“I need you,” I whispered, breathless.

Now that I’d come down from the high he’d just given me, I was desperate to have him inside. His eyes traced my body, stopping momentarily on the scar on my stomach. It was old, barely visible, really, but in that moment I was hyperaware of the imperfection. Lee didn’t ask me where I’d gotten it, and instead continued to soak in the sight of my naked body like it was his favourite work of art.

Bracing his hands above my shoulders, he leant his head down to lick at my nipples. I moaned when he sucked one into his mouth and then the other, swirling his tongue around the needy flesh.

“You’re all soft and ready for me,” he said, his voice the sexiest thing I’d ever heard. “I can’t wait to feel you, Karla.”

My breathing began to quicken again when he lifted my thighs around his hips. He held me up, staring at me fiercely, and some sharp emotion cut through my chest. A second later he plunged into me hard, causing electricity to crackle all over my body. Our eyes stayed connected, and I felt like I could see right to the core of him in that moment. There was no wall up, no mask or pretence. All I saw was him, and it was beautiful.

He moved in me slowly, and I closed my eyes so I could savour the lazy drag against my nerve endings.

“Open your eyes,” he whispered, pressing a soft kiss to my lips.

I did as he said, struck speechless by the emotions washing through the clear blue depths of his irises. Right then, I knew that this thing between us was real to him, that he felt things for me far stronger than simple lust. It was jarring, but at the same time it gave me clarity on my own feelings, and how I felt more than fleeting attraction for him, too.

He never sped up his movements, but instead continued to rock back and forth in an even pace. He was learning me, feeling me, making love to me. The sound of our breathing and the quiet slap of our bodies as they connected filled the room. I moaned when he reached down and pressed a finger to the bundle of nerves between my legs.

His forehead shone with a thin layer of sweat, the muscles of his abdomen tensing with every thrust of this hips. I loved the definition in his arms as he held his body above mine.

His movements became a little more frenzied when he leaned down and pressed his forehead to mine. “Come on my dick,” he urged, his voice strained.

I clenched my thighs around him tight, feeling the sensation build in my core. He grunted when he began fucking me in hard, measured thrusts, and pleasure shattered though my body. Rubbing faster at my clit, he captured my lips in his and plunged his tongue against mine. I felt completely possessed, like he was everywhere all at once; his taste in my mouth, his noises in my ears, his cock doing wonderful things to my insides. Everything in me coiled tight, the onslaught that was Lee reaching his pinnacle, and I came for the second time that night. Only now it was so much more, because I felt him coming, too, filling me as his breathing grew choppy and his movements began to slow.

“Jesus,” he said, his forehead resting on mine again.

Our hearts seemed to beat in time, our breaths matching as he held me to him so tight I didn’t think he was ever going to let go.

“You make me feel so fucking alive,” Lee said fervently, his words muffled by my skin. “Made for me.”

I wrapped my arms around his neck and held him close, a strange fear clutching at my heart. A silence fell between us until Lee flipped us over, wrapping his arms around me and spooning me from behind.

“You’re being awfully quiet,” he whispered in my ear, and there was a touch of uncertainty in his words, like he was worried I was going to run on him.

I lifted his hand and intertwined our fingers. “I’m just frightened, Lee. The way I feel about you, it’s intense. It scares me.”

His arm tightened around me, pulling my body closer to his. “I feel it, too, the intensity. It shouldn’t scare you.”

For some reason, my eyes grew watery, and I couldn’t understand why I was being so emotional. Maybe it was the way he spoke. Here, alone with me in his bed, his voice was different. There was no cocky bravado or teasing. He was just open, real, and it made it difficult to keep a handle on my feelings.

A single tear rolled down my cheek, and I was glad I wasn’t facing him right then. He’d probably think I was a complete head case, crying after sex. It was just that being with him made everything else in my life a lie, and yet, the idea of being without him made everything seem empty and grey. So I was trapped in the lie. In fact, I’d walked right into it willingly with both eyes open.

I pressed my cheek into the pillow to dry away the tears and turned in his arms. Needing the comfort, I buried my face in his neck and felt a breath whoosh out of him.

“Karla?” said Lee, his tone questioning.

I spoke into his skin. “I just really, really like you. I like the things you do to me, and I don’t want to lose them.”

Feeling his jaw move, I thought he might be smiling. “If it’s any consolation, I really like the things I do to you, too. Actually, I fucking love them. And you won’t lose me, so long as you make the choice to be with me.”

I lifted my head to meet his eyes. “But it’s impossible. We can never have a normal relationship. Other than Alexis and Reya, there isn’t a single person in my life I could tell about you, no one who wouldn’t condemn me for it.”

“It’s simple, then — don’t tell them.”

“So what do we do, sneak around?”