me from, I need you inside me now.” She growled
with the intensity of it as she tried to line him up at the
entrance of her body, but he was stronger, and he had her back on
her back and underneath him in a flash.
    “No sexually transmitted anything. I’m clean. That’s
not what this is about. God help me, you are hell on a man’s
control.”
    She loved that he felt it too: this overwhelming
need to be close, the need to lose control with her. Making love
with him was primal