“Frustrating, isn’t it?” I bury my lips against the side of her neck, nibbling where stitches have dissolved, and groaning at the metallic hint of blood nearby. “So fucking exasperating to have this taunting, tormenting person playing with your self-destruct button. This one.” I tap her clit.
She cries out, her knees buckling as she chokes on a desperate whimper.
“So maddening when you know you want it, but you just,” I tap again, fastening my grip around her hips, “can’t,” I slide a digit into her pussy, “get,” and out, “it.”
“Oh, God. Lincoln…”
“I’ve lived with this fierce, clawing need to have you, Nova. From the first moment I saw you, I’ve wanted to fuck you into mindlessness and take anything,everything, I could. I’m nothing more than a common thief, and I didn’t care what came after. But now I want to fuck you into submission. Make youmine.” I dig my thumb into her cunt and inch my fingers along to play with her asshole. “I want to keep you, Nova. In this lifetime and the next. Here and in every other world where our souls have ever existed. I want to fucking own you. Because I’m supposed to steal from you, but all I want to do is give you things. Me.” I tug her lips between my teeth and try, so fucking hard, to stop speaking. Stop giving up my secrets. “But that’s the thing about life, isn’t it?” I slip my digit into her ass and clamp my lips over hers when shegasps, swallowing down her exploding breath and wishing for more. Wishing for forever. “I’m grown enough to know wanting something doesn’t mean getting it, and I’m bitter enough to acknowledge the more I want it, the less likely I am to have it.”
She rides my hand, wrapping one leg around my hip and carrying all her weight on her left foot. “Please, Lincoln…”
“Come on my hand and let us have this.” My throat is dry. My lips. My entire fucking soul. “Let me bring you pleasure, Nova. I want you to mess up my floor and leave it for a day or two, so when I come through with the mop later, your pleasure will have stained the hardwood.”
“Ahh!” She throws her head back, her chest rising frantically and emptying viciously on her exhale. But she fills my hand with her release, her orgasm dribbling along my wrist and dripping to the floor, just like I asked.
“Good.” I crush my eyes closed and lay my forehead on top of her shoulder. “So responsive. So perfect.”
She cries out, the sound of her ecstasy bouncing through my chest as she rides my hand, rolling her hips and grinding over the heel of my palm.
What I wouldn’t give to take her to bed and swallow her down instead.
My cock aches, and my jeans become a straitjacket, crushing my length behind the zipper and robbing me of what I so badly want. My hips jut forward, searching for home. Desperate to feel her wrapped around me.
If I thought keeping her for myself would mean keeping her safe, then that’s what I would do. I’d claim her body and lock her away where Aster couldn’t touch. But that’s not the life planned out for her. That’s not our future.
So I keep my jeans on and my hands to myself—sort of.
“Are you done?” I clamber for fresh air, inhaling until it burns, and exhaling in search of her. Her perfume. Her perfect scent. Dark dots swim through my vision and leave me weak, but as I swallow and drag my head up, I open my eyes and find her dazed and smiling. Lazy and smug. “You okay?”
She bites her bottom lip and rests her elbows on my shoulders. I’m nothing more than a leaning post.
I chuckle. “If I let you go, are you gonna fall?”
“Mmmm.” She draws a long, slow breath through her nose and shakes her head. “I’m fine.”
“You sure?” I groan as she drags her leg off my hip, inadvertently brushing it over my cock. “Fuck, Nova…”
She licks her dry lips and glances down to find the wet mess on the floor. Her cheeks warm in response, and her pussy flutters around my fingers. She releases a hungry moan that sets my heart on fire, my cock so easily fucking visible between us. The lump in my jeans, desperately twitching for freedom.
“Lincoln…” She steps back and carefully pulls my hand from under her dress, then she brings it up and tilts her head, studying the dripping release gleaming on my fingers. “I don’t…” She swallows. “I can’t…”
“Let me wash my hands.” I inch closer and steal her lips. “Give me five minutes.”To touch my cock and relieve the ache that would floor a weaker man.“Then we can sit down and watch a movie or something.”
“I’ll come with you.” She hooks her finger in the loop of my jeans and stumbles in my wake, much like she did that first night I came over. Was that just days ago? When I wanted her towant me, when I needed her to focus only on my eyes and not on the crimes my hands committed.
It seems like a lifetime ago. Because now, Ineedher to see what’s real and what’s right in front of her. Even at the risk of exposing myself. Even if it hurts her feelings.
When the sun comes up tomorrow, Ineedher to climb into her truck and follow her brother’s orders. But since it’s not tomorrow yet, I move into the hall with her just a step behind me, my knees weak and my torso heavy with exhaustion. I remain focused on my target, my eyes on the bathroom door, and my heart set on a single moment alone. I just need a minute to touch my cock, a fast release, and a little of the sharp edge taken off while she waits in the hall. But where I intend to turn left, to step onto cold tile and lock the beautiful woman out, the she-devil yanks me right.
“Nova—”
“I’m not done.” She shoves my bedroom door open and steps inside. This room has less character than a cheap roadside motel. But she doesn’t seem to notice as she wanders onto old, shag carpet, removing her shoes with each step, and tossing them aside on the next.
“Nova,” I speak in a low, warning growl. “You need to stop.”
Instead, she grabs the hem of her dress and peels the soft, cottony fabric up to reveal a matching bra and panties. Her stomach is trim. Her ribs, yellow from top to bottom. Scrapes from the accident have left her skin marked, just like the side of her face. Though it’ll all heal eventually, rage still burns in my blood, battling with lust and a nasty case of ‘my heart went and got involved’.
Fuck Richard Aster for ever muttering her name.
