Don’t give up on me, she’d written. Did she honestly think that was a feat that could be accomplished in half a dozen days? The pain of not holding her had been a chasm in his stomach. She was here with him now. Twisting his key in the elevator, Jonah focused on that.
When the door slid open, he pulled her inside, pressing her up against the wall before it had fully closed behind them, not able to wait another damn moment. “So you love me, is that right? What am I going to do about that?”
The hopefulness in her eyes made his heart drum deafeningly. “Love me back?”
“Don’t ever say those words again as if they’re a question,” he grated out. “I love you so badly I could get lost in it and never find my way back out.”
Eyes closed, Caroline nodded. He watched awareness transform her then. She moistened her lips in a way that made him hot and impatient, aligning her lower body with his and shifting sexily against his arousal. So many emotions whipped around inside him at once. Aching, unrelenting love coupled with fierce sexual need. He needed to push inside her soon, take this blistering five-day edge off, so he could concentrate on them all. Figure out the best way to make sure she never stopped loving him for a goddamn second.
“Jonah?”
“Caroline,” he rasped.
“When I said I loved everything about you, I meant it.” She ran her hands over his chest, and it swelled toward her without conscious thought. “I want you to show me. Everything.”
Turned on to an excruciating degree, yet humbled at the same time, Jonah couldn’t stop his hands from molding her ass through her skirt, even though he knew it would decrease their chances of making it to his bedroom. And he really fucking wanted her in his bed. “I need you to know that I want you, need you, without any of it. Do you understand that?”
“Yes.”
Jonah dragged his tongue up the side of her neck. “We’ll go slowly. You’ll find pleasure in everything we do or it ends. But it doesn’t have to start tonight, sweetheart. I can barely think beyond filling your body with mine and riding you with enough force to break through my wall.”
“I like the sound of that,” she breathed before shaking her head, eyes turning serious. “But I need to show you I have no doubts about us. This. What you need. I want you to know that I need it, too.”
“You’ve already proven that today, baby.”
“No. Not enough.”
Jonah’s pulse started to pound in that raw, thick way it did when he knew he’d be in control soon. He became aware of his hands, their heaviness. The height difference between himself and Caroline. All in a split second. He had an idea of what was coming, what she would say next, and knew he should deny her. But he didn’t want to. And when her eyes turned imploring, he knew even before she spoke that he was sunk. This was where they’d been heading since she walked through the door of Serve, even if neither one of them had dared hope for it. There was trust now, though. Love without barriers. Now, it was right.
“Take me to the other bedroom,” she continued. “Give me what I asked for on the first night. Show me, Jonah.”
The last part, her quiet plea, cemented his choice. It humbled him while letting loose a part of him he hadn’t revealed fully to her yet. They’d both known it existed the whole time, spinning darkly under the surface, but he’d been so aware he could scare her off that he’d kept it sealed tight. He had no such worry anymore. This woman was his. In asking him for this, she was trusting him with her body as well as her heart. He wouldn’t abuse that privilege. And God knew he’d enjoy the hell out of it.
The elevator door opened to reveal his entryway. Reluctantly, Jonah pulled away from her sweet curves, took her hand, and led her toward his apartment.
He didn’t pause on his way to the guest bedroom, walking with her beside him every step of the way, her hand steady inside his own. The push and pull between them would change when they entered the bedroom, but having her match his stride felt right outside the bedroom. He wouldn’t question what felt right between them because everything was right.
When he closed the door of the bedroom behind them, there was a noticeable shift in the air. Inside him. Caroline sensed it, too. Her hands went still at her sides, eyes bright and wide as she watched him open his dresser drawer and remove his favorite riding crop, shoving it into the back pocket of his pants. There was a way he usually proceeded at this point, but for the life of him, he couldn’t remember it. Nothing and no one existed before now, before her, and they would create their own way, dammit. Build something perfect and lasting. His intention had been to order Caroline to strip while he readied the restraints above the bed. Instead, he followed his instinct and went toward her, loving the way her swollen lips parted to suck in a breath at his approach.