‘I’m sorry, Sunshine. I didn’t realise how long we had been going for—you must be exhausted and hungry.’ Instead, I took in the flush of her cheeks and the tension in her body.Oh.
‘Tell me, darling, how long have you been turned on for?’ That flush deepened, and it made me want to sink my teeth into her.
‘This whole time. The way you look at me. You look like you’re gazing at a goddess, someone you worship. It made me feel wanted. Needed. Not to mention, you are so fucking sexy when you’re working. The focus and concentration. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything more attractive than the way your hands worked over that piece.’ I smirked at her confession.
‘Sunshine. That’s because I do worship you. I’m not sure if you realised this’—I stalked closer, pulling my dust-covered jumper over my head—‘but you could ask anything of me. Tell me to lie down in the street and die; I would do it. Tell me to kneel and grovel at your feet; I would do it. Tell me to sign over every asset in my name to you while I stand there and watch you leave, and I would. I would stand at the door like an obedient little bitch waiting for her master to come home until my legs gave out. You own me, Sunshine. Mind, body and soul. I would do anything for you. You’re in control of my heart, and you can either protect it or crush it. I would be grateful either way, knowing that you had touched it.’
Tears welled in her eyes as I placed my palm against her cheek, watching her sink into my touch.
‘I love you,’ she pushed out, trying not to crumble beneath the emotion that stirred within her at my confession.
‘I love you too, Sunshine. Now, how can I offer you some relief?’ I asked, trailing my fingers down her naked body. Her muscles tensed and her skin prickled. Her eyes closed, feeling the electricity of my touch on her skin.
I stopped waiting for her answer, holding my breath as the energy between us pulsed, her eyes locked on mine. Gone was the girl filled with doubt; here was a woman who stood in her own power.
‘On your knees.’
Fuck. I sunk down, staring into her eyes the whole way. Unblinking. My hands wrapped around her thighs. I refused to break eye contact. I needed to watch her through this.
I licked up her slit and watched her eyes roll back as she bit down on her bottom lip. Her chest rising before she let out a ragged breath. Slowly, I did it again and again. I was rewarded with her fingers twining themselvesinto my hair as she pulled me harder against her as I focused on her clit. Sucking and licking, watching her watch me now. She wanted to fucking ride my face and it was everything.
I dipped my tongue inside of her, salivating at the taste of her wetness. I wanted more, so I dug deeper with my tongue as my face rubbed against her clit. I ate her like it was my last fucking meal and she rode me like that rung true. Grinding against my face, she took control of her own pleasure—using me like a toy—and it fucking did things to me. I dropped one of my hands between my legs, into my pants and glided over my own clit in time with the thrust of her hips against my tongue.
I could feel her building closer as her moans got louder and they turned into feral groans. I moaned against her—the feel of her losing herself on me, taking what she wanted, sent more pleasure through my body than my own fingers. My moan was her undoing.
‘Look at me as I ride that pretty face of yours. Let me hear how much you love me using you.’ I hadn’t quite seen this side of her during sex before and it had my insides clenching with desire. I tried to look into her eyes but I was losing myself to the pleasure, and they kept shutting as I moaned at the feeling of my fingers, her delicious taste and the feel of her dripping down my face. I was close and as I dipped my tongue inside her, tasting the very depths of her, I let out a guttural groan that had her screaming. Gushing, squirting all over me. It sent me into a frenzy, lapping up the liquid before it could fall to the floor. I was a fucking animal for her as I found my own release; my body shuddered against her as my tongue slowed, but I kept licking, riding out the wave of pleasure as I savoured the taste of her.
‘Wow,’ she breathed.
‘Wow,’ I echoed.Wowwas right. That was by far the best moment of my life. Being drenched in her want and need. I could throw away every dream I ever had for my life, including this gallery, because nothing else compared.
‘What do you think?’ I asked as I pulled her clothes back onto her body, being ever so gentle.
She stepped closer to the statue I had carved. It wasn’t quite finished yet; it was rough and raw, but it still showed what I wanted it to. I had spent so much time on her eyes, the fierce flames that seemed to roil within them, that the rest being unfinished didn’t matter.
‘I wish I could always view myself through your eyes. I don’t know if I deserve the way you look at me but right now it’s what I need to see,’ she said, stroking her fingers over the jagged stone.
‘By the time I’m done with the collection, you will know every way I look at you. You will know your worth. You will see everything I see, and you will never doubt yourself or us again,’ I promised, placing a kiss on her neck as I stepped into her.
‘We should tell your brother. He’s done so much for me. Do you think he’ll be mad I don’t want to work at the club or the store anymore? Oh my god, he paid for my online course and I’m just bailing on him.’
‘I may or may not have texted him already. I was slightly too excited to wait. I told him to shove it and that I would be the one looking after you from now on, if you’d let me.’ She paled and I couldn’t help but laugh. ‘Don’t worry; he wasn’t mad.’ Pulling out my phone to reassure her, I showed her the text he’d sent.
Z: Good. Make her cry, I make you cry little sister.
She looked confused but relieved. My brothers’ protective instincts over women were an enigma to many, but to me it made perfect sense. There had been a woman in his life once, when we were younger. This was before he became so hardened. She lived with us in the group home. She was only there for six months, and in that time, he fell hard. I suppose that trait ran in the family. They did everything together. One night, she was coming home late from a study group but never made it back. He had promised to pick her up but had fallen asleep.
He went looking for her when he woke and found her body stripped down, bloody and cold in an alleyway behind the library. She was dead. She’d been violated and killed by a group of drunk guys. He spent the next twelve months lurking in the shadows of their lives; tormenting them, driving them insane with fear, before he ended each one of them brutally. I didn’t blame him then, but especially not now, because now I knew what it felt like to love someone. What I wanted to do to Jason after seeing the bruises on her perfect skin, rivaled what my brother had done to them. Losing her had changed him, turning him into something dark and twisted with a compulsion to protect those unlucky women who were alone in the world to make up for the one he felt he was responsible for losing.
‘Sunshine, if you’re ready, I need to know how many times Jason hurt you. I need to know how did he hurt you.’ I turned her to face me as she put on the last of her clothing. Those endless brown eyes flashed with pain at wherever her mind took her. Her body shuddered,repulsed by the memories; it was different to how she shivered under my touch.
‘Three hundred and seventy-one times. I remember every single one. He used his hands to beat me. A few times, he threw me into a bookcase or threw a cup or plate at me. He locked me in closets, handcuffed me to the radiator at times when his paranoia peaked.’ My heart clenched.
‘Did he…’ I couldn’t finish the sentence.
She looked at me, searching my eyes until it dawned on her. ‘Once. He came home drunk and horny. It was one of the nights he had chained me to the radiator so I couldn’t get away. You know what the worst part was? He had been gone for two days while I was locked there. He fucked me in a pool of my own piss. I-I had never felt so degraded in my entire life.’
I had no words, so I held her. I tried not to hurt her bruised flesh but I just needed to feel her so tightly against me until she was inside of me, shielded from the world and her past.
