Chapter 28 He Never Says The Word Love

• Ivy lay on the bed with her legs tangled in the sheets and her heart still pounding in her chest. The air in the room was heavy with the scent of him. Her body ached in the places he had gripped, bitten, marked. Her wrists were sore from how he had held them down. Her lips were raw from where he had kissed her too hard. She hadn’t said no. She hadn’t wanted to. The truth was, she had needed it that way. She had needed to feel every part of him pressed into her. She had needed to feel the bruises later and remember how it had felt to give in fully, even when she had not felt safe inside her own heart.
• The sex had not been slow. It had not been soft. He had taken her with the kind of focus that made her forget what it felt like to be separate from him. He had not paused for her sighs. He had not kissed her for comfort. He had held her open, filled her, and fucked her until her moans broke apart into sobs she had tried to silence with her own hand. He had pushed it aside. He had told her not to hide the sound.
• Now the room was still. The only movement came from the soft turn of his back as he stood by the window. He had dressed quickly. His shirt hung open, his chest damp with sweat, his trousers still unzipped. He looked out over the city like he had just made a decision. But he said nothing.