As if that unlocks something inside her, her shoulders shake and seconds later, her cries rip through the room. She crushes her cheek against me, and her tears dampen my shirt and skin. Stroking her back with one hand, I cradle her head with the other, fingers tunneling under the bun to scratch her scalp.
How long she sobs in my arms, I’m not certain. Minutes, hours. A lifetime. It’s not long enough. Closing my eyes, I soak in the feel of her. Her breasts a firm weight pressed against my abs. Her thighs riding one of mine. Her soft belly cradling my dick.
Curling my body over her, I brush my mouth over her ear.
“I left, yes. But I did look back. So many damn times. And never, ever did I stop giving a fuck,” I softly admit.
Her breath shudders against my chest, and locking down a groan, I lift my hands to her face, tilting it back. Her eyes, moist with all the tears she’s shed, meet mine. Even with her face wet and swollen, she’s beautiful to me.
“Liar,” she accuses, voice so rough, it’s nearly painful to hear. “You’re such a fucking liar.”
Then she raises on her toes and crushes her mouth to mine.
Shit.
Shock seizes me by the back of the neck, shakes me like a rag doll. And I’m so caught in its ruthless grip that I can’t move. Can’t respond. Just feel the soft yet firm give of her full lips as they part over mine. Just receive the electrical charge of lust that pulses through me in wave after wave.
But that paralysis doesn’t last long.
In seconds, a groan rolls out of me, and I open my mouth wider, thrusting my tongue deep.Oh fuck, the taste of her. It’s richer, headier than the memories my dreams supplied. My hands shift from her cheeks up to her head, and damn, how I wish her hair was down so I could dig my fingers into those thick, coarse curls. Lose another part of myself in her. For now, I grab her bun, tug on it and tilt her head farther back, granting me even more access to this dick tease of a mouth.
And I take it.
I take it all.
Like a desperate, starved man, I feast on her, sucking, licking, biting. I’m a sinner, and gluttony is my crime but I’ll willingly sign up for hell. And maybe Lennon craves the idea of being my downfall because she angles her head and proceeds to fuck my mouth and mind. I thought I’d wrestled control of this kiss away, but she’s amending that misconception. With every lap at the roof of my mouth, each tangle and twist of her tongue around mine, each graze of her teeth over the tender flesh inside my bottom lip, she’s owning me.
And I willingly submit.
Lowering an arm, I cup her hip, reacquainting myself with the sexy curve. I pull her closer, grinding my cock into her belly, seeking some kind of relief but only receiving a harder dick.
I’m doused in delicious heat…and then I’m shivering in the cold.
Lennon tears away from me, moving back until several feet separate us.
The serrated sound of our harsh breathing punches the air. We stare at each other like two hungry yet wary predators facing off. I draw my bottom lip between my teeth, running my tongue over it. Savoring the taste of her.
Lennon’s eyes narrow on my mouth, and it’s low, damn near indiscernible, but I catch it. That small, muted whimper. It’s needy, unsatisfied. And it wraps around my cock like her delicate but strong hand, pumping my flesh.
Goddamn. Kissing her was the biggest mistake I made.
Fuck, I want to make it again.
“I shouldn’t have done that,” she whispers, echoing my thoughts. “Weshouldn’t have done that.”
“If I apologize I’d be the liar you called me.”
I am a liar, and a shitload of other things. But not about this. I don’t regret putting my mouth on her again.
“You have an answer for everything, don’t you, King?” She shakes her head. “For everything except the one thing I’ve wanted to know for the last ten years.” Her shoulders stiffen, draw back, as if she’s bracing herself against a body blow. “What happened? Why did you leave? Why did you change your mind about… Why did you change your mind?”
I stare at her, not blinking. The desire coursing through my veins ices over, a soul deep fear spreading like frost and snuffing out everything but the wild crash of my heart against my rib cage. Acid spills onto my tongue, and I try to swallow, but that would require my throat to work, and like the rest of my body, it’s ceased all operation.
Tell her the truth.
The crazy idea sidles through my head, and for an even crazier moment, I latch onto it. Consider it.
I had to choose between you and my brother’s future. Leif got popped for an auto theft charge because of a stupid joy ride, and your father threatened to send him away for ten years if I didn’t leave town. Leave you. And if I tried to contact you in any way or tell you about his blatant abuse of power, he’d revoke Leif’s parole and throw him in prison. I’d lost my mother, and for all intents and purposes, my father, too. My brother is all I had left, and I couldn’t ruin his future. I couldn’t sacrifice my brother’s life for my happiness.