Page 118 of Last Man Standing

“Hey!” Pouting, she drops her bottom lip forward. “Why’d you do that?”

“Because I want your attention.” I bring my knees up and bump them against her back, knocking her forward until she lands on my chest and her nose stops mere inches away from mine. “Why’d you lie to Mills about where you were? I thought you trusted him. What changed?”

“Nothing changed.” And yet, her expression remains the same. “I just didn’t want to turn the letter thing into a huge thing in his mind. He’s a cop, Linc ran some stuff by him and came up empty, and now Linc’s moving in a new direction. The last thing we want is for an actual detective to start detecting and connecting dots between Roy and me.”

“Mm…” Okay. Acceptable. But, “There is no Roy and you. There’s Roy, and that motherfucker ain’t coming back to bother you anymore. And there’s me and you.” I lay my hands over her ass cheeks and squeeze. “You don’t have time for me anymore?”

Her eyes glow just a little brighter. Even better, her heart pounds in her chest and bounces against mine. I fucking love it when that happens.

“I don’t have time for other men.” She crawls just a little closer and nibbles on my lips. “I have time for you, though. Because I love being around you.”

Say the words, Scarlett. Say them to my fuckin’ face. I know you wanna.

“I love spending time with you,” she purrs. “I looooove when you squeeze my butt that way you do.”

Say it!

“I love how you make me feel when it’s just me and you in this room all alone.” She exhales a heady breath and feeds every last morsel of her oxygen straight into my lungs. “I love that I sleep better when we share a bed.”

“Cause I squish you down and don’t let you fuss and fidget.”

She snickers. “When you say it like that, it sounds kinda scary. But the actual experience isn’t scary at all.” She releases my gaze and trades it for a kiss dropped onto my chin. Another onto my chest. “I haven’t slept properly in years.” Another kiss on my ribs. “Too many years. And I know I risk sounding kinda clingy and weird when I say this, but I’ve come to rely on sleeping beside you. I wouldn’t cope if you changed things up now.” She inches along my body and drags her covered pussy over my throbbing cock. “I love how you hold me in bed at night. I never told you this, but…” She presses her forehead against my hipbone for a beat, like she needs the time to think. “I haven’t told anyone,” she amends quietly. “But I don’t think I’ve slept without nightmares in years. Lots and lots of years.”

Yeah, Princess. I know.

“And then when I came to stay at Lincoln and Nova’s house, my nightmares changed.”

Curious, I cup her face and force her eyes back to mine. “For the better?” Because I was watching over you and keeping you safe?

Her eyes darken and break my heart.

“Not for the better,” she whispers. “Because you joined my nightmares, too. So then I had both of you doing those things to me. Hurting me.”

“Wait.” I shove up to my ass and stop her from crawling lower. “I was in your nightmares? I was hurting you, too?”

“It’s why I wasn’t very nice to you a lot of the time.”

“Fuck, Scarlett!” And I repaid you by doubling down and being a complete prick all day long. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to⁠—”

A soft, heart-squeezing snicker rolls along her throat. “You don’t have to apologize for the things my brain did to me at night. But…” She tugs the very corner of my towel free and backs off the end of the bed until she’s on her knees. She stares up at me, so fucking innocent and sweet, so fucking tempting.

So telling.

Because I know warfare enough to know that at least half of all wars are started over the women they love.

“I don’t wanna think about my dreams anymore. And I definitely don’t want to talk about Roy or Detective Mills.” She peels my towel open and drops the fabric aside. Staring down at my cock, she hums in the back of her throat like a starving woman who craves only me. “I wanna taste.”

“You do?” Already, it jumps with needy anticipation. She needn’t do much more than breathe on it to make me come. “Fuck, Princess.” I drag loose tendrils of hair off her face and groan at how fucking beautiful she is. “You sure?”

“Mmhm.” She lifts high onto her knees and stares down at my throbbing length.

It jerks, simply because she’s near. Twitches, because completion is so fucking close. My stomach swirls because I can picture her in my mind, eating my seed and thanking me for it at the end.

“You have no clue how much I wanna be a gentleman. To tell you that you don’t have to do that.”

Her lips twist with a devious smile.

“But how much more I want you to choke on my cock and cry about it.” I slip two fingers into her mouth and damn near lose myself, simply because she closes her lips around the digits and suckles. “You’re gonna be the death of me. I know it.”