Page 22 of The Silence of Monsters

“We can be enemies — enemies with benefits.” I thought she would walk away from our arrangement with enough to make it worth her while. And yet, I kept finding. things I wanted from her. I was racking up a debt that might not be payable. “We should be on the same side of this one thing, Harvey.” It would make the next two years far easier to bear.

I regained my momentum and licked the shell of her ear. I shifted my hand between her legs and touched her through the thin material of her panties. She didn’t close her thighs or pull back in protest. One of her hands curled around my neck as I kissed her temple. I shifted my hold from her hair to her back so I could pull her closer. Her other hand grasped a handful of my hair. Her skin was damp and fragrant. I really wanted to strip her naked and explore her from head to toe. She felt so much more alive than the partners I typically took to bed.

Nothing was practiced or planned about her response to me.

She couldn’t hide the fact that she liked the way I touched her and enjoyed the way my kisses made her feel. She couldn’t cover her hesitation. The way she responded was almost shy. The hesitation was endearing. I wasn’t sure I’d ever been with a woman who didn’t want anything from me and was unsure of taking what I offered.

The way her hands were holding on to different parts of me for dear life made my blood pump furiously and sent my head spinning. It was the first time she’d touched me in a way that betrayed her typical frosty attitude. She was clutching me like she never wanted to let go. That feeling overrode the slight sting from the frantic way she pulled my hair.

I continued to stroke her through the thin barrier and watched as her chest and neck flushed a bright pink. She gulped and her eyes widened. Her head tilted back with no help from me, and her grip went from pushing me away to pulling me closer. My shirt was going to be a wrinkled mess and there would be no hiding what we’d been doing in this bathroom.

That’s what I wanted.

I wanted my half-brother to know. I wanted my mother to be aware of the uncontrollable desire she was up against. I wanted all those people with more money than compassion to understand that I was lucky enough to have a real gem in my hands. A jewel that shone brighter than any they brought out for special occasions.

My lips skimmed across her jaw as I let my fingers dip beneath the garment that was keeping me from touching bare skin and delicate folds. She was wet, making my touch glide easily to her most sensitive spots and right to her fluttering opening.

I wanted to imprint the sound she made on my brain. I memorized the way she moved, how her eyes dilated, and what made her body writhe. Those would be recollections I planned to lock away and hold close forever.

She was silky and hot.

I wanted more than my fingers deep inside of her. The thought made my head spin.

I kissed her again. This time, she kissed me back. Our tongues tangled. Our lips collided. Our teeth bit and nipped hungrily. I caught her chin with my free hand and held her in place, preventing her from pulling away until the last of her breath ran out.

Her body clamped down on my fingers moving inside of her. Every quake and quiver made my mind spin and had my sanity slip further away. I was not a man who indulged in much. I had every vice beaten out of me when I was young. It was a novel experience to covet something. I squeezed her jaw and forced her to look at me while my fingers moved deeper, and I flicked my thumb against her clit. Her gigantic eyes popped larger, and the pink blush crept onto her cheeks. It wasn’t just her hair that made her look like a strawberry ripe for the picking.

I very much wanted to devour her.

Channing whimpered, and her fingernails dug into the back of my neck. The slight sting sent tingles of pleasure shooting through my nerves. I was literally hot under the collar. I wanted to strip off my custom suit so we could be skin-to-kin.

“Win…” The way she breathed my name made my dick hard.

“Channing…” The way I whispered hers made her come on my fingers and her entire body trembled.

“Did you just call me by my name?” She sounded dazed. Her head dropped to my shoulder and her shoulders shook as she worked to catch her breath and pull herself together. The words were thin and bewildered.

“Didn’t you use mine?” I pulled my hand free but kept her caged against the counter. “Don’t you think we should be on a first-name basis, all things considered?”

She sniffed and pushed me backward with a hand. She tried to smooth her hair, but her hands were still shaking. She turned to face the mirror and gave our rumpled appearance a startled look. I handed her one of the monogrammed towels so she could clean herself up. There wasn’t much that could be done about her soaked under garments. A fact that made me strangely proud. She wiggled out of them and tossed the minuscule garment into the trash can. Now that she was fully naked under her dress, I was going to have a tough time focusing on anything else.

“I don’t think we should be anything given the circumstances. This feels like the start of trouble I can’t afford to get myself into. We both know what happens when someone from my family plays with fire near someone from your family. Neither of us have recovered from the flames, Chester.”

I lifted a hand to the top of her head and let it drift down the length of her hair. Since she was always slightly ruffled, her appearance seemed less illicit than mine. My clothes were wrinkled, her lipstick was smeared across my mouth, and my hair was sticking up from her fingers clutching at it.

I wanted to tell her I was exceptionally good at putting out fires. I’d been doing it for the Hallidays for years.

I didn’t get the chance to say anything because someone pushed the door open, and the last person I wanted to see, aside from my mother, stuck their head inside the bathroom from the antechamber.

“Channing, are you in here? I’ve been looking for you everywhere. You’ve been gone a concerning amount of time. They served dinner and are moving onto the silent auction. Win is missing, too. Lady Halliday is about to have a heart attack.” I gritted my teeth when I heard my half-brother use Channing’s nickname for my mother.

Alistair DeVere looked like he belonged in my family. While Archie took after our mother, both DeVere and I favored our father. He was a younger, slicker, happier, better adjusted version of me. I thought I couldn’t resent him more if I tried. Then Channing took him under her wing, and all my negative feelings toward him multiplied.

Channing shoved her elbow into my stomach and stepped away from me. She reached up to smooth her hair and belatedly tried to repair her messy makeup.

“I’ll be right out.” Her voice was steady, as if our tryst did not affect her in the slightest. “I didn’t think anyone would miss me for a few minutes.”

Alistair snorted. “Most of those people wouldn’t notice if a bomb went off in that room. But Win is missing, and you were the last person seen with him. Did you put the sign outside the bathroom so you could hide?”

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