“How does my toy like to be played with?” My voice is low, uneven. “Should I take it easy? Or test her limits?”
Her nails rake down my back, and she catches my earlobe between her teeth. “Test her limits.”
“I was hoping you’d say that.”
I hook her legs over my shoulders and drive into her harder. Each thrust is brutal, deliberate. Nothing soft. Nothing tender. I tell myself it’s safer this way. If I treat her like every other woman, maybe she won’t be any different.
But I know it’s a lie.
I could tell Claire was different before I ever touched her. Before I felt her. Before I tasted her.
It’s why I haven’t been able to stay away.
Why I know it’s going to kill me when I have to.
Because there’s no future here.
She deserves more than I’m capable of giving her.
I just have to keep reminding myself of that.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CLAIRE
The steady thrumof Declan’s heartbeat soothes me as I rest on his chest, his arm draped around me like he’s never letting go. Neither of us moves. Neither of us wants to. Instead, we both seem content to stay right here, in this moment.
I’m still trying to wrap my head around the fact that I’m here at all.
When Parker essentially forced me to go home and take a night off, I’d planned to make dinner and binge reality TV as I sipped on a glass of wine. I never could have anticipated I’d end up in bed with Declan.
I can’t stop replaying the look on his face when he came bursting into my townhouse. The terror in his eyes as he clutched my cheeks. The tremble in his hands. The crack in his voice when he said he was scared he’d lost me, too.
It could be nothing, but I can’t shake the feeling there’s a deeper meaning to his words.
Who else did he lose?
My stomach interrupts my thoughts with a loud growl, making me cringe.
Declan’s arm tightens around me, and he presses a soft kiss to my head that makes me feel things I have no business feeling.
“Hungry?” he murmurs, his voice low and rough.
“Someone did interrupt my dinner plans so he could put his cock in me,” I deadpan.
“I didn’t hear you complaining.” He rolls to face me, grabbing my thigh and hooking my leg over his hip. “In fact, if memory serves, you said ‘Oh, yes, Declan.’” He pitches his voice higher in a horrible impersonation of me. “‘Harder. You fuck me so good. You must have a magical penis.’”
I playfully pinch his side. “I did not say you had a magical penis.”
He circles against me, his erection hitting that spot I’m desperate to feel him again. “Maybe not out loud. But you thought it. Didn’t you?”
I bite my bottom lip, fighting back my moan. “Maybe.”
“Good. Because I kept thinking about how fucking magical your pussy is.” He slides his finger between us and gently rubs my clit as he catches my mouth in a kiss.
But then my treacherous stomach growls again.
He breaks away with a chuckle. “Time to feed you.”
