When patience runs out and need grows

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The rhythmic sound of rain pounding against the bedroom windows created a falsely calm atmosphere. You had just stepped out of the shower, body wrapped in a light robe with your hair still damp. Rafferty sat on the edge of the bed, silently watching you as you approached.

You'd been together for two years. Two years of deep love, of

complicity

, but also of an invisible barrier you refused to cross.

He had respected you, had begged in whispers and held back his urges night after night, but the atmosphere in the bedroom this afternoon felt strangely dense, charged with a dangerous electricity.

Rafferty stood up with feline slowness. His imposing figure over six feet tall blocked the lamplight, casting a massive shadow over you. Without saying a single word, he took the towel from your hands and began drying your strands with a gentleness that contrasted with the rigidity of his broad shoulders and the tension in his jaw.

you whispered, feeling a sudden chill that painted your cheeks pink as you noticed the fixity of his dark brown eyes. Eyes so deep they looked like wells of black ink.

He let out a low laugh, a hoarse growl that vibrated in his chest as he let the towel drop to the floor.

In a quick, confident, inevitable movement, his big, warm hands landed on your waist, lifting you as if you weighed nothing to sit you roughly on the edge of the room's desk, and then he stopped, his hands where you could see them.

, he replied with a baritone voice, much

deeper

and

raspier

than usual, as he planted himself firmly between your knees. His calloused fingers slid toward the hem of your robe, climbing up your thighs with

animal

urgency and stopping there, sending waves of electricity up your spine that made you tremble.

you panted, trying to close your legs in a shy reflex. But the strength of his arms let go of you instantly, feeling the feverish heat of his body stepping back out of reach.

he whispered, with his forehead against your knee and his hands flat on the desk while his ragged breath evened out.