I sucked in a breath, releasing it in a slow stream, as his breath picked up in my ear. “I never forget. You make me forget. When my cock is buried deep inside of you, I don’t know my fucking name, or who I am, or what the world sees when they look at me. I’m just a man inside of a woman, a woman who holds the power to make me forget it all.”
“Be careful.” My breath was coming out in pants as his fingers worked me higher and higher to the edge of desire. “That’s a dangerous direction. It could lead to the loss of a vital organ.”
My nails sunk into his arm as the pressure increased, as he started to move faster, as his nose skimmed down my neck, his mouth sucking my skin. “I’ve already stolen your heart, my darlin’. There’s nothing left to lose. All that’s left is for you to give in.” His words were slow, low, and seductive. “Give in to me, Keely Shea Kelly. You’re wasting your time trying to keep what’s already mine.”
I let out a strangled moan when his arm let me go and his free hand came up, loosening the buttons on his shirt—the one covering my body. He started to tease my nipple. “We both know…” I moaned even louder “…that resisting you is my greatest weakness and my greatest strength.”
“You’ll be damned if you make it fucking easy on me.”
“That’s the way of it, yeah.Ah.” I sucked in a breath when his teasing became rough.
He grinned against my neck until I moved my ass against him, and he hissed out a breath. I was going to use every bit of weaponry in my arsenal—my eyes, my lips, my legs, my femininity,my heart—to get underhisskin. I was going to make him forget that he didn’t have a heart until he remembered that he had one.The situation between us was so ugly that I was starting to find it pretty. Beautiful even.
He stolemyheart. Now it was set onhavinghimandhimalone.
I started to tremble, giving in, and then I came in an explosion that seemed to echo around the kitchen.
He turned me around to face him, and after staring me in the eye for a moment, he set me back on the counter, situating himself between my legs. I slipped his shirt off my body, throwing it to the side, completely bare to him. I used my feet to shove his sweatpants down, and after he stepped out of them, he entered me in a thrust that rocked my entire world.
He moved in and out, like a thief in the night, finding more and more of me to steal.
Our eyes connected in an intense stare down. My heart was at war with the space where his was supposed to be. It was fighting for this, despite my mind’s protests. My heart would pound like a fist until he decided to let me in.
He growled at me.Fucking growled at me.Like an animal.A noise came from my throat that was similar to his. My body was going insane, wanting to shatter, ready for stars to shoot behind my eyes, but it was holding on with all that it had, refusing to give in so easily this time.
I was drenched with sweat. He was, too.
I clawed his back, drawing blood, and he pumped into me even harder, but with a control that was perfectly executed each and every time. I squeezed around him, once, twice, and then we both came at the same time. It was loud, and ugly, and had left us both weakened. Fucking him was like going to battle to keep a little of myself in place, before it landed in his hands. He was the kind of man who easily consumed whatever he touched.
We stood that way for a while, him between my legs, me still on the counter, both breathing heavy. When he pulled out, I hopped off the counter, losing my balance. He caught and steadied me. My knees were weak.
I looked up at his face. His pieces fit together perfectly, even if they were put back together a few times, and it was impossible for me not to admire the entire picture for what it was. Art.
“I’m not clear water, darlin’,” he said. “Stop trying to see into my soul.”
No, and he wasn’t rough waters, either. My Da always said that still waters ran deep. A Cash Kelly idiom if there ever was one. It meant that silent people were more dangerous than loud ones. “I wouldn’t dare,” I said.
There’s more than one way into a no trespassing zone, though—and I already found a way into his. Through his skin.
I slid my hand up his arm, nice and slow, and his eyes lowered. “All night,” I whispered. “Let’s forget all night.”
He took my hand and led me back into the bedroom.
17
Cash
Ihadn’t had a smoke since that night on the fire escape. It was something I did to ease my mind, because if not, I’d fight insomnia. Or raging headaches. I wasn’t lying to the archer when I told her that my old man haunted me. It wasn’t his ghost, but what he’d left behind. A responsibility to carry on his legacy.
The only opinions I ever honored were my old man’s. I respected my brother, but our perspectives had always been aligned differently. He always had the need to ask questions. I went in having trust that our old man would never lead us astray.
He’d fought for and claimed one of the most ruthless areas of New York to run. He’d gained his community’s trust and respect, even though he was feared.
Not like Lee Grady and his family, who got into bed with the Scarpones to distribute drugs to his own community. Their drug trade ruined marriages, families, careers. It ruined lives. It took all that my father worked most of his life for, even died to protect, and buried it underneath powder.
My mind refused to accept it. So it kept me up night after night. Even in prison, because I was a caged animal without an escape.
I thought of Grady nonstop. How he had set my old man up to be slaughtered.
