“Did they do this to you?” Allie asked tremulously, another glimmering tear spilling down her cheek as she found the longer cut across my chest.
Nausea rolled through my stomach, and a shudder wracked my body as her tender touch sliced at me like their knives, cutting through the walls I kept up to contain the memories of that awful day.
I searched for my rage, desperately drawing on it to eclipse the agony of my loss, my failure. I recalled the way I’d made the Russians scream when my cousins had helped me track them down. My father had been in prison by then, but Paulie and John had instructed me in the worst ways to torture a man. I’d made them beg for death before I finally ended the monsters who’d murdered my mother.
Allie pressed a featherlight kiss over the scar on my chest before moving lower, tracing the line of the one on my abdomen with her tongue. Her small hands roved over my body, as though she could soothe away all the pain that’d been inflicted on that terrible day. She murmured my name against my skin and dusted a kiss over the third scar, her voice hitching with tears and something like longing.
Awe glowed in my chest. She’d glimpsed the most savage parts of me, but she was touching me with tenderness. Only minutes ago, my cousins had threatened her life, but she was comforting me.
She braced her hands around my hips and slid down to her knees, positioning herself between my legs. Her kisses trailed lower, moving down my abs to my navel. She was so close to my cock, and I stiffened for her.
“Allie,” I rasped, something between a warning and a demand. I wanted her hot mouth on me. I craved her surrender. When she ceded to my control, all my rage and pain melted away. I could just be with her.
But she was so innocent, and I couldn’t tangle my fist in her hair and direct her to take me how I wanted. I wouldn’t risk spooking her, no matter how keenly my darkest desires tormented me. My dick strained against my jeans, aching for her.
Her slender fingers shook slightly as she undid the button on my pants. Her breaths came hot and fast, until she was panting against the dark trail of hair below my navel.
I bit out a curse and threaded my fingers through her silken hair, tugging her head back so that she was forced to look up at me. Her gemstone eyes punched all the air from my chest.
“If you do this, I won’t be able to stop myself,” I warned through gritted teeth.
Her lips parted, and her eyes flared with heat. “I don’t want you to stop yourself. I don’t want you to hold anything back. I want you, Max.”
Boldly, she reached for my zipper without breaking her gaze from mine. I released a hungry growl and freed myself from the stifling confines of my jeans. She stilled when my cock strained toward her mouth, her lips forming a tantalizing O as she drew in a sharp gasp.
“Are you scared, Bambi?” A twisted part of my wanted her to be intimidated by me. I wanted her quivering and desperate to please me.
She licked her lips nervously, and I bit back a groan as my dick pulsed with need.
“No.” Her defiant declaration hitched a little, just the right amount. “I want you, Max.”
“Show me.” The heady rush of control intoxicated me, making me drunk on Allie: her sweet surrender, her tentative touch. She was inexperienced, and I relished the fact that I would be the one to instruct her how to give me pleasure. I would be the first man to claim her mouth. The only man. No one else would ever touch my Allie.
My fingers tightened in her hair with a rush of possessiveness. “You’re mine. Say it.”
Her eyes shone with the fervor of her promise. “I’m yours, Max.” She lowered her lips to my cockhead, her mouth barely brushing my hard length. “I’m yours.”
Her hot tongue traced the line of the thick vein on my shaft, and stars burst behind my eyes. Keeping one hand in her hair, I grasped hers and directed it to the base of my dick, showing her how to fist it while she licked me. She blew out a long, humming sigh, settling into my control over her. She found release in surrendering to me, and seeing her kneel before me was the hottest fucking thing I’d ever experienced.
Her lips closed over my cockhead, her tongue catching the bead of precum at the tip. At the same time, her fist pumped my shaft, sending pleasure zinging down my spine. All my muscles coiled tight, and it took concerted effort not to grip her hair and urge her to take me deeper.