Feeling him grip me is like being in a giant’s arms, and the easy strength he uses to pull me in and bring his lips to mine makes me feel safe for the first time in what feels like a lifetime.

It’s strange, a grip like that, firm and powerful, should make me feel like he’s taking control of me, taking everything into his hands. But I’ve spent so long on the run in other people’s hands, hiding from place to place. I don’t want that feeling anymore. And with Bruno, somehow, being in his embrace helps me feel like I’m standing on my own two feet for the first time.

He’s not another set of arms to hold me. He’s my shelter in this storm.

I sigh into his kiss as the hot water rolls over my shoulder. It’s so hot it almost scalds me, but his hands still feel warmer. And I’m feeling even warmer between my legs. That groan that rumbles in his chest, full of desire and strength...it’s everything I’ve dreamed of. It’s that sound, that feeling that’s stayed alive in the back of my mind.

I still can’t believe it’s him. Seeing him at all after what happens defies all odds, all my expectations.

But really, that’s what our whole relationship has been: against all odds.

I let Bruno walk me backward in the shower, gently, until I’m pressed up against the cool tile wall. The room is so steamy that it’s not icy, but it sends a thrilling shiver down my back. My heart is pounding, and I feel excitement welling up in me so hard that I’d be shaking if it weren’t like a sauna in here.

My eyes slowly shut as I feel Bruno start to explore my body. It feels like he’s discovering everything all over again. His hands slide around my hips to my ass first, squeezing it gently at first. I give him a little thrust of my hips to ask for more, and wordlessly, he understands. The next moment, he pushes back into me and pinches me on my ass enough that I gasp into his kiss.

He silences me with his tongue. I feel it delve into my mouth, his rough stubble brushing against my face slightly. Fuck, I already feel so tense inside, ready to explode at a moment’s notice. I can’t hold myself back any longer.

My hands go up to his chest, and my nails dig into his flesh, running down those rippling, tight pectoral muscles, down to his abs. I’d count them if my head weren’t so dizzy with need. Another shiver runs up my body, but not from the cold—this time, it’s like old sensations I thought dead forever coming back to life. My body remembers everything about him, everything about the passionate seconds we passed together.

And it’s desperate for more.

I crave him, every inch of him. My fingers run down his dark skin until they reach the V leading to his groin, and soon, my hands have found that thick, wet shaft that’s as hot and ready as I am. It’s pointed up toward me, resting against me, grinding against me every time one of us moves. I feel it harden and pulse at the same time that I feel my pussy wetten and warm in anticipation.

“I’ve missed you so fucking much,” I gasp when our kiss breaks, and I tilt my head back to rest against the tile as his mouth goes to my exposed neck. We started gentle, but we’re realizing that after so long apart...neither of us knows how long we can hold ourselves back before this turns into something more savage.

And that’s something I think we’re both eager for.

His teeth graze my neck at first, brushing against it with the stubble of his cheeks. Then I feel a nip, and I gasp. He presses himself in closer, and his hands grip my hips tighter as he starts to rub himself against me. The feeling of his teeth gently on my neck gets more aggressive, and I can feel that huge, strong heart of his thumping in his chest as he hugs me against his pecs.

He grips me possessively because he knows I’m his, even though we’ve been apart so long. My breathing is hot and fast as my lips hang open, water running in little streams down my face as I feel my whole body twitch with need for him.

He moves his hands to my back and claws me, running those rough carpenter’s hands down my spine, feeling every inch of my smooth skin. His hands run down to my ass, where he rubs his palms into my cheeks, massaging me and groping me. His cock pulses with every new part of me he touches.

His body is powerful and built better than anyone I’ve met in my life. It’s incredible to know that all that strength can get excited just by the touch of me—just by the thought of me.

“Serena,” he groans in a husky voice, lips by my ear as he leaves my poor neck alone at last. “I told you I’d never leave you. Did you think I’d make a liar of myself?”

I’m too breathy to respond, and he nips my ear, making me whimper and squirm in his grip.

I can’t take it any longer.

My hands go to his cock again and start running up and down its length. My eyes flutter open to meet his. The sight of his face there—steam all around us, his dark eyes piercing into my soul, water running down his short hair and those features that look like they were cut from the finest marble—makes my heart flutter. He could hold me paralyzed with that look.

His face cracks that boyish smile. My Bruno. My own Bruno.

He clenches his teeth a moment as my fingers run up his cock and my thumb brushes the tip. I can electrify him with just a touch of my hand, and that knowledge makes my heart soar.

“You’re always playing with fire, passerotta mia,” he whispers as his hand runs from my hip to my thigh, still strong and firm as ever, and I have barely enough time to brace myself before he hoists me up just enough to impale me on his cock.

I let out a scream that he silences with a kiss. Neither of us want to be slow anymore. We can’t take it, and the steam between us is only making us more and more worked up. We finally have all the time in the world, and damn it, I’m going to take advantage of that.

The feeling of that huge, familiar shaft entering me is unbelievable. It’s as if my whole body were stretching out and feeling a swirl of relief all concentrated between my legs. It’s hot and intense, stretching me taut and wringing me out all in the same feeling.

The water is hot, but I feel hot tears running from my face too. It’s not pain—my pussy is so needy and so ready for him that he feels nothing but incredible in me—it’s the overwhelming feeling of knowing that we’re together again.

My inner depths pulse with ecstasy as his cock gets flooded with my honey. His tongue plunges into my mouth, and while one hand helps hold me up, his free hand goes to my left breast, groping me and rolling his thumb over the hard, stiff nub. I’m aching for him, and he holds nothing back.

Immediately, he starts thrusting up into me. We’re in sync as if we’d never spent a single night apart. His hips move back and forth as I let my head roll back, his mouth going to my neck and ravishing the exposed flesh, then moving down to the nape.

I’m like a doll in his hands. My hair is soaking wet, and after he’s had his fun toying with my nipple and getting it stiffer than ever, his hand goes to my back and takes a handful of it. The grip he has on me just makes me feel all the tighter, blissfully strung out in Bruno’s hands.

Each time he thrusts, his cock solid as a rock and pulsing with desire, I feel electricity run from the walls of my pussy up into the rest of my groin, then further up to tighten in my lower abdomen. From there, I feel every nerve in my body begging me not to let this stop.

I rock my hips in time with him, but even if I wanted to just lay back and enjoy it, Bruno could have handled it. He bucks back and forth at a steady rhythm, not going too deep to hurt me but filling up every inch of what he explores of me.

“Serena,” he breathes into my ears. He’s practically panting, growling my name. “Serena, fuck, I want to feel you come on my cock. I want you to do that for me, baby.”

“Oh god,” I gasp, needing no encouragement. “Bruno, I...I’m so close, please don’t stop!”

He’s a machine. I don’t know how he’s holding me up this way or how he can keep himself moving like this after whatever he must have gone through to find me all the way out here, but I would rather die than let it stop now.

Something wells up inside me, and I scramble to get my hands on his biceps to hold myself up. I feel so tight inside that I’m afraid I might lose control of myself and start convulsing, so I need something, anything to hold onto. I feel his biceps, but they’re too thick and hard to get a good grip on. I whimper in desperation as I feel Bruno hurdling me toward the point of no return, and just when I think I’m about to lose myself, Bruno pushes me back and up against the wall just as I can’t contain myself anymore.

He thrusts up deeper than ever as I come, and I let out a sharp, short squeak that melts into a long, ragged sigh while my body is pinned between the tile and Bruno’s hot body. After my limbs twitch and I feel my honey warming his cock and mixing with his precome, his cock pulsing inside me, I realize he’s holding me up entirely. I’ve lost control of my body, and Bruno is holding my limp form up with his strong arms and that solid dick that’s just as desperate for release.

“I want you to come in me, Bruno,” I manage, afterglow radiating around me like a halo. “Please, I want to feel you fill me up, it’s been so long!”

“Soon, carissima,” he teases me, putting a finger to my chin and lifting my face up for him to kiss. It’s sweet and short, and right now, it’s the sweetest thing I could possibly taste. His tone turns dark when he leans in to whisper into my ear, “I’m not done making up for lost time yet.”

Slowly, he draws his cock out of me, and I immediately try to push my hips back into it. I feel like I’m missing something without it in me, and I whimper in protest, gripping his biceps pleadingly. Bruno must have noticed, because he chuckles, brushing a little strand of wet hair out of my eyes and kissing me again to pacify me while he slides out. “Patience,” he urges me through that wicked grin of his.

“I need you in me,” I say, feeling relaxation from head to toe already, a relaxation that’s almost heavy on me like an aura. I sound stupid, but god, it’s the truest thing I can say right now.

“I can’t deny you anything, you know that,” he growls just before he turns me around. I catch myself with my hands against the tile. He takes hold of my hips, perching his cock on the surface of my pussy as he takes his time groping my ass, his chest giving a low rumble as he savors the feeling of it.

“This, Serena,” he says with a quick, wet slap of my ass that makes me whimper and wiggle my hips, begging him to spear me. “This could bring me back from the dead.”

I don’t have time to answer before he thrusts up into me. My fingers try to clench, but the tile keeps me pinned against the wall, my mouth hanging open as I feel warmth roil through my body in an entirely new way. His cock his long and thick, but just changing positions electrifies new parts of my body, reminds me of so much of what I’ve been missing.

Both of his massive hands reach around to grope my front, first cupping my breasts and squeezing, toying with them, flicking the hardening nipples with his thumbs and running his fingers teasingly over my areolas. I can feel every ridge of his cock inside me, ribbed with veins, pulsing with every motion.

He starts rocking steadily again, letting me take a breath so as not to overwhelm me with the sensation. But I can tell he isn’t going to go easy on me—not by a long shot.

Even when I think back to all the passionate nights we’ve spent together, I don’t know if I’ve ever felt him this taut and ready, so swollen, so...huge. His balls don’t hit me in this position, but I can still feel their weight as they swing under us in the shower. He’s swollen with need for me, and the thought of him unleashing himself inside of me is enough to warm me up inside all over again.

The way the past few weeks have been going, sex has been the last thing on my mind. So this overwhelming presence of Bruno all around me, inside me, filling me up, it all hits me like a truck out of nowhere. It’s thrilling and relaxing all at once, like a medicine I didn’t even realize I needed.

I feel the bulging crown of his cock inside of me grinding against me as he moves in and out, and soon, I feel my body electrifying as he reaches my g-spot. My whole body starts to tense, and I know he can feel it—I clench around him to make sure he feels, because I want Bruno to share every second of this ecstasy I’m feeling.

His cock feels like it’s white-hot against my insides, and I put my forehead against the wet tile wall so it doesn’t fall over. I feel like jelly in his hands. Just as I’m starting to lose myself entirely in his steady, rhythmic pace that’s picking right up to what it was a few moments ago, I feel one of his hands start to wander further down, away from my breast.

My pussy tightens in anticipation as Bruno’s strong, gentle fingers make their way to my clit. As soon as I feel his rough fingertip on my sensitive, swollen nub, he has to hold me up again as my legs shake, another orgasm crashing through me.

My body has been totally awakened to him, and the orgasms come more freely now. My panting breaths go in time with his thrusts. His tip strikes my g-spot while his fingers swirl around my clit, and I lose track of time in the rush of it all. I’m hardly aware that there’s even water falling on us anymore. All I can feel is the swelling rhythm of my orgasms as his steady, pounding rhythm drives me home over and over again.

My body tensing up gradually and then relaxing with a beautiful, wonderful shudder is the only thing I use to measure time anymore. Just the feeling of Bruno’s hands around me again is almost as wonderful as the overwhelming feeling I have in every inch of my body.

I start to get a better footing in the tub, and Bruno starts rubbing his hands up and down my body, really exploring me as if it’s for the first time again. It hits me why I feel so unbelievably safe with Bruno, despite all the danger that seems to follow us around. He loves me in a way that makes every second touching me worthwhile. I can feel it in his hands on my hips, on my stomach, on my breasts. He loves me, body and soul, the same way I love him.

Tears are running down my face again, and my eyes pop open when he slides out of me suddenly. I turn my head to look at him, but he’s already grabbing my face and bringing me into a deep, hungry kiss at the same time he drives his cock into me.

We’re locked in a long, deep kiss as he starts thrusting faster, and this time, I recognize the way he’s losing his rhythm, the way he’s starting to grab me like he’s holding me to him. There’s something brutal and animalistic to it, every bit as fierce as he is sweet, all in the same storm of feelings that he fans up in me.

I’m hopelessly, deeply in love with him, and my whole body roars up as one to join him when I feel his cock starting to tense up harder, balls tightening, bucking getting wild—never careless, but wild.

He spreads my arms out outstretched on the tile and holds me by the wrists as he pounds. He’s leaving me totally exposed to him, unable to stop him as he tilts his head back and lets out a deep, ragged groan…

The feeling of his seed bursting into me is the most exciting and comforting feeling I’ve felt since...since...I can’t even remember. It’s all just a golden, dizzy blur as shot after shot of hot come washes my insides with Bruno. He pours himself out into me entirely, and I feel filled with life all over again. I realize I’m smiling in the shower, hot water getting in my mouth as I almost want to laugh. My head is getting giddy, sensations so jumbled up and wonderful as we come together that I feel out of control of myself.

All I know is that I’m happy. Bruno has me, he’s coming in me, and we belong to each other. In my wildest dreams, I never could have thought that would be how tonight would end up. When I open my eyes once we’ve stopped moving, I’m half-expecting him to not be there. That this was all just a dream, or even the afterlife.

But Bruno’s still there, glowing as much as I am with that damned cocky smile on his face.

“Is this for real?” I let spill from my mouth. “I mean, are you a dream or something?”

“Dolcezza,” he says, putting a hand to my cheek, “I’ve been asking myself that this whole time.”

A few minutes later, Bruno has dried me off with a towel that’s a little too stiff for my liking, but beggars can’t be choosers. We start to walk out of the bathroom, but I realize my legs are shaking too much from the...well, the everything.

Giggling, I’m swept off my feet by Bruno before he carries me out the door and up to a modest little bedroom on the same floor.

“This place must have been nice when it was still lived in,” I say as he sets me down beside a bed that isn’t too gnarly, but it’s seen better days, and the sheets smell a little like dust.

“Some of them are still in use,” he says as he fluffs the pillows a little. “I’ll have to show you one someday. For now, though, you’ll have to take my word for it,” he adds with a wink. “I’ve got some supplies I brought with me—I have a vehicle. We can eat light in the morning and get a move on. For now, though,” he says, walking over to me and helping me get into the sheets. My eyelids got heavy all of the sudden.

Not that I should be surprised. All that adrenaline was bound to crash sometime soon.

“You need some rest,” Bruno says, sitting on the bed next to me with a warm smile as I beam up at him, bundling sheets around myself. I don’t even care that the bed is stiff—I would sleep on a pile of hay at this point.

“That sounds…” I try to say before I yawn, and I feel sleep overtaking me like a warm bath.

Bruno’s smile splits into a grin, and he says something that makes my heart flutter, but I’m already falling deep into sleep.

...And the next thing I’m aware of, god knows how many hours later, is his hand on my shoulder and his deep voice in my ear. But it’s not the warm and comforting sound I was expecting—it sounds urgent. I fight off the sleep all around me and look at his blurry face and his moving mouth. The look in his eyes tells me everything I need to know.

“We have to go. Now.”