Page 88 of Lovely Venom

Fumbling with the buttons of his shirt, I peel apart the fabric and settle my palms against his bare chest. He’s so hot he feels feverish, and when I grind down against his erection, his ache is visceral.

I want to feel him so badly, it overwhelms me.

My fingers drift to his belt buckle, and when I pull back to see what I’m doing, his gaze lingers on my face.

There’s a stillness in him that feels different than anything I’ve ever seen before. He’s always been restrained, but watching me go feral for him has fractured some of his control. His body is rigid with tension, knuckles white as his hands grip the arms of the chair. He’s giving me all the power, and I can’t help thinking it’s because he’s certain one wrong move might send me running, just like last time.

That realization settles deep inside my chest and splinters between my ribs.

He didn’t want it to end. He didn’t want to lose this.

For a moment, I wrestle the familiar urge to reason it all away. But refusing to acknowledge what happened feels like the cowardly thing to do.

Closing my eyes, I force my throat to work and let the truth spill free.

“I couldn’t stop thinking about you, no matter how much I tried.”

That confession echoes in the heavy silence that follows, and I understand it doesn’t change anything. It won’t alter the trajectory of our lives, or the fact that we can only have this one night. But I want him to hear it, even if it costs me a piece of the armor I’ve spent so long constructing.

“I know.”

His quiet certainty feels weighted with a significance I can’t begin to unravel.

We leave the rest unsaid as I slow things down, unbuckling his belt and unzipping his trousers.

His gaze warms my face as I peel apart the fabric, revealing the pronounced swell beneath his briefs. I swallow audibly as I stare at it.

I knew he would be big. But I wasn’t anticipating…this.

Of course he’s an overachiever at literally everything.

In its infinite wisdom, my lust-drunk brain supplies a singular thought.

Challenge accepted.

Harnessing the temptation to unwrap this overdue package immediately, I slide off his lap and sink to my knees before him.

“I want to please you,” I whisper.

A beat passes as his thumb traces the line of my jaw, then he wrecks me with five simple words.

“Your very existence pleases me.”

I bathe in the warmth of his praise, soaking up his attention while the rest of the world falls away.

This man is a hell of a drug, and right now, all I want to do is worship him.

Trailing my fingers over his muscular thighs, I begin my exploration as he observes me in silence.

Leaning into him, I kiss my way down the dark dusting of hair that disappears beneath his briefs.

When I lightly scrape my nails over the ridges of his abs, they contract, and it sends a shiver of pleasure through me too.

My thighs clench together when I reach his briefs, skimming a finger along the inside of the band. Tugging it down a fraction, my lips graze his skin, tracing a slow path all the way across to his pelvic bone.

There’s something so addictive about seeing that deeply masculine area exposed on a body sculpted to perfection. I want to map every inch of it.

Unleashing my inhibitions, I drag a long, slow lick along that carved ridge, teeth scraping over the highest peak. That earns me a low, primal growl that sends another rush of heat straight between my legs.