11:00pm.

That's when I hear the front door of the estate open up. All my anxiety heightens as I race down the staircase. I thought just a flash of Cato's green eyes would ease me. Instead, gazing upon him now with that smile full of glee sets me on edge.

I have no doubt that Cato loves me, but will it be enough? I want him to choose what's best for him, and I'm afraid he'll give up the stars just to be next to me. I can't let him do that.

Even I know Cato's first love is the unexplored galaxies. Not the worthless girl who grew up down the hallway from him.

Cato drops his things and picks me up in his embrace. Our chests meet, and he spins me as he digs his nose into my shoulder and neck. "Fuck, look at you."

He breathes me in, and his body loosens as my hand falls down his back.

"I love you," I whisper against him.

Three words have never been more true coming from my lips.

He adjusts me until he's carrying me in those sinewy astronaut arms. His forehead presses against mine. All I see is a smile so wide. The encounter between us is nothing significant—our separation hardly a week. Yet, it feels like the world ended, and we came back to life.

I fear what I'm about to do to pry the answers I want from him. He'll think of this as nothing but love. It will be in love.

But it won't be true.

It'll be the product of manipulation.

The bedroom door shuts, and my trial begins. This man—the father of my unborn child—might not even desire the possibility of having children with me. I'm a servant, and he's so much more beyond the moon and stars.

How will he even want to raise a child with a woman like myself?

I groom back his loose chocolate curls from his wondrous forest irises.

"It must be tiring doing all those press conferences," I whisper, peppering a few stray kisses alongside his jaw.

Cato lowers his gaze as he scans the curves of my body within his arms. "Sleep doesn't come easy when you're out there alone."

"It's only been a week."

"A week too long."

Cato spins our bodies around in a brief dance, tickling me slightly as my giggle rings through the air in a chorus. Cato takes a seat on the edge of his plush bed.

For weeks, his bed became our safe haven away from the world we know. We viewed each other as equals. He was no greater than I. We could only see our hearts, not statuses and broken reputations.

But now, that's all I see, and that's what I fear most.

My astronaut lays my figure down on the sheets. His impatient fingers already begin tracing down the tendons in my neck, down against my collar.

In that moment, his green eyes melt into pools of desire. "I feel like I just came home," he whispers as his lips press against my throat. "You're my home."

And just like that, I have him in my grasp.

His satisfying kisses trail down my neck, then lower to the swell of my breasts. He becomes enticed with just the view of me, but I plan to give him more. So much more. I'll give him everything he covets tonight—the stars, the moon, the sun—if it means understanding where he stands for our future.

I lace my fingers into his hair and gently nudge him over onto his back. Cato lays on the mattress, his green eyes wider than two moons as I straddle his torso. He's still dressed in his professional attire. Tie. Jacket. Collared shirt.

I begin to shrug off his suit jacket, to which Cato sits up a little as it falls from his body. Already now, his muscles tempt me through the fabric of his shirt. I undo each button slowly until he's nothing but skin on top.

And that tie of his...

I have a few ideas.

But first, I drink up kisses from those perfect lips of his, wanting nothing more than to savour him. His heart beats steadily within his chest, enough to tell me that he's at peace right now. His muscles remain loose as my fingertips run down his chest and abdomen.

He breaks a grin between a kiss and pries his tie away from my fingers. Our eyes meet, mischief sparking like embers in his own.

His lips brush against my ear. "Do you really think you can tie me up?"

"Is that a challenge?"

Cato chuckles, then flips our bodies over. In an instant, my arms are above my head as he wraps the tie around my wrists.

"I win," he smirks.

Oh gods. He crawls above me, his fingers removing the nightie that I thought would stay on longer. He rips it off, breaking the straps and seams and everything. Patience isn't something I know Cato has, and I know it won't be long until we're entwined in the sheets.

I lift my hips to grind up against his hard-on beneath his trousers. He groans. His hands find my thighs, forcing them open. There's a hunger in his breath as he kisses me soft on the lips. His explorations begin as he descends downward, teasing every ridge on my physique with his skilled kisses.

His mouth runs over my stomach, and the small miracle of life within me flutters at the touch of their father's kisses.

My breath hitches at the brief sensation. Surely I'm not far enough along to feel any movement from the baby, but it's like the child knows their father is near.

"Cato?" I whimper.

He hushes me as his mouth falls lower between my legs. I'm like honey to him, a sweet taste to his lips, as if he can't get enough. I move my tied hands down to his hair, urging him onward. He hums as his tongue works more frantically amidst my folds. Him pleasing me wasn't the plan. It was supposed to be the other way around.

But it feels so damn good.

At once Cato snaps my arms back above my head. His head reappears in my vision, leaving my core to throb in need.

"Beautiful," he murmurs before placing his lips on mine. I taste remnants of myself against him. "So fucking beautiful..."

"Cato—" He cuts me short as he thrusts his fingers inside me. I cry out, then sigh as he begins to move them so rhythmically. My back arches, and my hands writhe above my head as he holds me down.

He must feel the wetness coating his fingers. I long for this man, even if what lies between us is all a ploy. Maybe I was wrong and this is real, despite my need for answers.

"Let me fuck you," he whispers against my skin.

How can I say no to that command?

"Untie me first."

He crooks his brow, but the look of darkness crowding those green eyes answers my question well enough. Cato moves from the bed for a moment and shrugs himself from his pants. He stands at the foot of the bed now, stroking his now very hard length. He's gloriously bare.

"Seven days," he mutters with a hiss of pleasure. "Seven days without you."

"You sound desperate," I speak with a coyness in my voice. "It doesn't look good on you."

He smirks. "Then what does?"

"You."

He crawls above me before I can speak another word. He places a hand on my wrist, pinning my hands back up above my head. I could ask him about our future life now, and he'd give me every answer I want.

But not yet.

Cato claims me with a heavy kiss, our tongues entwining tightly like two ropes. Our kiss breaks when he drives his length into me without a warning.

"Cato!"

He winces at the cry, and waits for me to ease so he can continue. "Too soon?"

"Damn it, move—"

He's rash in his movements, rougher than I suspected him to be as he claims me. I close my eyes and let him take control. His hands explore me for only a moment, but even he finds a need to brace himself for his untethered methods to love. Or maybe it is tethered, considering my hands are still tied.

We discover our rhythm, and in that moment, bliss overcomes us. I open my eyes and see the galaxies in those green eyes, and they glisten like auroras in the night. His hot heavy breath wanes against my cheeks, but the smile that cracks those precious lips speaks volumes in my heart.

He's right about finding home. He's found it. With me.

The moment my body unravels, Cato finds his own release, and the frantic need for love comes to a fade.

The tie around my wrists comes loose as he frees me. I instead wrap my arms around his strong anatomy.

He tackles me against his heartbeat, binding our bodies in a spoon. Our love happened too fast, too rash. Even now I know it won't be long until Cato's ready for another round.

He places kisses down my spine as I lay against him, and it's then I close my eyes for what I'm about to ask. This could go so wrong. What if this isn't the right time?

"Cato?" I whisper into the silent night.

He hums as he presses his lips to my neck.

"What happens to us once you marry Gemma?"

At once, he stops his kisses. "Nothing. The marriage isn't real. It's only a title."

I tense, and I know Cato feels it in my muscles. "Then what am I to you?"

"Maureen," he murmurs and presses his warm lips to my ear. "I love you. I may be married to Gemma, but you'll have all the benefits."

"You want me to be your mistress then," I breathe. "Forever?"

"Not forever. Just until this shit between our families gets sorted out."

I close my eyes tightly. If I stay with Cato, I'll become a mistress to him. This isn't a shock due to our statuses, but our child deserves more than a mistress of a mother. He deserves a father, one that will claim him as his own.

"How long will that be? I don't want to grow old as your mistress, either."

"We'll figure something out." Cato assures, his voice trailing with thought.

I take a deep breath in, and put everything on the line.

"What if I fall pregnant?"

Silence. A hard, heavy silence.

It hurts that this is the question Cato decides to go silent on. Does he know? There haven't been much physical changes to my body just yet, but it won't be long until he takes note. He's so analytic, that the first evidence of a growing stomach or wider hips will send him into a researching frenzy.

"That's what I'm afraid of," he finally says. "We haven't been careful... I haven't been doing my part, and I'm thinking you should go on birth control, right?"

Tears sting my eyes as I shut them tightly, hoping Cato doesn't catch the sight of them.

"I can get it sorted out with a doctor. It's just that if you get pregnant and the public discovers, my marriage to Gemma will be over and my family loses everything."

No, no, no, no.

Cato continues. "I want children with you, and I want to be able to call them my own. I don't want them to be bastards growing up in my estate. We just need to wait some time."

Time we don't have.

He kisses my ear and presses his stiffening erection against me. "I love you. Everything will be okay." He tilts my chin and kisses my lips. "Let me take you to the stars again."

The heavens that night have never been so beautiful, so bright and alive. We crossed so many boundaries to get to where we are. Our love wasn't exactly a match made in heaven, and yet that's where we end up night after night. Love to Cato will never fade. It's as boundless as the universe.

And yet, every star eventually burns out.

Cato's vision for our future is bright, but fails to make room for children in the now. I'd be setting him back. He'd lose everything he loves.

I can't be the reason he falls to the lowest tiers of society.

In a few hours, Cato will finish the press tour he started a week ago. His return for a night will be one that will be ingrained into my memory forever.

Because I know what I have to do to ensure I give my child everything I can, and I can't do that here.

I have to leave Cato's estate.

And I have to do it before he returns again.

-----

there you have it. the last smutty chapter of Fallen... maybe

what do you think? do you think she'll actually leave dear sweet Cato?

vote & comment & share & wait patiently for the next update