My clit is sensitive, too sensitive.

“Sage,” I beg, but he ignores me, licking me again before circling my clit and pulling it into his mouth, flicking it with the tip of his tongue. My hips jerk and I try to get away, but he grabs my ass, pulling me deeper into his mouth. Oh, God, I didn’t think it was possible, but I know that once again I’m going to come, and come hard. “Sage.” My legs start to shake then he’s there, over me and slamming into me so hard that my breath leaves on a whoosh and my orgasm that was building detonates, sending me screaming his name as I come, clutching him with every part of me.

“Fuck,” he growls as his mouth lands on mine. Tasting myself on his tongue, I whimper against his.

Running my hands down the smooth skin of his back to his ass, I hold on to him, feeling his muscles contract every time he slams into me, and then he jerks my leg up over his arm. It changes the angle, causing him to hit something inside of me that I didn’t even know existed. “I—”

“Do not fucking come until I tell you,” he growls against my mouth as my muscles start to contract around his hard length.

“Sage….”

“We come together this time.”

My legs start to shake and “Oh, God” leaves my mouth as I lean up, tucking my face against his chest.

“Look at me.”

“Sage!”

“Look at me,” he says, and my head falls back and my eyes meet his then close from the intensity in his gaze.

“Goddammit, Kim, open your eyes,” he growls, slowing his thrusts, which causes the inferno that had been building inside me to turn into a slow burn.

“Keep your eyes on mine.” He picks up the tempo and begins pounding into me harder as he holds my gaze. Dropping my leg from his arm, he leans forward and wraps his hand around my jaw as his thick length fills me. “This is us.”

My eyes pull from his and I try to hide the fear that is suddenly overwhelming me. I should have told him. I should have told him before this, and now it’s too late. He’s once again clawed his way deep inside me, and I know I won’t be able to get over the wounds from the loss of him this time.

“Look at me, baby.” The edge in his tone has my eyes going to his. “Tell me that you feel this.”

“I feel it.” And I do, but now it’s also accompanied by fear.

“It’s going to be okay.”

It’s not.

Reaching between us, his thumb finds my clit, and my head arches back into the pillow as I contract around him, trying to pull him impossibly deeper.

“Perfect.” He thumbs my clit, and that along with his cock filling me over and over has me once again on the edge. “Now.” He takes my mouth on his quiet command and I fly over the edge, feeling his hips jerk as he loses himself inside me.

Panting for breath, I wrap my arms around him under his and my legs up higher on his hips as the aftermath of my orgasm sweeps through me like a tidal wave.

“Stay, please,” I plea, tightening my hold on him when his hips shift like he’s going to pull out of me, something I’m not even a little ready for.

“I’m not going anywhere,” he whispers, but my limbs stay tight. “Look at me, baby.” I open my eyes that I didn’t even know were closed and find him looking down at me. “You’re beautiful. You’re always beautiful, but when you come… Jesus, I don’t think there is anything more extraordinary than the look you get in your eyes when you’re about to come. But that’s not what you gave me a second ago. I don’t know what I saw, but I didn’t like it.”

“Sage—”

“Serious as shit, the first moment I saw you I thought for sure the universe was fucking with me. I think that’s the moment I fell in love with you.” Did he just say he loves me? “How? I do not fucking know. I didn’t know who the fuck you were, but I swear to Christ, I knew there was something in you that had always belonged to me.”

“Sage, I—”

“I’d never seen a woman as beautiful as you are, and now I know… not only are you beautiful here—” He runs his finger down the center of my face. “—I know you’re beautiful here, too.” He touches the skin over my heart. “That shit means everything to me, Kimberly. So whatever fucked up shit you have filtering around in your head right now, you need to let it go. I’m not going anywhere, and neither are you.”

Oh, God, my throat burns as I swallow.

“Sa—” His mouth touches mine and he starts to move inside me once more, leaving me no chance to tell him that I feel the same way or about the secret I’ve been keeping from him.

Slowly waking from a deep sleep, I raise my arms up over my head and take a minute to enjoy the way every single inch of me feels beautifully used and sore. I’ve only felt like this once before, and it was after the first night I was with Sage. That night was good, but last night was a million times better. I don’t know how many times he fucked me or made love to me, but it was a lot, and every single time, he made sure he got me off before taking care of himself.

And it was all fabulous.

Rolling to my side, I slowly open my eyes then blink when I see Sage with his eyes on me, dressed and sitting in a chair that he’s pulled up close to the bed.

“Hey.” I smile, getting up on an elbow. “What time is it?” I ask, looking from him to the clock on the side table, one of those old-time clocks with the bells on the top that ring loud when the alarm goes off. Seeing it’s not even 7:00, my eyes go back to him, and it’s then I register the look in his eyes, the odd energy pulsing through the room, and the fact he hasn’t spoken a word to me since I woke up.

Dropping my eyes to the bed, I sit up, pulling the sheet with me as I go, and tuck it under my arms before looking at him once more. “Is everything okay? Di—” I freeze, and my stomach twists when I notice he’s holding a transparent bright yellow bottle with a white twist-off top in his hands. One of my pill bottles.

One of my pill bottles. Oh, God.

“What are you doing with those?” I ask, and that’s when his face changes and anger fills his features.

“I think I should be asking you what the fuck you’re doing with these,” he replies, shaking the bottle and causing the pills inside to rattle against each other. “Got something to tell me, Kimberly?”

“I….” I stop talking, not having the first clue of where to start.

“Got something to tell me?” he repeats loudly, and my heart constricts.

“Yes.”

“Talk,” he bites out, and I lean toward him with my hand out to touch him, but he sits back out of my reach. My hand balls into a fist that I drop to my side. “Tell me,” he demands.

My heart pounds painfully against my ribcage and I study him, trying to find the words to make this better, the words to make him understand. “I’m sick.”

“Yeah, I got that when I saw the fucking pharmacy in your makeup bag and did some research.”

“My kidneys.”

“I got that, too. What I want to fucking know is why the fuck you didn’t tell me about this before.” He shakes the pills again, the sound causing me to flinch.

“I was going to.”

“Yeah, when?”

“I…” I shake my head, running my hand agitatedly through my hair. “When the time was right.” I finally get out, and the energy beating against my skin goes scary.

“When the fuck would the time be right?” he roars, standing from the chair, and I get up on my knees in the bed.

“Please calm down,” I whisper, and his eyes cut into mine, making me feel hollow.

“Calm down. You want me to calm down? Jesus, what the fuck, Kim?”

“Let me explain,” I beg as tears burn up the back of my throat, making it hard to breathe.

“I don’t want to fucking hear it,” he roars, then his arm goes back and he throws the bottle of pills across the room, where it hits the wall with a loud thud, causing the cap to come off and pills to scatter like the pieces of my painfully beating heart across the floor. “You should have fucking talked to me.” He shakes his head right before he’s gone, storming through the bedroom door, and leaving me kneeling in the middle of his big bed, clutching the sheet to my chest as I breathe heavily.