“Why are you here?” he gruffly asks.

I lift my eyes, meeting his again. I shake my head, unsure why he would ever think he’s not perfect. The small part of his face that’s badly damaged is not enough to take away from the rest of him. He’s breathtaking. Only a shallow person would allow something like that to cloud their judgment. My body is urging me to move closer to him, like it’s desperate to know him, to feel him.

Something is changing inside me.

If I’m honest with myself, a good part of me is craving his touch.

Craving him.

“I wanted to read. I couldn’t sleep,” I whisper in a small voice.

He narrows his eyes, but nods and turns, walking over to the couch and sitting down, lifting a book. He’s not kicking me out. He’s letting me stay. Feeling my heart pound, I walk towards the shelves and take an old romance off the shelves. I’m about to go and sit on another chair, when I catch William watching me, and I find myself moving towards him.

Since I’ve been here, he’s sat us on his lap, craving our trust.

I’m about to give it to him.

I stop when I reach him, and he stares up at me, his expression slightly confused. I reach down, and I take the book from his lap, and then I climb on. He stiffens for a moment, and I wonder if he’ll throw me off.

He doesn’t.

And when I hear him take a sharp breath, I know he’s realizing what I’m doing. I’m giving him the part of myself he’s been seeking. I’m opening up. I’m allowing him to show me what it is he really wants to do here.

He doesn’t touch me for the longest moment, but after a few seconds, he lifts his arms, and places them around me.

Warmth floods me.

“I trust you, William,” I murmur, and then I open my bookI ong. and I rest my cheek against his bare chest and start reading.

He doesn’t move.

He just holds me.

Eventually he starts stroking his hand over my hair, occasionally bringing it down over my back. My heart begins to pound, and I find myself turning into him, inhaling him, relishing in the warmth of his skin. He’s becoming familiar to me, like a comfort that I need to survive. I know a big part of me wants him. I want him to give me something...a piece of himself. I think about his lips on mine, and I tilt my head up to stare at him.

“William?” I whisper.

He looks down at me. His jaw is tense, and his breathing is labored.

“Yes?”

“If I asked you to kiss me again, would you?”

He sucks in a breath, and for a moment he looks confused. He quickly covers it and murmurs, “Do you want me to kiss you again, Number Thirteen?”

“Yes.”

There is a moment where I think he will push me off his lap and tell me to leave. He just sits there, looking down at me, his gaze intense. Then, before I can think anymore about it, he’s moving his lips towards mine. The minute they connect, I let off a little whimper. I drop my book, and lift my hands up to curl around his biceps as I deepen the kiss. A rumble shakes his chest as he tangles his fingers into my hair, tilting my head back and kissing me with a deep, greedy want.

He shifts our bodies, and I find myself pressed against the couch with his large frame over mine. I shift my leg, bringing it up and around his hip. I can feel his erection pressing into my stomach, and just the idea that he’s aroused by me has everything tingling. I run my fingertips down his smooth back as he moves over me, kissing me with that breathtaking ferocity.

His fingers travel down my sides, grazing over my breasts. The feeling is quite daunting for me. I don’t ever recall someone touching me like this. I part my lips with a moan, and he takes the chance to slide his tongue into my mouth. Oh my. The kiss deepens as his fingers play down my sides until he reaches my panties. An electric bolt runs through my body, and I find myself arching up to him.

Then his hands are slipping beneath my panties.

“Tell me this is what you need,” he breathes against my mouth.

“Yes,” I plead. “I need it, please, William.”

My entire core is erupting with need. I feel like I’m going to explode. Little bolts of pleasure are shooting deep into my belly, and I ache in places I don’t ever remember aching in before. William slips his fingers inside my panties, and I hear his throaty groan as he finds my wet sex. His finger slips easily into my depths, and he takes the time to run it up and down, stopping occasionally to flick the hard little nub at the top.

The pleasure is too much.

“William,” I whimper. “I...oh, God...”

“Veni împotriva mea, frumusețe,” he murmurs into my ear. Come against me, Beauty.

His finger travels down to my entrance, and gently he slides it inside. There’s a sharp pain for a second, enough to cause my body to freeze.

“Hush, it will ease soon,” he soothes, sliding his finger deeper.

After a moment, the pain subsides and the pleasure returns. William keeps a finger deep inside my body, while the other one finds that nub once more. He begins lazily circling it with his thumb while he thrusts his finger in and out of my body. The feeling is out of this world. It goes far and beyond anything I could have ever imagined.

It feels so good.

“William,” I cry out, clutching his shoulders.

My release takes me hard and fast. My screams fill the library as I lose myself for a second, shuddering beneath the man above me. William makes a pleased sound, and he slips his fingers from my depths. His finger moves up, and he gently presses it against my bottom lip, just staring down at me. My eyelids droop, and I find myself feeling content for the first time since I’ve been here.