This woman will end me.
The thought comes and goes so fast I barely recognize it. Leaving in its wake something dark and mean. “Peel. The fuckin’. Shorts off. Twyla,” I say, sounding so much like my old man that it scares me. And then, unable, to stop—a bad, bad thing in the world I inhabit—I move the hand from her face to her throat.
It’s a control thing, the choking. I don’t love breath play, unless a partner’s into it, and even then, it’s not an envelope I’m too willing to push. But control, I enjoy. Although crave might be the right word.
Twyla, it seems, likes it too, judging from the way she’s squirming under me, the way her hips thrust up to meet mine, the hard curve of her back as she arches to get parts of her closer while others try to get away.
That struggle, more than anything, unleashes me. Or shuts my brain down or, hell, destroys it once and for all because, in the next second, I’ve ripped the fucking shorts off. Her throat’s a hot, living thing against the palm of one hand while her pussy pulses against the other.
And my cock’s the aching, throbbing monster between them.
“Don’t want to listen to me?” I tighten both hands. “Doesn’t matter, baby. I can make you.” I bend so my face is close to hers. Under my fingers, her cunt spreads like butter. I ignore the way she squirms, trying to get more friction, more pleasure. “You want that?”
Her face goes tight and stubborn, while her whole body shudders. Like she can’t get the two on the same page.
My thumb runs up and back through her juices, separating her lips, opening her up, getting her ready. Although, as swollen and soaked as she is, I’d slide right in. Another up and down and I let my middle finger dip inside, plunging it deep and curving high to hit her G-spot. Her body stiffens, her pussy goes tight.
“Shit, baby. You thinkin’ ’bout coming right now? That what you’re doin’?” I shake my head. “No. No coming ’til I get in there.”
“You’re…” I tweak that spongy little spot and she twitches. “You’re inside me.”
“This?” Another pull, another uncontrollable reaction from her greedy little body. “Not what I’m talking about and you know it.” My hand twists, pulls out. Her hips chase it, giving me the satisfaction of shoving her back against the mattress. Adding a second finger to the first is the kind of torture I love. None of the possessive, jealousy bullshit I’ve been dealing with since she pranced up in here. This—complete, calm control—is my wheelhouse.
“Better.” The third finger’s a squeeze. Her pulse races faster under my other palm. She’s got a hand on mine at her throat, the other one wrapped around my wrist below. We’re a loop like this, a closed circuit. I should be relaxing, finding my flow, but those dark, knowing eyes won’t let me. Only, it’s not the challenge that stops me this time. Not the brat working to piss me off.
Fuck. If she were fighting or angry or annoyed, it would be easier. Anything would be easier than the shit she’s showing me. The softness. The understanding. The goddamnaffection.
It’s the affection that’s killing me.
It’s the affection that drags my fingers from her hot core. Affection that forces me to scrabble around in my bedside table for a condom that’s not there.
Why would I have a condom next to my bed when beds are made for sleeping, not fucking? And certainly not whatever this is we’re about to do.
For a split second, relief flows through me. No condom. No sex.
And then she says the four most excruciating words in the English language.
* * *
Twyla
“I’ve got an IUD.” I reach for my shorts pocket. “Oh. And a condom.”
Zion sits back on the bed and goes completely still. He watches me with a look that’s both predatory and lost, somehow. A cornered beast. The only movement in the room is the ticking of a muscle in his cheek.
“We can use the condom, but I’ve…also got the other thing. And I get that it’s a hard rule for you. I respect that.”
His mouth opens and closes. His eyes flick from one of mine to the other.
“Have you done it before?”
“Unprotected sex?” I ask.
He nods.
“No. I got the IUD because I could. But I’ve never done it. You?”
He shakes his head, his eyes huge as his gaze travels down my body.
