“Fuck what he wants, what about me?” She slid off her heels and walked into the kitchen, keys still clenched in her hand. “You made me… I didn’t like feeling that way. What he said—”
“He wasn’t thinking straight.”
He followed her and she turned to point in his direction. “You weren’t thinking straight. You, Trick.”
He backed up, defensive. “I know what I’m doing. Trust me.”
She shook her head. “I’m not sure you do.”
“What do you mean?”
She looked away from him again, needing the distance. “You love him. I can hear it in your voice when you talk about him. And you clearly both want each other.” God, did they want each other. “I saw how much tonight. Maybe you were feeling like you needed to bring more to the relationship. Something or someone else. You’ve been watching me, for a reason you still haven’t revealed, and you know what I like, so of course, I was the obvious choice.” She took a steadying breath so she wouldn’t cry. “But you have nothing to worry about, Trick. He looks at you the way my brother looks at Jeremy. The kind of look that makes other people feel like leaving the room or finding an ice bath to sit in. You don’t have to find a third, Trick. And honestly, it wouldn’t be fair to them.”
They’d only end up alone and hurt that they’d been locked out of something that beautiful.
She glanced at him in time to see his scornful look. “That’s what you got from what happened tonight? I’m an insecure jerk who just wants Declan to love me? I used you because you happened to be in my line of sight? After reading all those textbooks of yours, that’s the best you’ve got?”
She was trying to rationalize it in her mind, she knew. To make sense of Trick’s dogged pursuit and Declan’s quick rejection. “All I’ve decided is that this strange relationship of ours is unworkably one-sided. You never told me how close the two of you were. You didn’t fill me in on exactly how little he knew about your idea. It was fine when we were in bed at night pretending. It was exciting and forbidden. But it’s not… This is too complicated.”
Trick sighed. “Shit, this was not my plan, Jen. How do I make this right?”
“Do you want to tell me about the deadline? Why you pushed him so hard? Pushed us?”
After long minutes of silence she took a deep breath and moved away from the counter. “That’s what I thought. I have to get out of this stupid dress and burn it. I think you should leave.”
“No.”
She threw up her hands. “Then there’s beer in the fridge and I’ll be expecting you to tell me about you and Declan Kelley when I get back. Those are your only options.”
When Jen went to move past Trick, he grabbed her and she gasped as he pressed her against the wall, rubbing his hardening erection against her back. She reached behind her to push him away but he gripped her wrist and held it still, ripping the back panel of her dress with his other hand until it was dangling by a frayed thread. “An ultimatum? You mean if I don’t tell you, you won’t let me do this?”
“Trick,” she cried when his thick fingers slid inside her panties and one of them filled her without warning. She was still aroused, despite her anger. And he knew exactly what she liked. How to play her body perfectly. He’d been practicing for months. “You should stop.”
She wished she meant it.
“You know what to say if you really want me to stop, Jen. You know, but you never do.”
Their safe word. The one he’d given her that first night he’d come into her room. The one he reminded her of like a challenge or a dare. The one she never used.
“Will you say it now?” He added another finger and curled them inside her, pressing deep and massaging in a way that had her moaning against the wall. His thumb slid through her arousal and then it was pressing between the cheeks of her ass. When he forced it through the tight muscles, she swore and he laughed darkly. “What about now? Do you want to say it now, baby?”
“Oh God.”
“That’s not it.”
Don’t stop.
An image of Declan taking Trick filled her mind and her hips tilted, pushing back into his hand and forcing his thumb deeper. This ass is mine, Declan had said, the bed shaking while Trick begged for more. She wanted to feel that. Wanted Trick to take her right now. No fingers, no toys, but all of him stretching her, owning her. Showing her what Declan made him feel. “Please.”
“You love it too much to make me stop,” he whispered, his sandpaper voice full of desire. “I don’t have confidence issues, baby. I know you love what I do to you. Whatever I do to you.” He thrust deep. “Tell me to stop.”