control
Building the foundation of something that felt genuinely sustainable.
The leather of the couch was cool against my back, but everything else in the room was burning. Eli was a heavy, solid weight pressing me down into the cushions, his hands framing my face like I was the only thing in the world that mattered. I could feel the ragged rhythm of his breathing against my neck, a hot, steady pulse that matched the frantic drumming in my own chest.
"You have no idea," he rasped, his voice vibrating deep in his throat. He pulled back just enough to look me in the eye, and the intensity there was staggering—a mix of raw hunger and something so fiercely protective it