“Vincent,” he whispered. “Talk to me.”
It figured he’d see it in my eyes…the need to give him something of myself. A part that no one else had.
“They killed my brother,” I finally said.
“Pierce?”
When I nodded, Nathan asked, “Who?”
“Guys who came looking for me. Pierce was staying at my house because he’d just finished his last tour and was leaving the army. I wasn’t home. They tortured him and then they slit his throat. Because he refused to give them what they wanted.”
“What…what did they want?”
I dropped my eyes because Nathan had started rubbing little circles into my wrist with his thumb.
“They wanted him to tell me to come home. They used his phone to call me and tried to force him to tell me there was an emergency at the house. He warned me instead. Shouted at me not to come home. The call cut off right after that and by the time I got home, he was dead. Tied to a chair, covered in blood and bruises. They broke his fingers one by one, cut him, burned him.” As Nathan’s expression grew more and more horrified, I stopped talking and pulled my hand free of his. “You want to know why I live like this?” I said as I motioned to the house. “Because I don’t have a fucking choice. Because even though I got vengeance for my brother, there are a dozen more guys waiting in the wings to get their shot at me.”
“I’m sorry-”
“Don’t be sorry,” I snapped. “I don’t need your pity. I don’t want it.”
“What do you want, Vincent?”
“That’s the thirty-four-thousand-dollar question, isn’t it?” I bit out. I took a few more steps back because I needed some fucking space. I’d admitted more to him than I’d intended and it had left me feeling shaky and off balance.
But instead of leaving me be, Nathan stepped forward until he was practically pressed up against my chest. He didn’t touch me, though. “What. Do. You. Want. Vincent?” he asked, punctuating each word with the tiniest of pauses.
He was fucking with me. He had to be. There was no way he wanted…not after last night. Not after everything I’d told him today about invading his privacy.
“Nathan-”
“Nate,” he murmured. “I like when you call me-”
That was as far as he got before I slammed my mouth down on his. But unlike the night before, I didn’t even try to ease Nathan into the kiss. I took what I wanted without question. Maybe I needed to give him a chance to back out, but I couldn’t do it. I wrapped my arms around him and dragged him forward against me as I plunged my tongue into his waiting and very willing mouth. He kissed me back without any kind of hesitation whatsoever, and that proved to be my undoing.
I took him to the ground in one seamless move and then I was covering his body with mine. I expected some kind of resistance or fear, but there was nothing. We ate at each other’s mouths and I felt his hands everywhere. My back, my sides, my ass. I wedged my knee between his legs and wrapped an arm around his back so I could pull him up against me while I kissed him. His tongue fought mine for control of the kiss, and I gladly handed him his victory and welcomed him into my mouth.
“God, you feel so good, Nate,” I said as I tore my mouth from his and pressed kisses against his neck.
He let out a whimper, and I wondered if it was because I’d sucked his skin between my lips so I could leave my mark on him, or because I’d used the shortened version of his name. I didn’t really care. All I cared about was him bucking beneath me in an attemptto get closer. I gave him what he wanted and ground my groin against his, and he let out a startled cry.
“Fuck,” he whispered and then, to my surprise, he was rolling me onto my back. Though I was caught off guard by the change in position, once his mouth crashed back down on mine, I didn’t give it much thought. Nor did I object when his hands closed over my wrists, pinning them to the cool ground. It wasn’t often that I gave up control to my partners, but it was the last thing I’d expected from Nathan, and I was more than happy to indulge him. Except for David, all my other partners had been guys who’d carefully orchestrated their responses in ways they’d seemed to think I’d wanted.
But what I wanted was exactly what Nathan was giving me.
Wild, uncontrollable need.
Blind lust.
Even if he’dwantedto control his body’s reactions, from his blown pupils and writhing body, I doubted he even could at this point.
And it had been mere minutes since I’d kissed him.
When Nathan’s lips skimmed down my throat, I closed my eyes and reveled in how good his skin felt where it was touching mine. I loved the heavy weight of his body, and I couldn’t get enough of the little moans and whimpers that began slipping unchecked from his throat. I felt his fingers pushing my shirt up and then his mouth was closing over one of my nipples. I let out a hoarse shout that startled him at first, but then a spark of energy lit up his gaze as his eyes searched out mine. After that, he was a man possessed. His mouth explored every bit of skin he could reach without moving off me, and his fingers sifted through my chest hair. It wasn’t until his hand drifted over my abdomen that he showed the first signs of hesitation. He was still lying on top of me, but he’d shifted enough so he could watch what he was doing.
His gaze slid down to my groin and the bulge that was urgently pressing against the fabric of my jeans. It seemed to take him forever to finally take that last step and slide his hand down. I couldn’t stop myself from bucking up against it when he beganrubbing my cock through my pants. His eyes held mine as he continued to caress me with different levels of pressure.
Testing.
