And then I was hers.
chapter twenty seven
the drivers seat is pretty comfy
It was perfect, actually, how this all happened. Although if you’d have told me this was how my day was going to end, I’d have never believed you.
To be honest, I still didn’t know if I believed it myself.
But I had no more energy to run from something that felt so right. I’d been running from him all day, since the second I figured out his smile wasn’t totally awful, and it said something that I was glad when he found me. Because for a second, it silenced every voice telling me what I’d heard was true. But only for a second. Then the anger that had consumed me all afternoon was all I could see. All I could feel.
I don’t know why I’m thinking about that when his mouth is on my neck and there are plenty of more pressing things I need to be thinking about. Like the way his lips felt on my jaw. Like the way his hand was riding up my skirt. More importantly, how Marcus Romano admitted he liked me and how I just wanted to kiss him harder because of it.
Thank God for the summer rain that was fogging up the windows; without it, the entire crowd outside the club wouldhave seen this very illegal act we were doing, and come tomorrow morning, I’d be another headline. But somehow the thought of being caught in here with Marcus didn’t scare me. Unlike with Jamie, whenever I saw his and my names together after the attack, it made me want to change my name altogether.
But when the mental image of a passerby picking up a newspaper in the morning and reading‘Cora Holland and Marcus Romano found making out in a telephone box,’ suddenly it was only my last name that sounds like it needs changing.
I’m kidding. Obviously. And that thought evaporates the second one of Marcus’s hands trails down the back of my thigh, hiking it up against his side.
Kind of.
His fingers spanned across my wet skin, squeezing like he was checking if they were ripe.
“This is insane.” I practically moaned into the air.
He lifted his mouth off my neck to breathe, “Tell me about it.”
His voice was a drug I’d happily become addicted to. It was low and sexy and had all the power to make me forget this was the closest I’d been with someone for a while. But Marcus had a way of making me feel safe in moments like this, as though Jamie was a dream. As though Rainie was a mere blip.
And it was more than just his words making me feel so safe.
When his hand travelled from the back of my thigh, he moved slowly, like he was giving me time to process, like he wanted me to know his next move. It was the kind of hesitationthat didn’t make me think he didn’t want this. More the kind that gave me the power, all while giving him every ounce of mine.
His hand was on my waist, but I knew it would be, and it stayed there while his mouth kissed its way back to mine, our tongues swerving as our lips overlapped. His hand hovered, like he was memorising my shape, and something about that had me lifting mine to the hem of his shirt, grasping at the fabric, desperate to get a better feel for what was under there.
That wicked smile of his curved against my mouth mid kiss, before he slowly pulled back, his eyes like the dark side of the moon. “If you’re trying to get me naked in public, I’d think again.”
I smirked, tilting my head. “You’re the one who dragged me in here and kissed me. I’m just following your lead.”
He raised a brow, watching me like he was enjoying watching me unravel. Then softly, “You take the lead then.”
“How?”
He tucked a wet strand of my hair behind my ear, his touch impossibly gentle for someone so solid. His hand at my waist slid higher, just under my ribs, not rushing—just there. “Tell me what you want.”
A laugh escaped me, soft and real.
“Seriously,” he leaned closer, still not touching more than he already was. “Lead the way, angel.”
My mouth shut, centering on his words and the way they made my stomach hollow. It was that feeling of being known,and wondering when this person took the time to figure you out enough to know you so well.
I met his eyes as my hand glided around his waist, steady and deliberate. “Okay. No sex.” Then, quieter, “But I want this. I want to touch you. I want to enjoy it without feeling like I owe something. Just… be in this moment. With you.”
He nodded, like it was the only answer he needed.
I lifted his hand from where it rested beneath my ribs and guided it higher, right over my heart.
“Because I love the way I feel like I can say no, and you’ll still stay.”
