Lyra
We climbed into the swinging car that had come to a stop in front of us.
I didn’t realize at first that there were little monitors banked in the front of the Ferris wheel right below the bars where they locked us in.
I slid in first, then Marcus followed. Once we were locked in and started moving, the screen turned on. What we saw had my eyes growing wide and my palms going damp. A couple appeared on screen. The setting was the rooftop of some fabulous place somewhere. Fancy, with an infinity pool and a gorgeous city in the distance. You could also see the ocean in the distance with the clear azure water that could have been the Mediterranean or the Caribbean.
And then the couple on screen started kissing, and it wasn’t long before their clothes started to come off.
My mouth fell open, and Marcus chuckled. “Well, I see they’re taking the theme quite far.”
I kept glancing down at Marcus’s hand on my thigh, then my gaze would flick to the screen and back to his hand and back again. If this ride was twenty minutes long like the video display indicated, I was doomed. There was no way I would be able to survive. As it was, one little kiss from him and I was ready to jump out of my skin. Twenty minutes in this kind of close proximity with porn playing in front of us, and I knew spontaneous combustion could be a real thing. On the screen, I noticed the guy was surprisingly handsome for a porn guy. Not that I’d seen lots of porn guys.
Who are you kidding? Of course you have.
I squirmed in my seat. Marcus started to shift next to me as well. I wanted to look anywhere but at the screen or at him.
When he spoke, his voice was all gravel and cement. “Some fair warning would have been nice.”
I shifted in place. “We don’t have to watch. I wish we could turn it off or talk or something.”
He chuckled. “Somehow, I can’t think of anything to say. Except, bloody hell, is he flexible or what?”
A giggle burst out of my lips. “Oh my God. Yes, that’s unnatural, right?”
It felt good to laugh. To both acknowledge the discomfort and the sheer corniness and continue to make jokes.
“I didn’t know this was the porn Ferris wheel.”
“Honestly, they undersold this event. I would have come for the porn Ferris wheel alone.”
I snorted.
“Was that a snort?”
More heat crept up my neck. “No. I did not just snort, I swear.” But the more I laughed, the more snorts came out of me. “Oh my God, this is the strangest date I’ve ever been on.”
“And just so we’re clear, I think you’re smart and your snorts are cute. Also, I don’t need the porn. I was plenty turned on from the moment you opened the door. It’s just that the porn is making it impossible to think about anything else.”
On the screen, the man was kissing the woman’s neck. His hands covered her breasts, his thumbs rubbing her nipples.
I squeezed my thighs together.
Why was this happening to me?
Because you need to live a little. You can’t go anywhere for twenty minutes. Your team doesn’t arrive for thirty. Have some fun.
“I’ll say it again. This is the most bizarre date I’ve ever been on.”
“I know, but I’m just going to do what I’ve been thinking about doing all night anyway.” His hand slid up my thigh, and involuntarily, my thighs parted, granting him the access I desperately wanted him to have.
“I’m not sure this is the best idea.”
“You tell me to stop, and I will.”
I knew the right thing was to tell him to stop. To try and get some semblance of control back over this situation, this relationship, and my feelings for him, but I didn’t want control for once in my life. Control was safe, and I knew what to do with control. But with Marcus, I felt like I was hurtling through the sky with no parachute but somehow confident that he would catch me in the end, which was ridiculous.
There’s no one there to catch you.
I’d had enough shit in my life to know that. But I wanted to believe it could be true.
Here we were, with Marcus’s hand on my thigh and my core pulsing with need, and all I wanted him to do was slide his hand up higher and feel how wet I was. My gaze flickered to his lips.
His groan was so low it was almost a growl. “Lyra, you are killing me right now. Tell me what you want. Tell me and I’ll do it, anything you ask.”
“Kiss me.”
Because when he kissed me, I couldn’t think of anything else. I couldn’t think of all the reasons why I shouldn’t be with him, why it was safer to stay away from him. I couldn’t think of what the right thing to do was when I was with him and he had his tongue in my mouth and his hands on my hips, and he was grinding against me and making me feel like a real person.
Like I was allowed to live, allowed to breathe for once.
I loved everything about that feeling. It was addiction personified. I loved it that he saw me. Even if just in glimpses. I wanted him to see all of me.
I wanted to capture that feeling and bottle it. Never let it go.
We had twenty minutes on this Ferris wheel. Twenty minutes where I could just be Lyra and he could just be Marcus. I was going to enjoy every second of it.
I nodded to let him know this was what I wanted, his hands on me, his tongue licking into my mouth, teasing my tongue into playing. Marcus Black made me feel things. He brought to the surface all those emotions that I
