He laughed. “Now ye get a feckin’ attitude.” He gripped my shoulders and spun me. I gasped, clutching at the counter to catch myself so I didn’t slam my stomach against it. He laid one hard smack against my left asscheek that sent white light flashing behind my eyelids as I slammed them shut, then did the same to the right one. The blows stung. My mouth parted on a gasp as I made myself open my eyes and stare at my face in the mirror. My cheeks filled with a deep pink that made my face too hot, and I did not look as angry as I should. My lips were too red and my pupils too dark. I glanced over my shoulder at him, and his eyebrows were high, almost as if he’d surprised himself.
“You hit me,” I murmured, though I couldn’t say I hated it. My dick tingled and I breathed out a rush of excitement.
He made an apologetic sound and sank to his knees. I closed my eyes, allowing my head to dip forward as he kissed around the painful, hot spots I had to assume were his handprints on my ass. Even if I’d wanted to do such a thing, which I didn’t, I couldn’t stop the rush of pleasure from sizzling through my groin as he sucked kisses around the pain.
“Oh, firebug.” He tapped my hip until I turned around so my hard dick waved in his face. There was something I should mention. It tickled my mind, but I shuddered through another aroused pulse in my groin and my shaft grew firmer and longer with his mouth so close to me.
All the thoughts in my head scattered. He opened his lips, which were so capable of spewing anger, and sucked me into his fiery warmth, letting out a little growl as he took me down to the root. I let my head fall back. And while, yes, this felt good and was about getting off, he kneaded my legs in a tender way that was unusual for him and bobbed his head in a steady, sweet pace. My toes curled. The softness in his grip when he cupped my waist and brushed his thumbs over my hip bones made me feel appreciated.
I was probably reading too much into things, but when I rested my hand on his head, he didn’t brush it off. Instead of doing anything I thought he might, including drag me to the floor and fuck me flat against the cold tiles, he glanced up and pinned me in place with his brown eyes. My heart thumped faster. After a minute or two he let me guide the speed he moved on my dick. It didn’t take long before I was shooting down his throat, and he took my spunk, all while watching me. He slid his hands around to clasp my ass and the welts burned and stung and added to the intensity of everything.
I tugged his hair as I grunted and curled forward, shoving my dick as far down his throat as I could. It felt amazing, and I was struck again by the buzzing, almost otherworldly energy floating through my body.
“Everything feels a hundred times more fantastic. I thought I was going to die today.”
He groaned and slid off my dick, and seeing my glistening shaft reemerge into the room gave me a shock of pleasure, too, because it meant I’d been in his mouth—Cillian had taken me into his body. The air cooled the warm spit quickly and had me shuddering. I’d just been in Fallon, and now....Oh, hell.
He kissed my lower belly, right underneath my navel. “Ye taste different from usual. Earthy.”
“Uh, I fucked Fallon.”
Cillian snorted, then chuckled. “Fuckin’ hell. Ye’re telling the truth?”
“Yeah.” I started to bite my lip but let it go with a hiss of pain.
“I’m sorry I missed that,” he said quietly, his lips puffy and pinker than usual. “Don’t go getting any ideas about me. All right? My arse is not up for grabs.” My heart flipped as he ran his hands along my hips. He still hadn’t stood, and I liked seeing him on his knees in front of me, strong and amazing and choosing to make himself more vulnerable to please me. He probably wouldn’t think of anything he ever did asvulnerable, but that’s what made it special. He let me see him in ways he would probably punch someone else for noticing. I let out a long breath, leaned down, and hugged him. It felt good to wrap my arms around his strong shoulders.
“What’s this for?” He kissed my cheek, and I rested more of my weight against him.
I shrugged because I had no idea how to put what I was feeling into words, and maybe that was a good thing because I didn’t always force them to work in my favor. Cillian was quick to wrap his arms around me and hold on. We stayed that way until my side hurt too bad to take it anymore, and then he stood.
I love you.I opened my mouth to say the words but couldn’t get them out.
Cillian watched me like a predator as I stripped the foul-smelling clothes from him, gaze glued to my nudity. His undershirt was stuck to his skin and I winced as I literally peeled it from his body to let it plop to the floor.
“How on earth did you even drive home this way?” I murmured.
“Garbage bag on the seat. The back’s not as bad.”
Every now and then as I worked he would tap a bruise or tweak one of my nipples, and depending on how bad it hurt I would lean into his touch or shiver and stand stock-still. Once he was naked, I slid aside the door of the shower—a fancy black steel-lined piece of glass that reminded me of British telephone booths—and messed around with the knobs, starting the water flowing. Cillian was normally the one who liked to get everything just the way he wanted it. The fact that he was willing to let me baby him told me a lot about how he was feeling. I took his hand, and he walked into the shower stall with me. His gaze flicked up to my face as I closed the door.
“Ye know I kill people.”
“Yes.” My gut twisted. “I’ll listen, but I have to admit I don’t think I have a strong stomach for what you might say.”
The dark chuckle that left his mouth slithered through my insides like velvet, and as much as I thought I should feel differently, I didn’t hate it. “Can ye ever really love me? Love us?”
“I do love you.” I swallowed so hard my throat clicked, and his mouth thinned. Was he furious with me? I had no way of telling what he was thinking because he only rubbed a hand lightly over my chest, then around to draw me closer. The warm water sluiced over my skin, and I moved us until he was under the jets, too. “I... it’s difficult for me to say I love you, even though I seem to never stop talking sometimes. I’ve never loved anyone.”
He let out a grunt that almost seemed pained, but some life came back into his eyes that had been missing until now.
“I think I’m falling for all four of you, and love’s not an easy emotion with only two people involved. I want you all to feel good. Happy. Get what you need from me.” I thought of Rowen with a guilty pang. “But I do love you, and I don’t want you to worry about... .” I moved him so the water would fall on his head and begin to loosen the blood clinging to his skin. I couldn’t stand to see it on him anymore. “You’ve never done anything to make me afraid of you. You saved me today. I’m grateful.”
He snorted and smiled so wide I thought it might blind me. My heart flipped happily. “How grateful are ye?” There was a growl at the end of his words and I had to laugh, though he didn’t crowd me. In fact, when I glanced down, he wasn’t even hard. He flashed me a weary smile, and I grabbed a washcloth. I wasn’t sure whose it had been because it wasn’t new, but given I was about to scrub blood from him, I thought maybe I’d throw it in the trash when I was finished anyway.
The clean, crisp suds from a green bar of soap chased off the reek of blood. I glided the washcloth over the familiar planes of his body. Hard chest. Rock-solid abs. His muscled thighs. I went to my knees and scrubbed his calves, concentrating so I didn’t miss even a centimeter of his skin. I was surprised at how gentle he was when he gripped my shoulder for balance as I washed each of his feet. I dumped the washcloth and rubbed the bar of soap between my hands to get a nice lather so I could begin to gently scrub his face clean with my fingers, which ended up being more of a massage. I had to apply soap three times before his skin glowed, free of blood.
I ignored what I was washing from his body, even when I picked a strand of something gory I didn’t try to identify from his hair.
