“Better?” he murmured.
She gave an incoherent answer, and a tremble shook through her frame. Kissing his way up her body, he found her mouth and kissed her with a possessiveness he’d never felt before. The overwhelming drive to claim and conquer filled him. He wanted to mark every corner of her. Mark her as his.
Forever.
“Fuck,” he rasped, breaking away. Forever was a very dangerous word. One he had no business contemplating, much less wanting.
She circled a hand around his neck, not letting him escape. Pulling him back to her. “Is it normal to feel like a bowl of jelly afterwards?” she asked with a small smile.
“I suppose after three orgasms.”
“You’re very good at giving me orgasms.” She searched his gaze, but he had no idea what she was looking for. A good man buried beneath the bastard hellbent on revenge?
Hate to break it to you, Peaches, but there isn’t one. What you see is what you get.
At the same time, he wanted to be better. But only for her. Fuck everyone else.
Maybe there was a slim chance. Maybe she could help him find the salvation he always believed lay out of his grasp. If anyone could, she could.My Estrella.His shooting star, bright and beautiful, guiding him when he always felt so lost.
But what if they burned too strong and too fast? Burned out? Without her, he’d return to darkness.
Essie cupped his face. “Talk to me, Xander. What’s going on in that head of yours?”
He sighed, nuzzled his cheek against her hand and kissed her palm. “You should hate me.”
“I don’t hate you.”
“Why not? I told you I’m going to kill your brother. I just stole your virginity. I’m using you as bait—”
“Igaveyou my virginity,” she corrected. “And, in case you forgot, I offered myself to be exchanged for Tomás. As for José, well, blood doesn’t always make you family. He’s become a stranger to me. A man who must be stopped before he hurts anyone else. I don’t condone the atrocities he’s committed.” She ran her fingers over his bottom lip. “I’m on your side.”
As much as he liked hearing it, he wondered. After everything was all said and done, would she still feel the same? Was there even a remote possibility she’d want to remain in his life?
A part of him felt like they were star-crossed lovers, doomed before they could ever truly begin. His more rebellious side reminded him he didn’t believe in that crap. Flipping off fate and creating his own destiny was a normal part of his repertoire.
Instead of responding with words, he kissed her. Slow and deep, trying to pretend they had all the time in the world, when he knew it was slowly running out. Like a bomb ticking down, inevitably leading to one spectacular and final detonation.
Essie pressed a hand against the glass door as the shower sprayed her from above and Xander ate her out below. Leaning against the cool tiles, leg hooked over his shoulder, she rocked against his face as he brought her to another crashing orgasm.
Dios mío.How much more could she take? The man was voracious, completely insatiable, and his favorite thing seemed to be putting his mouth between her legs. It made her want to do the same in return. To taste and pleasure him until that impressive control he possessed was reduced to ribbons. She wondered what it would take to make him shatter.
When he unhooked her leg and stood up, she decided to find out. “My turn,” she whispered and lowered to her knees.
“Essie—” he ground out.
His words cut off and turned into a groan as she wrapped her hands around his hard cock. Looking up at him through her lashes, she watched his reaction as she lightly squeezed then licked his engorged tip. His hands sank into her hair, fingers flexing and twisting the wet strands, and his hips rocked forward. She dropped a string of soft butterfly kisses down his steel length, lightly caressing the underside with her fingertips.
She kept eye contact with him as she continued to tease and explore his cock. Above her, he watched her every move, as though mesmerized, blinking water droplets from his long lashes, chest heaving and cock pulsing. It was big and throbbing, and when she wrapped her mouth around the leaking tip andbegan to suck, he slapped a hand against the wall. A guttural curse tore from his lips, and he tugged hard on the handful of hair still in his opposite fist. She continued to suck him deeper, using her tongue to tease, enjoying the way his breaths heaved in and out as he struggled to hold onto his control. But it shattered, and she watched as he broke apart with pleasure.
“Sweet Christ,” he ground out. A rapturous look came over his face and his eyes rolled back in his head.
Seeing Xander Hawke lose his normally unbreakable control made Essie’s confidence soar. Since she’d never gone down on a man before, she wasn’t exactly sure what she was doing, but he clearly approved of her technique. And that made her very happy. So happy, she lightly hummed around his twitching cock.
A low groan tore from his throat as he reached down, grabbed shoulders and hauled her up.
“But you didn’t finish,” she complained.
“I’m finishing inside you,” he growled.
