But ifthatis anything to go by, Marcus is enormous.
I own some "personal care items," but he's putting them to shame right now. Part of me wonders if I'm even going to be able to take him.
"When are you going to talk to my father and bring this up?"
"Tomorrow. Tonight's not the night to bring this up. Tensions are too high. Ugh." Marcus groans again. Gripping me even tighter, he lets out a deep moan. "Damn it, princess. You've got meso hard. You should probably?—"
His words falter as I rub harder and quicker, even more than I was, giving everything I have to riding Marcus over his jeans. He made me orgasm with my panties still on, and I think it's time to return the favor.
It only takes a few more circling thrusts before Marcus yanks me forward, crashing his lips against mine. I feel his hips buck beneath me, and there is a bloom of warmth right on my pussy.
Oh my god, I did that. I made Marcus come from just rubbing on him.
I'm beaming when Marcus pulls back and looks at me, utterly destroyed. He shakes his head, the exhaustion melting into a grin.
"Well, that's a fucking first." We both chuckle lightly, and he kisses me, softer this time. "I think it's time we both get cleaned up. And I'll talk to your father first thing in the morning. We'llfigure this out, Lila, even if I have to march down to Cilento's house myself and beat the crap out of him until he listens."
Smiling up at him, I nod. Then I slide back, getting up off of him and heading toward my bathroom.
"I have first dibs. See you after the shower."
When I'm out of the shower, I lie on the bed waiting for Marcus to get cleaned up too. He doesn't take long, and he exits the bathroom, a towel wrapped around his hips, another in his hand, scrubbing his hair. He offers me a smile and lays down in the bed next to me.
"I feel like I don't know a lot about you. Which is 100% accurate." I giggle a little, nudging at him with my knee when he snuggles in next to my side, resting his chin on my chest. "Tell me how you got into this business of protecting people and intimidating people by being a big, scary man who works for a mysterious company."
Marcus laughs, but there's this twinge of pain beneath his eyes that I recognize. It mirrors my own, and I lift his chin up so that he looks at me. Holding his stare, I offer a silent look of openness, of being willing to listen to whatever he has to say.
"Well, that's a bit of a messy story, but I suppose it starts with the fact that this wasn't the plan. I didn't grow up with much. Very different than your current situation. And the plan had been to just go into the military so that I could make enough money to survive and be strong enough to protect myself from my mother's abusive boyfriends."
My stomach drops, and my eyebrows shoot up. Resting my hand on Marcus's shoulder, I squeeze it lightly, hoping that he takes the quiet act of empathy and compassion for what it is.
I don't pity him. It's not that. I know that it was hard. I know that growing up that way is painful and messy. I can recognize the distance between a parent who's not there and their child.
Neither of my parents is physically abusive, but neglectful is putting it lightly.
"Yeah, it wasn't pretty, but the military sort of gave me a place where I felt useful. You get close to the people who are near you, in your unit. And you become a little family of your own. Which makes it even shittier when you realize that your boss, the man you've been looking up to for years, set you up to fail.
"Some bullshit undercover mission ends up getting me in serious trouble. I almost died. And several of the men who were with me did. Turns out he was working for the other side. And now I work for a company where I only have to rely on myself. It seems safer that way."
Marcus's stare is distant, finding the middle distance, and I know what he feels. Pain for everything that happened in the past.
That kind of betrayal from someone who was supposed to be there for you, from someone that you looked up to as a father figure—I can guess how painful that is because I'm getting a tiny taste of it right now.
Sure, my father hasn't literally set me up to die. At least not directly.
Or has he?
He knows the type of man that Cilento is, how violence runs in his veins. The more I understand what's going on, the more I know that it is very likely that Cilento planned on kidnapping me at the least, if not murdering me at the most.
My blood runs cold, and Marcus picks up on my tension. He swivels his face toward mine, and we connect to each other in this moment of feeling so let down by the men who were supposed to be there for us.
"I know it's not the same, but I do understand. My father has offered me up to the wolves, and I don't know how to handle that information."
Reaching out, Marcus cups my cheek, offering me a look of sympathy. That's what it is that we share between us beyond this spark. We share an understanding of the other person's pain.
"Your situation isn't set in stone yet, Lila. We can do something about this. Tomorrow morning I'll go talk to your father, and we'll get this sorted one way or the other."
I wrap my fingers around his face and meet his stare with everything I have. "I know this is new and strange and not what either of us planned. But I'm glad you're here. Would you stay again? Here in the bed?"
