The longer I held off, the sweeter the reward.
I rubbed between her legs, watching her sleeping face. Her mouth went slack but her eyes were still closed. That didn’t deter me. She was wet. I slipped a finger inside her, feeling her, and she moaned as my thumb pressed on her clit.
“Morning,” I said hoarsely, kissing the side of her neck.
“Good morning to you too,” she murmured, grinding her sexy little ass against my erection.
Good. She was up for it. She let out a yelp when I flipped her onto her back and yanked and tore the cotton preventing me from being inside her. Then I buried my head between her legs and feasted, dry humping the mattress, seeking the friction for my raging hard-on while my mouth and fingers fucked her. Her legs quivered and her thighs clamped around my head as her pussy clenched around my tongue.
“Oh my God!” she screamed.
“That’s it, baby.” Without warning, I flipped her over and positioned her on her hands and knees, and I drove into her.
“Fuck, yes.” I pounded into her, my hand fisting her hair. With the other hand, I rubbed her clit until she was meeting me thrust for thrust, pushing her ass against me. I threw back my head and roared as I came inside her. Her arms gave out and she collapsed on the mattress, her ass in the air.
And still it wasn’t enough.
The sex did nothing to calm me. Two seconds after I dragged my dick out of her, I was up and pacing, pushing my hands through my hair. I needed more. I was insatiable. Firing on all cylinders. Too revved up to stay still.
“What are you doing?”
“Let’s take a shower.” So I can fuck you again.
She yawned and closed her eyes, curling onto her side like a cuddly kitten. “It’s my day off. I need sleep. Come back to bed.”
“Yeah, not happening.” I picked her up and tossed her over my shoulder.
Turning on the shower, I gripped the backs of her thighs and lifted her up, her legs cinching my waist and her back slamming against the tiles as I rammed inside her. Her nails scored my skin.
“Fuck yes, baby,” I growled. “Hurt me. Make me bleed for you.”
“I don’t… Jude,” she panted, her fingers tugging on my hair. I was relentless, not letting up or slowing down. I needed more.
More, more, more. Of everything.
I needed to feel alive.
Her back arched and she cried out but I barely heard her. I didn’t feel the sting of her nails digging into my skin. I didn’t feel the pain of her teeth sinking into my shoulder. All I felt was the need to shoot my load deep inside her.
I came on a roar that ripped from my throat and I flattened both palms on the tiles next to her head to hold myself up. My head dropped to her shoulder and I tried to catch my breath.
“Let me down,” she said quietly, her low voice drowned out by the roaring in my ears. She shoved my shoulder. “Jude. Let me down.”
I lifted my head and blinked a few times, bringing her into focus. “You’re so fucking hot, Rebel. I want to stay buried inside you. Hear you screaming my name so loud you’ll wake the neighbors.”
She shook her head, tears glittering in her eyes. “Who are you?”
I had no answer for her. Wrapping my hands around her waist, I lifted her off me and set her down. She stood under the spray of the shower with her eyes closed and her arms wrapped around herself for protection. From me.
Sensing she wanted to be alone, I left her in the shower.
Dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, the water in the shower was still running as I took a quick bump from my secret stash, just enough to perk me up, make a dark day brighter. I checked that my nose was clean in the mirror above the dresser before I walked to the kitchen. My stomach churned and I wasn’t the least bit hungry but I wanted to do something nice for Lila. So I cooked breakfast. A peace offering. A pathetic attempt at normalcy.
By the time she joined me in the kitchen, her omelet was cold and the buttered toast was rubbery. But I set it in front of her anyway, along with the plate of bacon and a glass of orange juice. She was wearing a hoodie and sweats, her wet hair in a bun and her face free of makeup. She looked so fresh and clean, as if she’d scrubbed every last trace of me off her skin. Lila still had five freckles on her nose. And she was, to me, still the most beautiful thing I’d ever laid eyes on.
I loved her.
Irrevocably. Wholly. Madly.
And I was slowly but surely ruining the very best thing in my life.
She looked down at her plate but didn’t touch the food. “Thank you.”
I nodded and poured her a cup of coffee, refilling my own mug before I sat down across from her at our small kitchen table in our cramped kitchen in our shitty apartment.
“I’m sorry.” It was the only thing I could think of to fill the silence.
“I know you are.” She nibbled on a piece of bacon then dropped it on her plate and I nearly cried like a fucking baby. Because I needed her to eat this fucking breakfast. I needed to do something to make everything better but I had no idea what that something was.
“Tell me something good, Jude.”
I racked my brain before coming up with the most obvious answer. “You. You’re something good.”
She shook her head. “And what else?”
“Wild at Heart is good. You’re making it a success just like I knew you would.”
Six weeks ago, Christy and Lila opened their new business. My dad and I had done all the work on the cedar-shingled shed that housed their floral design studio.
