The volume of Stella’s moans grew, but she still held back, her muscles visibly taut from the effort.
“Please,” she whimpered. “I can’t…I…”
“Let go, Stella.” My mouth grazed her ear. “When I tell you to scream, I want you to fucking scream. Or I’ll bend you over and spank your ass raw until you beg me to let you scream.”
A surprised but wicked smile touched my lips when she clenched around my fingers at the threat.
I increased the pace of my pumps while I lowered my head and drew her nipple into my mouth.
I groaned.
She tasted just as good as I’d imagined. Sweet and perfect, made just for me.
I laved and sucked, teasing the tip until it hardened into a diamond peak. I moved on to her other breast, alternating back and forth and licking and suckling like I was a man starved.
I couldn’t get enough.
The taste of her against my tongue was fucking heaven. Silky and addictive, like a shot of pure lust into my bloodstream.
I gently clamped my teeth around one of her nipples, flicked a firm tongue across its sensitive tip, and tugged at the same time I pressed against her clit.
After a breathless, suspended moment, she finally shattered.
Stella’s cry of release drenched the air as she came in a shuddering, toe-curling orgasm that vibrated against my body.
I lifted my head, ignoring the insistent ache in my groin to soak in her dazed expression.
“Good girl,” I murmured, withdrawing my hand.
We remained in our positions while Stella caught her breath—her back pressed against the rock, my body curved over hers in a protective shield.
She turned those slumberous green eyes on me, looking so innocent and content it formed an iron fist around my heart.
“Kiss me.” Her whisper washed over my skin and tightened my muscles until every molecule of my body hummed with anticipation.
I shouldn’t, for both our sakes.
Giving her release was one thing. Kissing was a whole other.
I could own every orgasm. I could stay buried inside her to feel her trembles as she gave in to me. But a kiss? It would touch a part of me I’d kept buried and hidden.
A kiss with her wouldn’t be just a kiss. It would be my fucking end.
A shadow of uncertainty passed through Stella’s eyes at my hesitation, and it was that split second of darkness that killed me.
She’d lived her whole life feeling unwanted by those closest to her.
I couldn’t make her feel the same way.
Not when I needed her more than my next breath, and not when I would rather cut off my arm than deny her anything.
My resistance crumbled like a sandcastle at high tide.
I let out a low curse before I groaned, fisted her hair, and slammed my mouth down on hers.
Despite what I’d said about love being a drug, Stella was my greatest high.
A temptation with no escape.
An obsession with no end.
An addiction with no cure.
* * *
STELLA
Christian kissed the way I imagined he fucked: hot and commanding, with a whisper of sensuality that softened its ruthless edge.
It made every kiss I’d had before look like an imitation, because Christian Harper’s mouth on mine was nothing short of a revelation.
The defenses I’d constructed around my heart crumbled.
I was tumbling, dizzy with his taste and the way he gripped the back of my neck, every ragged inhale and sighed exhale an exchange of parts of me I didn’t know I had to give.
He molded me against him and stripped away my layers, one by one, until there was only me left.
No walls, no masks.
For the first time, I felt free.